How Did We Miss the Signs of an Impending Disaster

[Robbien]

by Danny Schechter

That “why didn’t we know” question is back. Again! It was asked about 911 in connection with our government ignoring warning after warning about likely terrorist attacks.

The CIA has just raised it again about their own ostrich like behavior in the run-up to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Now it’s being asked by the New York Times about the failure to anticipate and potentially pre-empt the Sub-prime mortgage crisis which has since escalated into a deeper meltdown in global financial markets leading to lay-offs and predictions of a fall-off in economic growth.

More insidiously, this is an ongoing crisis not just confined to markets. It is expected that, once adjustable rate mortgages are “reset” upwards, two million more families face the foreclosure of their homes. Their economic pain is being recognized, but too late to prevent a vast displacement of people who cannot afford to live in homes they were suckered into purchasing with the promise of practically free money.

Did this “just happen,” appearing one morning out of blue skies, like a hurricane moving from category 4 to category 5? Of course not! The signs were there for all who wanted to see them, and warnings were plentiful even as they were ignored.

It’s odd how the front page of its widely-read Sunday edition, the one–time newspaper of record, could splash a story on how the media and the markets looked the other way as massive deals were being financed by securities cobbled together from sub-prime loans backed with no assets. Why were the signs missed, asked the Times?

much more. . .
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/08/27/how-did-we-miss-the-signs-of-an-impending-crisis/

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Oh, for christ sake.

I hope these questions are cleverly rhetorical, because a blind man could see what was up.

Greed and corruption, while our government looked the other way.

Sheesh.

[Double T]

2. Many of 'US' have been yapping about the impending financial collapse........

for years; like everything bushco even the economy was a phony fabricated sham with NO regulation and NO oversight. Now we are ALL going to pay the price for this criminal corporate corruption.

[populistdriven]

3. because the rich are slobbering over themselves to buy up the depreciated assets

they like to keep pumping the economy to feed their greed

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Obsessing About al Qaeda Was Sooo Clinton-esque

Obsessing about al Qaeda was just sooo Clinton-esque. Team Shrub had better things to do.

:sarcasm:

[0007]

5. The tax break to the wealthy wealthy was the first clue.......

The more ya give a pig to eat the faster the pig will eat. Or ya could call it greed.