Panacea Bill Passes; Bush Cautions “It’s No Panacea”

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is now law.  The markets responded by losing over 350 points (taking into consideration where the DOW was at the time of the vote).

President Bush, after signing the bill, cautioned that it will “‘take some time’ for the measure to have its ‘full impact’ on the economy, and that the task of buying up troubled financial assets in the wake of the mortgage meltdown ‘cannot be accomplished overnight.’”.

Quote of the day

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

from the New York Times, September 11, 2003 (click to read the entire article).

The cause of the current financial crisis can be traced to the insistence, by Congress, that financial institutions provide “affordable housing” to those who couldn’t afford it.  Congress is to blame, not President Bush.