With all the finger pointing going on today in this all-out international financial crisis, the names Bush, Clinton, Greenspan, Rubin, Paulson, and a host of Wall Street CEOs get mentions all the time. And well they should. But rather than pick one of them, let’s figure out what they have in common - all of them. And that would be: an enduring, whole-hearted commitment to keeping US wages down.

Remember: despite high and increasing rates of productivity per worker in America under both Clinton and Bush, real wages – the ability to buy goods and services -- for the most part declined during both presidencies.

And that’s why most people needed credit cards and that’s why they jumped at the chance to build home equity they could tap into—to augment their mediocre wages. At least one insider isn’t afraid to say it: quote “Americans can’t help but spend beyond their means because they’ve had no income growth while their costs.. have skyrocketed.” The words of Laura Tyson, an economics adviser to the Clinton administration and economics professor at Berkeley.

We know that the elites are suffering too. Surely it’s not easy for investor-extraordinaire Warren Buffett to lose a reported $5 billion from his $50 billion bank account (my he knows how to save!) Really, that must hurt. But keep in mind that Mr. Buffett made some of those billions investing in the likes of WalMart and McDonalds – read: low wages, read: credit cards, read: sub-prime mortgages. Oh, and did I mention no health insurance at those companies he placed in his portfolio? What’s his responsibility? What exactly do we mean by family values when hard working families can't afford regular loans for regular homes?

We wouldn't have had a sub-prime lending crisis, if so many wages weren't . . . sub-prime.