BANKING CRISIS

This morning, for those who have not heard, Washington Mutual (aka WAMU) went under and was bought out by JP Morgan after the government began seizing assets. Something I had not heard before was that John McCain predicted this banking crisis three years ago and attempted to address it at that time. McCain was quoted on Fox this AM as saying in 2006 something to the effect of ... the sheer size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the impact of these companies could have on our ecomomy and having so little oversight is frightening.

He predicted and wanted to do something to prevent what is happening this very day in 2006. Hmmmm... Isn't the economy the one area that the Obama camp happily claims is McCain's Achilles Heel - the area that McCain is the least knowlegable?? I wonder where we would be if the rest of Congress had listened to John McCain back then; I hope they are asking themselves the same question.

I am glad he focused in on a key element in the banking problem - the SIZE of these companies. When the fall of a single company can have a devastating effect on the economy, it is too big and should be broken up. Look at ENRON. My sister-in-law lost a small fortune when ENRON collapsed and it had a huge impact on the economy, not to mention the thousands of people that lost all their retirement - hundreds of thousands of dollars that belonged to hard working average Americans who counted on the money set aside for his/her "golden years" -gone in an instant.

It is funny; I was not very thrilled with John McCain as the Republican nominee. I have a real issue with his posistion on illegal immigration and am always very skeptical of anybody that appears too close to Ted Kennedy, but I am one of the many that is being drawn in and more satisfied with his name on the ticket. His choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate and his dead-on analysis of the economy prior to this election cylcle is making me much more at ease.