I’ve heard people in Ohio (Columbus to be exact) pointing blame at different people, companies, CEOs, and politicians for the stock market crash. We need not look any further than the mirror.

Consumers at large have been taking out loans at ridiculous rates, and the banks have been feeding the addiction. Washington looked the other way with lack of oversight, and sometimes self-serving greed.

In fact, we all had a hand in the financial mess we are all in now.

I don’t think it’s greed that really causes the wars and tragedies in our world. It’s usually ideology that causes wars and strife. Nothing to do with greed there. Bush and his administration are a good example. Bin Laden is another. Over and over violence and wars are waged because of a group’s belief system and ideology. The same problem is in our markets and economies.

I DO NOT blame religion(s) for war and violence and disrupted markets. I blame the frightened minority that use their religion and fear based ideologies to hood-wink their followers and/or electorate. Greed played a factor in the market crash, but in the end it was an ideology that caused it. Deregulation and the trickle down theory was embraced to such a degree that Washington dropped the ball. We can throw blame at different political parties and there is lots to throw. The Democrats can be blamed for over-spending at different times in history, and the Republicans can be blamed for their ridiculous trickle-down theory championed by Ronald Reagan.

If you really want to point fingers at the biggest culprits look no further than the top of the food chain. George Walker Bush got into power and simply dressed the part, but had no clear ideas on anything really -- especially the economy. The people he chose to watch over our economy were incompetent hacks. If government had been setting regulations and creating laws for checks and balances the banks and lenders would have been forced to say no to bad mortgage prospects, and the fund managers would have been forced to say no to unproven securities.

The borrowers would not have got their money to take out bad loans, and that is the end of it. This the kind of system the Canadian government has, and if you notice, the Canadians are poised to suffer the least over the next few years.

It just has to start at the top. The world economy is improved with hard work of the workers, but without sound regulation and proactive prosecution of perpetrators, the markets are doomed to fail -- slowly over time or quickly over time.

We have to have leaders who understand the economy, or want to understand the economy. George Bush is not a curious man. I’ve heard he is a decent guy to hang out with, and there is a soul there, but he was seriously incompetent and intellectually malnourished.

The unfortunate reality is that we can work our entire lives, honestly, ethically, and furiously -- but if the structures and laws of government are not sound we are all doomed to a united failure. So America needs to be watching their news headlines, and reading their newspapers and blogs. We need to be more astute and observant when these politicians start running for office. I was one of those people who saw George W. Bush for what he was immediately when he was on the national scene. I like many was flabbergassed when Bush was voted into office. I was even more shocked when Kerry lost to Bush in 2004. Couldn’t the majority of voters see that this man and his team were painfully incompetent?

So we all caused this crash by voting and supporting an incompetent politician and his incompetent administration. We ran wild in the streets borrowing money we didn’t have for things we didn’t need,and shouldn’t have even wanted.

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A LOAN CALCULATOR; Enter your loan amount, how many years, the interest rate, and payment frequency (14 for biweekly, 30 for monthly, 7 for weekly. Very helpful so you know exactly what the loan will cost you in interest payments and you will know the total COB (cost of borrowing).

Loan Amount:

Interest:

Years:

Days between payments:
30 for a Month, 7 for Week
and 14 for Bi-Weekly. Easy!