Do you think Obama or McCain know the root cause of the U.S. financial mess?

No, I think Ron Paul does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaxdUPNYj2s

Strangely, all of Nader, Baldwin, Barr, McKinney and Jay agree with the need to audit the Fed and end the 'cozy' relationship between the fed, Congress, corporations and bankers that leaves financial policy to be dictated by special interests. Neither Obama nor McCain are addressing this.

Vote third party. Show them we know we have other choices, and we are not afraid to use them.

I agree wholeheartedly. Neither really have a clue. Obama if he could would try to micromanage the whole economy. At least McCain appreciates the basics of a free market. And he's been critical of Fannie & Freddie for years. But he'll also try to muddle things up - seems to me he'll muddle with things less though.

I'm glad the feds finally let an institution fail. (Lehman Bros) They never should have backed Bear Stearns' debt. We'll see some short-term market turmoil, a few more firms will go belly up but US companies are still producing goods & services - we'll get through it. I don't think Paulson really had a choice on Fannnie & Freddie - they were implicitly backed by the government when they were created. I'm not normally a Bush apologist but the Johnson & Nixon administrations deserve the blame for those GSEs, not Bush.

The achilles heel of capitalistism will always be greed. The only way to keep house prices balooning was to keep selling them in essence the sub prime lenders created artificial demand. They sold these mortgage on as securities to financial investment companies. The fact AIG an insurance company has gone for a federal loan, means this think is now not just in the banks and investment companies and in the insurance industry. Its not the end of the world, but this thing has a long long way too run yet, investors are bailing there money out of the banks and the only crutch left is the government proping them up, that why the launched billions into banks today, again and again. Without that this crisis would be much much much much worse.

I don't think that this is totally on the government since it involves some almost indecipherable complexities, but it does point up the problem of looking to the government to watch over us. Pretty much the same guys who screwed this up are the same ones wanting to get their hands on my health care.

Neither Obama or McCain can fix this very easily and understanding it is way beyond the means of either of them. This is quantum theory in financial circles.

Too many people in America(and the governement as well) are operating off of "pretend" money. People are using credit like its going out of style. The country is borrowing like there is no tomorrow. I think the main key to getting the economy back on track is to stop borrowing and digging the hole deeper and work on getting your head above water.

Anyone that can handle a checkbook can figure this out. I dont know why its so hard for the govt to get clued in.

Don't Forget about Enron - MCI WorldCom- Authur Anderson- Bear Sterns,

MAJOR MERGERS of JP MORGAN CHASE- bank one WACHOVIA - Golden west, Bank of America - Fleet Boston, First Union- Wachovia ETC...

His first one was to support all the tax cuts which were introduced under Bush -- they didn't stimulate the economy very much ... This task was then transferred more towards monetary policy, though then (Greenspan) created a flood of credits with low interest rates," Stiglitz was quoted as saying.

you're incorrect. California is a Republican state. Blame that mess on the Republican occasion. supply President Obama time and he will succeed. Distraction tactic ?? in actuality the reality, so how can that be distracted, Bush needs to stand in front of all people and tell how this mess have been given so massive. purely think of on the subject of how you may desire to take over a bad mess, like Obama did. it particularly is not a cop out, it particularly is nasty actuality.

Nobody seems to be getting this one right actually.

You want to know the root of the US financial mess? It starts with a G and ends with reed.

We are a free market. The Fed and the government are generally reactionary and really only have a limited supply of "tools" they can use to try and keep the economy on track. Ultimately it is up to the American consumer to keep our economy running smoothly. You can blame whoever the heck you want for our mess, but to me it's pretty simple: The Government underregulated it, the mortgage companies got greedy and took advantage of the deregulation, and we all placed false hope in our neighbors to be intelligent consumers.

The root cause started 50 years ago when corporations began making products that they expected consumers to use up and discard. We live in a culture of consumerism. That is why we borrow money from China to afford our luxurious lifestyles.

They went crazy giving mortgages to deadbeats. The greedy institutions went nuts approving everyone with tricks of the trade by offering zero down payment, zero this, zero that and now look what it has gotten us. JUst for them to make their commission.