I wonder if anyone else is struck by the similarity between the collapse of the financial system in the last two years due to finagling in the subprime mortgage market* and the current vote on ObamaCare. Let's look at the parallels.

The fast-talking salesman - the president is in this role, selling very forcefully a program he doesn't fully understand, hasn't fully studied and the consequences for which he expects to take no responsibility.

The ignorant buyer - The ignorant buyer is not so much the public, which smells a rat and does not want to see hospitals and doctors' offices turned into post offices, but rather Congress which thinks it is getting something for nothing and getting paid for it (in logrolling) to boot!

The teaser rate - vote for it now; nothing bad happens until 2014.

Nobody has read the documents. One of the heroes of Michael Lewis' book, Dr. Michael Burry, was noteworthy for actually getting the prospectuses of the subprime bond offerings, but he was the only one in the story who actually read them. This includes the managements of the selling firms, the managements of the buying firms and participants in the transactions on both sides. Nobody could be bothered to do their homework. Same with ObamaCare. The more important the decision, the less effort goes into it. That is certainly proving out once again in the ObamaCare process.

So, nobody is in charge, although everybody takes their compensation - on Wall Street and in Congress.

Who will be responsible and pick up the pieces? The public, as we are doing in the Wall Street mess to the tune of $2 trillion.

What could dwarf the subprime mortgage losses of $2 trillion?You guessed it. ObamaCare. Only the federal government can operate in this league, making a loss of $2 trillion look small. We are probably on the road to a loss of $1 trillion per year.

Where do we go to get our health care back? Oops. No Ben Bernanke to make it all well this time. This is for real - rationing, delays, "quality of life" decisions (death panels), drug restrictions...

When it blows up and we are lying in gurneys in dirty hallways for 30 hours waiting for health care, who will take responsibility? Take a look at this video. It should make everybody's blood run cold. "..John. The election is over." (Obama responding to a criticism from John McCain that he (Obama) had not fulfilled his campaign promise of an open process for health care). That is going to be the answer we get when it all blows up. In the immortal words of Richard Nixon's press secretary, "all previous statements are inoperative."


* Michael Lewis has written what is likely to be the definitive narrative of the subprime mortgage crisis in his book The Big Short which is just out and has been justifiably praised as a great read offering both factual and moral insight. Lewis was excellently interviewed on 60 Minutes by Steve Kroft which is available on video here.