Ouch

National Review guy contends FreddieMac, FannieMae, minorities and the Democrats caused our current financial meltdown. Reveals the assclownery that's been passing as conservative financial analysis for at least the last decade. New York Magazine (10.14.08), via Balloon Juice:

"Tell me you're not ashamed to put this gigantic international financial Krakatoa at the feet of a bunch of poor black people who missed their mortgage payments.

The CDS market, this market for credit default swaps that was created in 2000 by Phil Gramm's Commodities Future Modernization Act, this is now a $62 trillion market, up from $900 billion in 2000. That's like five times the size of the holdings in the NYSE. And it's all speculation by Wall Street traders."

Matt Taibbi and Byron York Butt Heads Over Whether McCain Deserves Blame for the Wall Street Meltdown

"It's a classic bubble/Ponzi scheme. The effort of people like you to pin this whole thing on minorities, when in fact this whole thing has been caused by greedy traders dealing in unregulated markets, is despicable."

National Review guy proffers an answer, to which Taibbi responds, "Do you even know how a CDS works? Can you explain your conception of how these derivatives work? Because I get the feeling you don't understand. Or do you actually think that it was a few tiny homeowner defaults that sank gigantic companies like AIG and Lehman and Bear Stearns? Explain to me how these default swaps work, I'm interested to hear."

More blustering blubbering before Taibbi closes with this: "Note, folks, that the esteemed representative of the [National Review] has no idea what the hell a credit default swap is. But he sure knows what a minority homeowner looks like."