Easy for Him to Say

The Wall Street Journal has a deeply useful compendium of what various figures involved in our current financial crisis were saying while the crisis was developing earlier in the decade. It's worth your time to read it all, but I want to call out one particular exchange:

Senate Banking Committee, Oct. 16, 2003:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.): And my worry is that we're using the recent safety and soundness concerns, particularly with Freddie, and with a poor regulator, as a straw man to curtail Fannie and Freddie's mission. And I don't think there is any doubt that there are some in the administration who don't believe in Fannie and Freddie altogether, say let the private sector do it. That would be sort of an ideological position.

Mr. Raines: But more importantly, banks are in a far more risky business than we are.

Emphasis mine. In other words, Raines knew all along he was playing with the house money. And Senators like Charles Schumer were complicit in not only letting it happen, but pretty much compelling it. Again, you can bash Wall Street as much as you want, but it's long past time for someone to point out the responsibility of the solons for what happened. And I have a suggestion for who that someone ought to be.

Hurry up please it's time.