Are oil company & high gas prices responsible?
The housing and mortgage meltdown are responsible for the recession not the price of gas. The Federal Reserve held interests rates way too low for too long which helped create a housing bubble. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac turbocharged the credit mania because they were able to borrow at rates below prime because they had the implicit backing of the federal government. Countrywide and others created and bought sub-prime mortgage loans of questionable value. Wall street securitzed sub-prime loans and pushed them as safe debt instruments. The credit rating agencies that are supposed rate the fundamental value of these debt securities failed miserably. Bank and SEC supervision was non-existent over the past few years. The Community Reinvestment Act compels banks to make loans to poor borrowers who often can not repay them. So you can see there is plenty of blame to go around. The recession is not because of high gas prices. If it was then we would be out from under this cloud because the pr
