Consider the following hypothetical situation. Let’s say it was the federal government that had mandated segregation and not the states. Do you believe for one second that Martin Luther King Jr. would have opposed states nullifying that particular federal law? Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to crush Jim Crow and I find it patently absurd that he would neglect a non-violent method of doing so if the situation had been as described. I would submit that it was racism that Martin Luther King Jr. opposed much more than any legal justification those racists put forth to maintain segregation. And for anyone who thinks such a scenario is unbelievable—because the federal government can be trusted on racial issues—allow me to enlighten you.

As my colleague Andrew Syrios has made abundantly clear, he thinks Glenn Beck is a douchebag. In Andrew’s eyes, Beck comes in second place only to Keith Olbermann for the king of douchbaggery. This puts Andrew in quite a bind. Namely, if he ever runs across opinions from either douche he agrees with, it’s sure tough to use them in his articles now. So goes the cost of exposing the two biggest douches going.This is sure to happen as he has pointed out areas of general agreement with both talking heads: much of Beck’s take on domestic issues, and Olbermann’s take on foreign policy. I think I have found one such video that Andrew could get behind, unfortunately, the man in the video is none other than Glenn Lee Beck. I can see Andrew now, gritting his teeth as he sits through this, swallowing his flagrant disgust of both men. Sometimes when you’re right, you’re just right. The Depression of 1920, and the government’s response, is something more people should be acutely aware of.

Here is an excerpt from a longer debate, where Tom Woods lays out the case against the Federal Reserve.

Inflation was thus misinterpreted as wealth, leading American consumers to borrow more and more, especially against their overvalued homes. Total mortgage debt in the United States is now around 12.5 trillion, up from $1.5 trillion in 1980! Total household debt was around 50% of GDP in 1980 and is over 100% today. And the personal saving rate was around negative 1%, for most of the last decade.

By far and away the most common explanation for the current crisis is the relaxed lending standards in the mortgage market, which caused a housing bubble, collapsing the financial system in upon its deregulated self. In this first part, of my multi-part series on the financial crisis, I will evaluate this claim. Did deregulation cause our economy to collapse? The answer is, well kinda.