In these fraud cases, the government was at best complicit. However, in other situations, the government is actually at fault for our economic woes. Take the housing market for example.
Under President Clinton, lending requirements were loosened and banks were "encouraged" in a very strong way to lend more money to lower income families and first-time home buyers. The goal, however noble, was to increase home ownership among minorities.
This is truly an admirable goal, but clearly the government went about it in all the wrong ways. If we want to increase home ownership among minorities, we need to first increase the wealth held by minorities. This is primarily achieved by increasing the average level of education among minorities. That should be our first goal. If we educate people, the money will follow as will home ownership and health insurance and everything else.
We can't just lower our banking standards so people who didn't previously qualify for a loan now do so they can buy a home that they can't afford. This was clearly the wrong way to try and achieve the goal because in the process, our country's entire banking system was nearly completely collapsed when people who should not have had loans in the first place defaulted.
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