President Obama told a room full of Wall Street types the other day that what caused the collapse of the U.S.
That seems about right.
It was irresponsible of us to purchase homes we could not afford.
It was irresponsible of us to lend money to purchase those homes.
It was irresponsible of us to not consider what might happen if those loans for those homes went bad.
If the events of the past year have taught us anything, it is that we are in this together. It makes no difference if we aren't the ones who screwed up. On some matters – like it or not – we have a shared interest.
And with a shared interest comes a shared responsibility.
That isn't an easy notion for some of us to swallow. In South Dakota
Still, though we're wired to avoid the fray, we ought not to sit back as the president seeks to reform the financial industry in coming months. Because in purchasing homes they could not afford, in making loans they shouldn't have, in trading derivatives and other arcane financial instruments they couldn't explain or even spell, in championing legislation that let banks do whatever they pleased, it was other people – on Wall Street, in Washington and elsewhere – who blew it, but it was we who paid the price.
We lost our jobs.
We lost our life savings.
Some of us lost both.
Through no fault of their own, thousands of South Dakotans and millions – yes, millions – of other Americans are out of work and out of money. Their predicament is impossible.
In his speech to those who produced this peril, the president suggested a number of measures – from requiring the biggest banks to keep more capital on hand to cover losses to the creation of an agency to protect consumers from predatory lenders who cook up contracts only an oracle could fathom.
How exactly to fix this mess is an open question, but what seems settled is this: We can do something to prevent this nonsense from reoccurring.
Or we can do nothing. And someday watch it happen again.
Tough as it might be to believe, though their lunacy triggered a global recession, expect much kicking and screaming from the financial industry and portions of Congress to the proposals from the president to rein in the recklessness. If nothing else, the scorched-earth tactics employed to thwart health care reform in this country have taught us that money will make men and women say and do anything. And on Wall Street – like in the health care industry – there is no shortage of deep pockets.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the financial industry – banks, investment firms and real estate and insurance companies – have given more than half a billion dollars to members of Congress since 2000.
That's a lot of influence.
So get set for more antics once financial industry reform replaces health care reform on Capitol Hill.
More disinformation.
More duplicity.
More defamation.
More lies.
More scare tactics.
More name-calling.
Some in Congress might even point to the stock market, which, after being reduced to embers, is starting to show some signs of life, and deny the whole thing ever happened. History to some of those folks is a work of fiction.
Nor should we count too much on our own congressional delegation.
U.S. Sen. John Thune has shown little inclination to offend the Republican Party or corporate interests. On the contrary, they appear to have him on speed dial.
When Congress finally found the courage to curtail the brazen abuses that the credit card industry long has been inflicting on consumers, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin voted against the bill – the only Democrat in the House to do so.
U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson was the sole Democrat in the Senate to vote against the bill. Johnson also is a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which, when omens of financial doom were everywhere, completely whiffed.
Fixing the financial industry could prove even more difficult than fixing health care. The complexities are great. So is the amount of money at stake.
It's a big responsibility.
One we cannot ignore.