{"id":287,"date":"2008-09-23T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/"},"modified":"2008-09-23T22:19:08","modified_gmt":"2008-09-24T05:19:08","slug":"if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"If only the Lefties on the Hill had to debate Thomas Sowell in open forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/ThomasSowell\/2008\/09\/23\/a_political_solution?page=full&amp;comments=true\">Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com :: A Political &#8220;Solution&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Why then is there such a mess in the financial markets? Much of that mess is due to the very people we are now turning to for solutions&#8211; members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Past Congresses created the hybrid financial institutions known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, private institutions with government backing and political influence. About half of the mortgages in this country are backed by these two institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Such institutions&#8211; exempt from laws that apply to other financial institutions and backed by the implicit promise of government support with the taxpayers&#8217; money&#8211; are an open invitation to risky behavior. When these risks blew up in their faces, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government, costing the taxpayers billions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>For years the Wall Street Journal has been warning that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking reckless chances but liberal Democrats especially have pooh-poohed the dangers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read it all.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATE:\u00a0 And then read <a href=\"http:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/ThomasSowell\/2008\/09\/24\/a_political_solution_part_ii?page=full&amp;comments=true\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-287\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-287\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-287\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com :: A Political &#8220;Solution&#8221; Why then is there such a mess in the financial markets? Much of that mess is due to the very people we are now turning to for solutions&#8211; members of Congress. Past Congresses created the hybrid financial institutions known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, private institutions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-287\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-287\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-287\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/?share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/if-only-the-lefties-on-the-hill-had-to-debate-thomas-sowell-in-open-forum\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[348],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fhbS-4D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}