For the past year, many bears have been discussing the dangers of subprime borrowing. Initially, the bulls told us we were exaggerating. Then they told us it was contained. Then it was hedged away. It was small. It wasn’t related to prime. It wasn’t going to affect the economy. All that stuff and more. So forgive me if I have little respect for the next argument that the Fed’s actions somehow have solved the problem.

I know it’s tough for everyone involved in financial markets to stop the selfish obsessing about the financial implications for their brokerage statements. But that’s about all I see so far. I know the Fed intervention has bailed out equities (for now) and I suspect it’s resolved some issues in the debt markets (not sure).

Investors walk around with the relief of not losing more money or the thoughts of Dow 14,000 as if the root cause has been solved or even improved. Economists talk about foreclosure rates like it is a debate solely for tv. How can it be spun in support of a cut or how can we say that it’s not so bad? Forget about the real people behind the numbers. Politicians spend a lot of time holding hearings or making good soundbites for votes. “Journalists” use the subject to fill the page or tv screen with their wisdom. I spend my time ranting about it on this stupid blog.

But what has really been done to help the people in financial distress with their homes at stake? How many foreclosures have been saved as we debate the merits of what is being done or not done? How many families are better off in the six months since HSBC announced their problems with US Subprime? Instead of dealing with it, we’ve spent more time saying it’s not a problem or trying to prevent a non-problem from affecting our investments. The housing crisis is worse and it’s not getting better.