Let the games begin

I'm moderately miffed that in the wake of a speculative bubble in housing prices, one which I avoided taking part in by selling a house (before a move) and then renting in my new city, that the government has stepped in to bolster Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with my (taxpayer) money. What kind of punishment is it to the people who were smart enough to avoid a bubble that they should pay higher taxes so the schmucks that bought at the height of the bubble can keep the houses they can't afford?

That's at least my simple-minded analysis.

Apparently Japan witnessed a similar run-up in real-estate in the '80s, that left the country in a decade-long recession though the 90's that they're still not quite out of. The Post has an article about it and how the lessons of Japan's mistakes are being well heeded by US regulators. Bernake was apparently one of the ardent critics of the Japanese government's response to the bubble's burst, and he seems to be true to his word in taking swift response to the crisis we're in.

Chilling quote:

"I don't think the Americans quite realize yet that behind this hill lies the Himalayas," said Takashi Watanabe, a top official at the Bank of Japan in the 1990s and now a professor at Tokyo's Bunkyo University. "The U.S. is going to go through a lot more before this is over."