Y la culpa es de...

Leyendo un artículo de Paul Krugman en el Herald Tribune hace unos días me enteré de quién era el verdadero culpable de la crisis económica y financiera. No podía ser otro que Ronald Reagan. Todavía no he oído a Pepiño repetir la cantinela, pero esperen a que El País lo publique algún día de estos y lo escucharán, sin duda.

Impresionante este hombre. ¡Qué poco vale el Nobel!

The increase in public debt was, however, dwarfed by the rise in private debt, made possible by financial deregulation.

But there was also a longer-term effect. Reagan-era legislative changes essentially ended New Deal restrictions on mortgage lending — restrictions that, in particular, limited the ability of families to buy homes without putting a significant amount of money down.

These restrictions were put in place in the 1930s by political leaders who had just experienced a terrible financial crisis, and were trying to prevent another. But by 1980 the memory of the Depression had faded. Government, declared Reagan, is the problem, not the solution; the magic of the marketplace must be set free. And so the precautionary rules were scrapped.

Together with looser lending standards for other kinds of consumer credit, this led to a radical change in American behavior.

Los americanos se lanzaron a endeudarse como individuos por culpa de Reagan, ya se sabe. Después de Reagan no hubo nada menos que 3 presidentes que gobernaron 20 años y no pudieron hacer nada. Ni siquiera el gran Clinton, que estaría ocupado en sus amistosos jugueteos con Lewinsky como para ocuparse de la deuda privada americana.