Bailout can be laid at the feet of Washington

Anytime something of this scale happens it can be laid at the feet of Washington. There is no private institution in the world with enough power and influence to cause these events. It will be tax policy, trade policy, regulatory policy or something else that that government has done. With a government the size of ours, private business operates within a couple parameters. Maximize returns on the government laid out playing field, and invest in politicians to keep the playing field the same, or invest in politicians to change the playing field to your advantage. Enron had been in tax court eight or ten times, and won every case, it was a private company, Dynergy, I believe, that caught them changing numbers on the balance sheet, Enron was criminal fraud. It was largely tax code changes that gave us the S&L collapse. Does anyone remember Section 89 changes to the tax code...it required that any corporation that provided retiree health care benefits, value and post that future obligation to their P&L statement just like pension obligations. That requirement only lasted through the first reporting cycle because when done, every company under the requirement was bankrupt. The auto industry, the airline industry, steel, mining, you name it, down the tubes...so the government rescinded the rule. Banks used Fannie and Freddy instruments as the safe, virtually guaranteed side of client investment portfolios, and you can bet there are a lot of pension plans that do the same thing...government backed securities in every make manner and shape of investment, and now we are finding out what government backed means.Government changed the rules, and the market maximized returns on the new playing field, and now it’s up to government to try to fix, what they screwed up in the first place.