Cherchez Les Rapports Annuels

Thanks, once again, to Matt Taibbi  and to the Professional Left podcast for correcting Republican nonsense about the financial meltdown.

Taibbi took on New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg for repeating the lie that, "It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp."  Not only is this a favorite Republican misdirection, but Taibbi points out that everyone on Wall Street knows it to be a big lie.

Driftglass and Bluegal slap down Congressman Joe Walsh for emitting the same blame-Congress nonsense.  Walsh deserves the reprimand even though he may not be smart enough, nor mentally balanced enough, to separate truth from Republican battle orders.  

Here's one more point.  Nearly all of the companies consumed by the mortgage-related conflagration were publicly traded.  The list includes Countrywide, Washington Mutual, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and on and on.  Business risks due to Congressional mandates should have been described in their annual reports to shareholders.  Yet, none of the reports from all of those publicly traded companies during the decade preceding the implosion mention those risks.  Not one damn word.  

The next time anyone does a Flip Wilson Congress-made-me-issue-those-bad-mortgages shtick, ask to see the risk assessments in the annual reports.