> Wow... the last time anything was said about this mill shutting down it was blamed.
> on the environmentalists. Now that it's fired up no one has come along and apologized
> and admitted that it was really the economy....

There's nothing to apologize for! They deserved it and still do.


By the time it is all boiled down, it was in fact NYMBYism run a muck and other ecological extremism that brought down the housing market and the whole construction industry in the first place; and hence the whole economy.

Years and years of ever tightening environmental regulations, most of them patently ridiculous; severely restricted the housing supply in Kaliphonia. But nothing was ever done to restrict demand (caused by high immigration, and by of all things, a booming divorce rate, making more households than there otherwise would have been).

Low supply + high demand = rising prices; going up faster and faster as the supply gets more and more restricted. Left unchecked, prices and the resulting personal consumer debt were bound to go way beyond what could ever be sustainable for any length of time.

Then add the catalist: Pandering politicians (from Clinton on), rather than re-balance the rules, tried to help us buy the housing they helped make unaffordable. We could never have paid back the debt for a house in a lifetime; but never mind, feel good politicians simply canceled financial regulations that were put in place in the 30s, so we could go on fooling ourselves.

Since those financial regs were put in place by lessons hard learned, in order to prevent another great depression --- Hence, another meltdown!

So why were you so surprised???? - Duh!

So yes, though many politicians had a hand in the debacle, making it much worse than it had to be; it was definitely environmental extremism that planted the seeds of disaster in the first place - by forcing markets out of balance. This lack of concern for "balance", is what makes them extremists.

As the old proverb says: "Sow the wind - reap the whirlwind!"