Plenty of blame to share on economy

Who is to blame for today’s struggles? Some say Congress, some say Wall Street. Many should look in the mirror and say I brought this on myself.

Why did the house of cards collapse? Way too many people were spending money they could not afford to spend.

Ask yourself if you did any of the following prior to the recession: Charge nonessentials to a credit card that you were carrying a balance on? Open a new credit card when you approached the limit on the other? Refinance your house to pay off your credit cards only to run them up again? Buy a car and finance it over six or seven years? Take money off your equity line for a nice vacation? Get a bigger house with a low-rate adjustable mortgage?

All of this spending led to many Americans being in more debt at the end of the year than they were in when the year started. Maybe it’s coincidence, but the economy started to falter when gas was approaching $5 per gallon. This ate into everyone’s disposable income, and caused many prices to rise, furthering the problem.

Loan payments were missed, so credit cards and credit lines were cut and eliminated. Mortgages were in arrears so homes were put up for sale. Too many homes for sale caused real estate to collapse. No more consumer spending turned corporate profits into losses, causing stocks to fall and job losses. The job losses put more fuel on the fire.

What did Congress do to cause this? They loosened the laws to allow Wall Street to provide low-doc loans and easy access to credit cards. They gave Americans enough rope to hang themselves.

Congress doesn’t put barbed wire fences over all bridges to stop people from jumping off. Did Congress and Wall Street do us wrong? Sure. Is it all their fault? I don’t think so.

Bill Fanning

Vernon Hills