|
| quote: | Originally posted by The17sss
lol... yeah it may be a tie. Imagine if Carter had 8 years instead of 4... who knows what would have happened. I have to say though, there is plenty of blame to go around on the democratic side. I mean, shit man... do you realize the Bush administration tried 12 different times to put oversight into Freddie and Fannie and was shot down by Chris Dodd and his cronies? Clinton signed into law in 1995 a bill that forced lenders to give loans to people who weren't qualified, or didn't have to prove they were or even that they had a job! I call that buying votes. But still.. read this man, it's quite telling:
How The Democrats Caused the Financial Crisis:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...id=aSKSoiNbnQY0
And in the NY Times back in 1997, you see this--->
"The chairman of the House Banking Committee called today for an investigation into the investment practices of Freddie Mac, the Congressional-chartered, shareholder-owned mortgage finance company, saying it had abused the preferential borrowing terms it enjoys through its ties to the Government. Representative Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa, said Freddie Mac -- short for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation -- had borrowed $125 million in the bond markets on Monday at 6.99 percent, an interest rate reflecting the market's belief that the Treasury had effectively guaranteed repayment. Freddie Mac, whose charter calls for it to invest primarily in mortgages and mortgage securities, then used the $125 million to buy corporate bonds issued by the Philip Morris Companies with identical 10-year maturities yielding 7.68 percent. Mr. Leach said that such an investment strategy might be legal, but that it was not appropriate. 'Freddie Mac was established by an act of Congress for a specific purpose: to advance home ownership, not to facilitate tobacco sales,' he said. 'What Freddie Mac's action amounts to is taxpayer subsidization of corporate arbitrage and, implicitly, the tobacco industry.'''
So all these people that hated tobacco, running down Big Tobacco, and here they are investing in it with your mortgage money! In 1997, run by Democrats at the same time. So it kept getting worse and worse, and finally in 2003 Bush proposed the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis, which was a new agency to oversee Fannie and Freddie, which is an admission that it was a bunch of thieves running the place. Why do you need a commission to oversee them? Why can't you just apply the law to them? If there are people in there violating the charter with Congress, then get rid of them. Have investigations. Well, here's what happened. Even though Bush proposed a new oversight committee, the Democrats said no way. They cried foul. Barney Frank said these two entities, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, they're not facing any kind of financial crisis. He accused Bush of wanting this oversight committee so he could weaken the bargaining power of poorer families. Weaken the bargaining power? You as a family member never interact with Fannie or Freddie unless you're not putting enough down, in which case Fannie or Freddie might not buy your mortgage, the bank might tell you, "You gotta throw a little more in here, or Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae won't buy it, and we don't want it if they won't buy it cause all we want is to give you this mortgage and get rid of it. We're gonna dump it somewhere else, we're gonna package it with other mortgages, what your good old S&L would do or your bank." |
i'm no champion for democrats. i agree that blame should be spread all around. at the end of the day the blame lies with predatory lenders (mostly mortgage brokers and bankers who were divorced from any risk in signing the loan packages and profited entirely from the upfront fees), (mostly with) overextended consumers, and the credit rating agencies. Perhaps investment banks played a role as well by pushing rating agencies to give better scores or by hiding information about the true risk of the packaged loans, but i don't know that so i will give them the benefit of the doubt (and i'm too lazy to look for articles about the issue).
Ironically, i don't think an oversight board would have helped much. Congress, whether democratic or republican, has proven its ineptitude at dealing with marginally difficult issues (and this is surely not marginally difficult - it's patently difficult). If the credit agencies were doing their job investors could properly gauge the risk associated with the CDOs.
|
the list of bush gaffes is surely to be as long, if not longer, when the consequences of his administration have time to fully play out. remember, this financial crisis is already being called the worst since the depression. think about that? if we are going to blame the president for all economic conditions occurring during his term, we need to remember that bush had 8 years to correct the path of easy money and predatory lending. Everyone thinking home ownership is their god given right (which bush championed) is the root of the current economic problem. 
at devil worship comment
