Ben Stein Right On about the Financial Crisis

I've tried to speculate on what caused our October financial crisis from various writers who sought to blame the Democrats or to blame the Republicans or the Bush economic policies or greedy investors, lenders, banks or other groups. I was looking for a single cause, a single group to blame.

But the best comment I've found so far was Ben Stein's commentary this morning on CBS's Sunday Morning show. It seemed so insightful and on target that I taped it and transcribed his main points pretty much verbatim below:

1. Liberals pushed lenders to make loans to clearly unqualified borrowers.
2. Conservatives demanded no regulation of financial markets.
3. Wall Street lied like mad about the true value of securities they were selling.
4. Toxic bonds were sold all over the world.
5. Speculators used fear and massive capital to drive down markets further then sell them short.
6. Congress was unwilling to investigate or punish fraud.

The blame, then, was shared by both political parties, banks and investment houses, securities exchangers, investors, and both the executive and legislative branches of government.

I agree that all the above were probably culpable. But I would add the insatiable spenders and borrowers who sought to live the American Dream of big houses and expensive lifestyles bought entirely on credit and loans by others instead of by the fruits of their own labors and skills.

After all, no one makes anyone else buy anything. The buyer or borrower himself bears the ultimate responsibility to make prudent choices, and if he does not he has no one but himself to blame. A democracy demands people think intelligently for themselves. If they let others do their thinking for them, they aren't living in a democracy.