Conservatives try to dodge responsibility for financial crisis by blaming poor people, minorities.
By on Sep 30th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Conservatives try to dodge responsibility for financial crisis by blaming poor people, minorities.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, conservative commentators have blamed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), low-income people, minorities, and past Democratic administrations for the sub-prime mortgage meltdown:
- Laura Ingraham: “When Bill Clinton decided to tell Robert Rubin to re-write the rules the Community Reinvestment Act and push all of these institutions to lend to minority communities.”
- Neil Cavuto: “I don’t remember a blaring call that said, Frannie and Freddie are a disaster, loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster.”
- Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR): “It was their harsh regulation under the Community Reinvestment Act that started this ball rolling down the hill.”
Watch a video compilation:
While most economists blame the current crisis on market failure and sparse regulation, conservatives are attempting to elude responsibility by smearing the victims of predatory lending. The Wonk Room has more here.
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How quaint.
Rich and powerful people blaming the poor — for EVERYTHING.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:50 pmDumbasses. This is why we are in the mess now.
It wasn’t the greedy it was the poor, minorities and a fluffy bunny.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:51 pm“Conservatives try to dodge responsibility for financial crisis by blaming poor people, minorities.”
– - These people’s bank accounts deserve to be as bankrupt as their morality.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:53 pmI knew they would find a way to blame Clinton for this. To Hell with them! Let them rot! No Bailout!!!
September 30th, 2008 at 6:53 pmhttp://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTS1CPMMgKdY2xTl8IYWGjOXERjAD93GGJIG0
Fannie, Freddie disclose subpoenas, investigations
By ALAN ZIBEL – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal grand jury is investigating accounting and disclosure issues at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies said Monday.
Fannie and Freddie said they received subpoenas Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan as well as requests from the Securities and Exchange Commission that they preserve documents. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government earlier this month as their mounting defaults and foreclosures threatened the entire mortgage market.
The investigation concerns accounting, disclosure and corporate governance matters, the companies said. Freddie Mac said in a statement the government investigation focuses on activities starting in 2007.
Both companies said they would cooperate fully in the investigations, but their spokesmen declined to comment Monday. Representatives of the SEC and Justice Department also declined to comment.
Three weeks ago, the government seized control Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. mortgage finance companies, with a rescue plan that could require the Treasury Department to inject as much as $100 billion into each to keep them afloat.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which controls the companies said the housing agency, “will work with the companies to assure a smooth and efficient process and will work with the government agencies as they undertake their inquiries.”
Law enforcement officials said last week the FBI is looking at potential fraud by Fannie, Freddie, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official told said failed investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.
The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official told the Associated Press last week.
Officials said the new inquiries bring to 26 the number of companies connected to the mortgage crisis under investigation over the past year.
Over the past year as the housing market cratered, the FBI has opened a wide-ranging probe of companies across the financial services industry, from mortgage lenders to investment banks that bundle home loans into securities sold to investors. FBI Director Robert Mueller has said the FBI’s hunt for culprits in the U.S. mortgage crisis focused on accounting fraud, insider trading, and failure to disclose the value of mortgage-related securities and other investments.
Additionally, the FBI is investigating failed bank IndyMac Bancorp Inc. for possible fraud. Countrywide Financial Corp., formerly the largest U.S. mortgage lender and now owned by Bank of America Corp., is also under scrutiny.
Shares of Fannie Mae rose 8 cents to $1.91 in midday trading, while shares of Freddie Mac rose 23 cents to $2.23.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:54 pmIt is so reassuring to see that the Repug talking heads are still as racist and class conscious as always.
But Ingraham and the Faux Blond Bimbo Brigade(tm) are working overtime now.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:54 pmDamn! Those poor people sure had a lot of power, for a downtrodden, powerless group.
Same goes for the Democrats. They were completely shut out of power for six years, and they still managed to wreck our economy.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:54 pmThe schizoid nature of these people freaks me out. Weren’t they just complaining that the white male was a minority?
September 30th, 2008 at 6:55 pmHow about putting the blame on those who jerked jobs overseas, said the big three automakers could fend for themselves, and generally turned a blind eye to a crisis that for the man on the street was obvious? People can’t pay if there is no infrastructure for jobs so they can earn a living wage–which is not the same as minimum wage. People USED TO have jobs, ergo they USED TO have an income to pay for their debts.
You can paint it anyway you want but this financial bleedout will not cease until the little man has money, too.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:55 pmI thought poor people and minorities would be amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the Reagan’s “Trickle Down?” Maybe not.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pmIn June 2002, President Bush issued America’s Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities. The President also announced the goal of increasing the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families before the end of the decade.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pmfull speech has some funny stuff in it. http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfm
I’m gonna start buying me some stock in Campbells
September 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pmAbove the Clouds Says:
I thought poor people and minorities would be amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the Reagan’s “Trickle Down?” Maybe not.
Remember ATC, something else runs downhill and leaves a stink on whoever and whatever it lands on.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pmYeah, because it had absolutely nothing to do with the Presidential Memo that Bush signed on May 5 (2006, I believe) that changed the law to say that “the President or the head of an Executive Branch agency may exempt companies from certain legal obligations.” These obligations include keeping accurate “books, records, and accounts” and maintaining a system of internal accounting controls sufficient “to ensure the propriety of financial transactions and the preparation of financial statements in compliance with “generally accepted accounting principles.”
“White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino said the timing of the May 5 Presidential memo had no significance…”
Uh huh…
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily,
and
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/061406_abyss_awaits.shtml
September 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pmNah, that wouldn’t work. We need another plan…
September 30th, 2008 at 6:59 pmConservatives will always blame anyone but themselves, because the alternative is to admit to themselves that their whole worldview is a lie created to justify selfishness and greed.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:59 pmJapanese Electrophoresis Society (JES) reports Bush under (White) House Arrest by US Navy on Sept 25:
http://lala-rep.com/?p=219
Here’s the translated text:
JES urgent news 09-28-08: Restraining bush president finally in 9/25!
2008 September 28th
Everyone, the US Navy restrained the person of the bush finally!
Our same mind brought the following kind of delightful news to the afternoon of 28 days.
George W which presently is the destructive person of this country and the world with White House resident the. bush is confined. As for him that there is a circumstance which cannot leave White House house at present time as for us it is possible to report.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:59 pmIt was related to the direct theft of the American certificate of indebtedness which is the tax which both of current bush administration and Clinton administration before supply the citizen that after presenting “the evidence which does not move”, Thursday of last week [the bush is arrested on September 25th], those where you order were the American naval officers.
And the fact that offered the evidence to the American naval officer was Alan [gurinsupan] former Federal Reserve System director meeting length. He has been about to be released presently, offer of the evidence where these do not move in exchange, from jail living.
Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism
# 3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice…relentless propaganda and disinformation…were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and “terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.
#10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was seen as the one power center that could challenge the political hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass, viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being poor was considered akin to a vice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVVa1IvHdKc
September 30th, 2008 at 7:01 pmExcerpts from
http://worldreports.org/news/174_latest_false_prospectus_from_paulsons_treasury
LATEST FALSE PROSPECTUS FROM ‘PAULSON’S’ TREASURY
DECEITFUL TRANSFER OF BANK ASSETS TO BUYER WITHOUT RECOURSE
Tuesday 23 September 2008 03:30
By Christopher Story FRSA, Editor and Publisher, International Currency Review, World Reports Limited, London and New York. For earlier reports, press the ARCHIVE. Order your intelligence subscriptions and our ‘politically incorrect’ intelligence books online from this website.
SECOND UPDATE, 26th September 2008:
WHO’S BEING ‘RESCUED’? THE BANKS? WRONG: THE CROOKS
When ‘Paulson’ was televised getting down on bended knee in front of Pelosi, as though he was proposing to her (yuk), what do you suppose he was saying, apart from possibly asking for a less prominent lamp post? Here’s what he may have been pleading to his co-conspirator:
‘PLEASE vote for whatever convoluted version of the Plan comes out of the works, because quite clearly if you do not, we’ll be TOAST on Monday. I don’t care what Congress does, AS LONG AS YOU ALL VOTE FOR SOMETHING, cuz then Dubya will be able to appear on TV and praise me for having saved America and the whole world. But the underlying reason that you MUST DO THIS, darhling, is that it’s our pocket money, the on-the-books cash that we need for our new trading platform, so’s we can continue our hypothecation operations after we get out of this hellhole, like nothing ever happened. So be a dear, would ya?’
…
The game is well and truly up(side down) when the so-called US Treasury Secretary is seen kneeling before the Speaker of the House of Representatives like a mediaeval pilgrim worshipping a saint. Or like Lavrenti Beria, Stalin’s Interior Ministry (MVD) Chief, who, having ordered the murder of millions, broke down and fell on his knees in floods of tears when his executioners arrived at his cell to deliver the standard bullet through the temple.
FIRST UPDATE, 26th September 2008:
There are even those [Congressmen] who are now prepared to accept that this crisis, which has driven Americans from their jobs and homes, with their sons dying in wars launched for ruthless private gain, is about one thing only: OPEN-ENDED OFFICIAL FRAUDULENT FINANCE OPERATIONS. The ’subprime mortgage crisis’ was a ’slide’ [see below].
As soon as this factor is understood by the general public, as seems likely, there will be hell to pay. Applications for a Permit-to-Carry arms have increased enormously in recent weeks and months, with correspondents emailing the Editor with observations such as:
‘Everyone I’ve talked to affirms they will die with their guns at their hands. We’ll fight! These people have overestimated themselves and underestimated us “useless eaters”‘.
Our view remains that what is about to change is that THE RULE OF LAW will be re-established and that these criminal operatives will NOT get away with their crimes. Certain information, backed by extremely sensitive ’smoking gun’ data, has been in the hands of the appropriate authorities for about a week, that proves inter alia that these crooks have engaged in war profiteering on a scale with no historical precedent, which explains why Bush was never in the slightest interested in the dead bodies that were and are being buried in Arlington Cemetery, which ran out of space to take the daily new arrivals. These people are brought up to INFLICT PAIN WITHOUT FLINCHING.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:01 pm“stock in Campbells”
cute…
September 30th, 2008 at 7:01 pmBush’s grandfather Prescott conspired to overthrow the Constitution, assassinate FDR, and turn the USA into a Nazi Camp:
September 30th, 2008 at 7:05 pmhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8795795223394289910
The ONLY WAY to remedy the financial crisis is to address the CORE ISSUE.
The CORE ISSUE is the fact that our money is controlled by CRIMINALS.
THAT is the CORE ISSUE!
George W Bush quote: “If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
September 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pmhttp://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0012/18/nd.01.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3xfT0c99g
“Conservatives try to dodge responsibility for financial crisis by blaming poor people, minorities.”
– - Hey, Evangelicals, it’s Scripture! The meek SHALL inherit the earth. It doesn’t, however, specify a time.
Heh.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pmthe Lone Voice of Reason Says:
Campbells? Alpo will give a lagher return!
September 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pm>push all of these institutions to lend to minority >communities.”
yeah I think its just terrible how those cruel impoverished negros made the congressmen write those laws which forced poor little companies to give risky loans to minorities.. i mean its not like they actually WANTED to charge people those riduclous fees and usurious interest rates..poor wittle megacorps…awww…
September 30th, 2008 at 7:08 pmAnd they were never in power from 2000 to present in the White House and they didn’t control both houses up until 2006. They are talking to the morons in the bottom 23%tile. That is why they sound so freaking stupid.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:09 pmYes, this is really going to help Republicans in the upcoming election!
September 30th, 2008 at 7:11 pmDemocrats need to hammer home the primary role that deregulation played in this debacle. They got that message out at the start, but they seem to have relaxed a bit, and the Republicans don’t relax when they’ve got propaganda to catapult.
Deregulation.
Deregulation.
Deregulation.
It should be a mantra.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:14 pmThose darn Mi-Nor-A-Tees just don’t know enough to stay in their place, all uppity and stuff, the nerve of them wanting to be like us White People, my gosh what did they expect when they loaned those lazy good for nothings to get a home.
(worst snark I have ever had to type)
September 30th, 2008 at 7:14 pm-Laura Ingraham: Its Clinton’s fault, and also those pesky brown people’s fault
- Neil Cavuto: Its the brown people’s fault.
- Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR): I though Daryll said i was going to be President-elect…. That must be the brown people’s fault too.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:17 pmMinorities are to blame?? What about the 0.01% minority of super wealthy Americans?
September 30th, 2008 at 7:18 pmWhy did it take over 30 years for this to happen then? Give me a break.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:18 pmThe 0.01% minority of super wealthy Americans have their money in the Bahamas–it’s the rich a** Arabic states and the Chinese who have invested in our infrastructure
September 30th, 2008 at 7:19 pmI’ve noticed at my favorite haunts that troll traffic is down. I wonder if having bank accounts as depleted as their morals is influencing their feelings on the situation?
September 30th, 2008 at 7:33 pmuh-oh righties – your lil white hoods are showing (again)
September 30th, 2008 at 7:42 pmRonnie Reagan told them that deregulation would be best for the country…they did forced it down our throats and now it failed and they have to blame someone. These people can never accept responsibility for their actions. Republicans are mentally disturbed and female republicans are damaged at an early age. Something makes them against their own best interest. They were either abused at an early age, not potty trained properly, or dropped on their heads at birth.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:43 pmSaint Augustine Says:
I’ve noticed at my favorite haunts that troll traffic is down. I wonder if having bank accounts as depleted as their morals is influencing their feelings on the situation?
Spoke too soon, the idiot troll Tracy showed up, lol
September 30th, 2008 at 7:45 pmAgain, it’s not exactly clear how something from 1977 took almost 30 years to explode. Clearly the tactics utilized by those making the loans changed. Anyone who has taken out a loan in recent years could attest to that much.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:46 pmThis is such pure and utter bs. It has been proven that the Community Reinvestment Act has had the greatest success because the loans have always been paid on time and are currently being paid. Ralph Nader was on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night when this fat slob lisa schiffren who writes for the National Review started pushing that meme.
Nader screamed at her and told her it was bullshit and if she had actually done any research she would not have been making such stupid untrue statements.
This has become Limbos schthick along with all of the other bottom feeders–blame the poor/and or blame Clinton.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:49 pmTo blame this on a program that goes back to the Carter administration is hard to grasp. Ronnie Reagan replaced Carter for the next eight years. We have suffered through a Bush in the White House as either a VP or POTUS twenty of the past twenty eight years. Surely the righteous republicans could have done something as the majority to solve the problem in the past twenty eight years. Oh I forgot, they think government is the problem therefore they have never seen a piece of regulation that they approve of.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:50 pmAs a former Fed banking regulator who was around when the CRA first came out and who enforced CRA for many years, I can authoritavely call this “bullshit”.
CRA never…I mean NEVER… required lenders to lend to unqualified applicants.
In fact, CRA only required lenders to lend to QUALIFIED borrowers…who happened to be minorities.
You’d be surprised how many lenders refused to lend to minorities just because they lived in “bad” neighborhoods. This refusal to lend is actually what contributed to neighborhoods being called “bad” neighborhoods — because lenders would not lend to qualified applicants who wanted to stabilize and clean up “bad” neighborhoods.
Don’t blame the minorities for the bullshit that Wall Street created.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pmTracy__5 Says:
Those who took these loans at 0% down with an adjustable interest rate are blameless?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Compared to those who offered them yes. Also who says those were the minorities? The bottom line is once again we deregulated and immediatly the corporations went directly to doing the very thing the regulations were mean to prevent in this case aggresively pushing bad loans. The banks didnt care because they were bundling them and selling them to institutions the financial institutions didnt care because the growth looked good in the short term and got HUGE bonuses for all the upper management and they KNEW there was no risk because this country has ALWAYS had socialism for the rich. Blaiming minority loans that is the ending of the racist practice of redlining is BS. A large part of the foreclosures were for refinances. Racists will jump on this and conservatives are DESPERATE to blame ANYONE except themselves for THEIR mania for deregulation that is at the heart of this crisis. Its ludicrous give it up.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pmWell, at least Tracist has the bawlz to show up and try to swim against the tide.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:54 pmYou know, I’ve read the CRA and I don’t find the part where it mandates that banks loan money to people who can’t afford to pay it back. I don’t see anywhere it says anything that banks have to do other than not discriminate based on color.
What a crock. The lenders who made those loans knew they were risky but they didn’t care. Because they made their money off of writing the loan when they sold it to an investment company who bundled the high risk loan with more solid loans and sold them as investments. If we want to make sure that banks and financial institutions don’t make risky home loans, we will have to forbid them from selling the loan. If they have to hold on to the loan, they will think twice before they lend money to someone they know can’t pay it back.
I heard on the news today that Credit Unions are flush with cash and are happy to make loans, so there’s no credit crunch there. And why is it that they are on such solid ground? It’s because they don’t loan money to people who can’t afford to pay it back.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:59 pmOh Jesus-H-for-haploid Christ.
The companies were being forced to make bad loans! to minorities!
Then could one of these Republicans kindly explain why they were SURPRISED when the loans failed?
Why they weren’t PREPARED for the failure of those very risky loans?
Why they SOLD those loans to others all around the world as GOOD INVESTMENTS?
It makes me want to hit something.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:00 pmTracy__5 Says:
Not the reason but definitely one reason…
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo125.html
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Says racist rightwing economist Dilorenzo and I guess HE is the last word on it RIGHT? No he isnt. You do know that linking to an OPINION article doesnt prove anything RIGHT? Diloco has made a pocket industry of attacking Lincoln said the South had a right to secede and attacked the New Deal. Why not go whole hog and link to the Limbaugh homepage. You are ridiculous
September 30th, 2008 at 8:00 pmY’know, they would be blameless if only they hadn’t FORCED those mortgage companies to promote those no-down-payment home loans on late-night cable and via direct mail. Every time I got a phone solicitation for a re-fi, I always felt so sorry for the mortgage companies because I KNEW that on the other end of that line, there was a telemarketer with an automatic weapon pointed at her head, wielded by a brown person who demanded that she call me and offer that interest-only loan to dramatically lower my mortgage payments. There was no way they would make that offer if they weren’t being forced to, at gunpoint, by a scary brown person.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pmoops. …then yes they are not blameless
September 30th, 2008 at 8:11 pmTracy__5 Says:
Those who took these loans at 0% down with an adjustable interest rate are blameless?
If they were informed of the possible consequences of the loan and took it anyway, then yes they are blameless. If they were not informed (which was 99% if the time), then the only thing they were guilty of was trusting the person who was making the loan.
Go back and read post #11. It might educate you, if that’s possible.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:11 pmThat’s weird. My corrective post ended up before the original post. How did that happen?
September 30th, 2008 at 8:11 pmPerhaps this time “the poor” will be such a large and angry part of the population that this (worn out) divide-and-conquer tactic won’t work.
The poor certainly didn’t hire people with doctorates in math to juggle the books and make liabilities look like grade A assets. The poor didn’t lobby Washington to make unethical practices legal. Wall Street and the government has conspired to create a clusterf**k so clustery and FUBAR that no one understands who owns a lot of these debts! After making such a concerted effort to create this perverse and indecipherable “crisis” it’s a pity the people responsible for it won’t take credit. It’s one for the books.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:12 pmGo back and read post #11. It might educate you, if that’s possible
September 30th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Bilbo Hussein Baggins Says: #54
TP = Twilight Zone Progress
September 30th, 2008 at 8:18 pmDon’t forget all the people who took out those ARM mortgages were told they would be able to refinance any time due to the how fast the property value was rising. Guess not so much anymore.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pmSo it’s back to the time old practice of blaming the poor. Wonder if the welfare mom that drives the Cadilac is still around.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pmThe poor need to learn that age old lesson.
‘If you’re gonna steal, steal BIG’
It also helps if you make the laws too.
http://www.wilytrax.com
September 30th, 2008 at 8:40 pmQuick! Make an argument, ANY ARGUMENT, however poorly supported by the facts, however spurious, however logically disjointed, that puts the blame elsewhere! Then, repeat, repeat, repeat until it is all anyone hears.
These people are utterly despicable.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:56 pmCats,
September 30th, 2008 at 8:57 pmThe Welfare Mom is a fairie tale. She romps about the Enchanted Forest with the Recreational Abortion Almost Mom
They are all walking in lock step to the it’s the minority’s and poor folks fault talking points. I was listening to Cunningham live Sun on am radio…. he spent his entire show on this topic… and of course tied Obama to it.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:13 pmLets be clear. This is the government’s fault. The government encouraged low and moderate-income people to buy homes. They should have never bought homes unless they could come up with a 20% down payment and qualify for a mortgage based on their income. It was government intervention in the free markets that caused this.
This is all due to that 1994 law by Clinton that established subprime debt. Link.
Bill Clinton’s presidential website still boasts of creating the highest homeownership rate on record. In 1994, Clinton hoped to increase homeownership to 67.5 percent by 2000. He sponsored the revised Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations, which required banks to increase mortgage lending to low- and moderate-income families. These changes also allowed the securitization of CRA loans for subprime mortgages.
The revised act resulted in a raft of community organizers who could now prevent banks from merging, expanding their branches or creating new branches simply by protesting to any of four different regulatory agencies. Using regulation as a weapon, community organizers could now bully and blackmail private businesses. Legislation that encourages such thuggery produces anything but free markets.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:25 pmSo is the “Community Organizer” prancing around that Enchanted Forest with the “Welfare Mom” and The “Recreational Abortion Almost Mom”?
September 30th, 2008 at 9:31 pmTracy__5 Says:
Those who took these loans at 0% down with an adjustable interest rate are blameless?
Have you ever closed on a home loan?
There is over a hundred of papers to sign of which most first time buyers really do not understand. Before this scam started, in the day when it was fairly honest, each paper was properly explained by qualified trustworthy loan specialists. Also, in the benefit of the home buyer, a loan was not issued to those that did not qualify…. this protected home buyers.
From what I am understanding, many of the loans, arms, were issued not disclosing the rate increase months later.
The innocent buyers, not the home flippers, that were taken advantage of should get special consideration.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:34 pmGee, and all these years I thought the banks and mortgage companies were run by grownups that knew how to say “No”. But I guess it was more profitable for them to make a bad loan, bundle it up with other loans and sell the bundle to some hedge fund manager that didn’t know what he was getting.
Yeah, it’s all those poor people buying houses they can’t afford even after the guy at the bank said “No problem”.
Everyone is loonong for the American dream of homeownership. These banks, mortgage conpanies and hedge funds were all looking to make a buck and willing to look the other way. Now it’s all coming back to bite them in the ass and all they can come up with is “It’s all Clintons fault!” Geez, it’s getting old.
What ever happened to the Repuglican value of “Personal Responsibility”? With them it’s always someone else’s fault.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:51 pmIf you have way less money than us GOP’ers…then you’re at fault!
If you don’t believe in OUR! lord and savior…then you’re at fault!
If you don’t want terrorists to bomb our nation, kill your kids at school and take your house away from you…then you’re at fault!
If you don’t have white skin or don’t bleach your colored skin to fit in “our” society…then you’re at fault!
If you don’t support an angry senile old man and a complete airhead bimbo to be your defacto economic figurehead heroes and next leaders of this democracy…then you’re at fault!
Basically, if you don’t drink the elephant dung kool aid…you’ll be okay.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:53 pmmarwick Says:
and Tracy5
Please explain to me why there was no complaining by the lenders if they were being forced to make what they knew were bad loans…..I haven’t heard a word until it suddenly becomes a crisis.
Your notions are pitiful and easy to debunk. You have to make a little sense if you want to turn water into wine around here.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:54 pmthe Lone Voice of Reason Says:
I’m gonna start buying me some stock in Campbells
I would also buy stock in toilet paper companies. All that will be left are eating and crapping.
Deregulation, the Cold War, Military, NAFTA, GATT, 9/11, subPrime, Globalization….All add to the reasons that the USA is in the last days of empire, as in Roman.
Democrats and Republicans are showing their traitorous colors on this Wall Street Extortion Scam.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:02 pmHere it is kiddies. If you don’t believe it, PROVE IT WRONG!You ask how America wound up in its worst financial crisis in decades? Sen. Barack Obama explained it this way last week: “When sub-prime-mortgage lending took a reckless and unsustainable turn, a patchwork of regulators systematically and deliberately eliminated the regulations protecting the American people.”
That’s exactly backward. Mortgage lending took that “reckless and unsustainable turn” because of regulation – regulation driven by liberals and progressives, not free-market “deregulators.”
Pushed hard by politicians and community activists, the regulators systematically and deliberately altered financially sound lending practices.
The mortgage market was humming along just fine when, in the late 1980s, progressives decided that it needed to be “fixed.” Their complaint: Some ethnic groups got approved for mortgages at lower rates than others.
In reality, mortgage lenders were simply being prudent – taking care to provide mortgages to those who could best afford to make the payments.
The shift began in 1989, when Congress amended the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to force banks to collect racial data on mortgage applicants. By 1991, critics were using that data to paint lenders as racist by showing that minority applicants were approved at far lower rates. Banks were “Shamed By Publicity,” as one 1993 New York Times headline put it.
In fact, they found a racial disparity only by ignoring relevant data on applicants’ ability to make mortgage payments – such as their assets and credit history.
But the political pressure was intense – with few in politics or media eager to speak the truth. And then, in 1992, came a study from four researchers at the Boston Fed, which seemed to bear out the critics’ contentions.
That study was, in fact, based on quite flawed data – but the authors’ political, media and academic protectors stifled most serious criticism, smearing the reputation of one whistleblower and allowing the Boston authors to avoid answering serious academic challenges to their work. Other studies with different conclusions were ignored.
The very next year, the Boston Fed announced new requirements for banks – rules that have now turned out to be monumentally catastrophic: Adopt “relaxed lending standards” or risk being labeled as racists, and face serious penalties under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.
Gone (as “arbitrary” and “outdated”) were traditional lending requirements such as requiring a down payment or limiting mortgage payments to 28 percent of income. (Of course, the loosened lending standards weren’t limited to poor and minority applicants – that would be discriminatory.)
The new standards performed as intended: Home- ownership rates, stagnant for 25 years, began a rapid 10-year ascent in 1995, with many new homeowners being lower-income and/or minority families.
The large rise in demand for houses, however, fed a run-up in prices starting in 1997 – the infamous housing bubble. And rising prices hid the great vulnerability of these loans to defaults and foreclosures, because refinancing or selling at a profit was the easy alternative.
Soon, these loans began to be sold in the secondary market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were enthusiastic proponents of relaxed lending standards and purchased large swaths of these loans.
Time after time, Fannie and Freddie trumped criticism by pointing to how they were helping broaden homeownership. Because of the subject’s racial overtones, they beat back calls for reform even after financial irregularities were found.
Rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s had no experience with such loans – and imprudently used the misleading bubble-induced performance to incorrectly judge the likely performance of financial instruments based on such loans.
In 2002, the “reformers” declared victory. In a Fannie report, four academic supporters of relaxed standards crowed how these changes were “fundamentally altering the terms upon which mortgage credit had been offered in the United States from the 1960s through the 1980s . . . These changes in lending herald what we refer to as mortgage innovation.”
Lucky us.
Now that the popped bubble has left us swimming in foreclosures, the supporters of loosened credit standards seem shy about taking credit for their “mortgage innovations.” Instead, they blame subprime lenders for becoming “predatory” – when they were simply taking the Boston Fed rules to their logical conclusion while broadening the mortgage market.
Investors holding mortgage-based assets now want out. Perhaps they deserve a $700 billion refund – since they were sold a bill of goods by “progressive” politicians, academics and government officials who, in the hope of remaking society, insisted that loans based on relaxed underwriting standards were sound.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:49 pmFrom the website linked in the article or the post:
“The Community Reinvestment Act is a federal law that was enacted in 1977. It encourages depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, in ways that are consistent with safe and sound banking operations. The CRA does not entitle individuals to any grants or loans.”
What the fcuk are they talking about, oh right they are blowing smoke up our collective ass as a smokescreen for McBlame.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:03 amHey truthtalker,
More TRUTH, less talk please.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/dcca/cra/
October 1st, 2008 at 12:07 amYou can’t be serious! You guys need to realize that this could not happen without people being on the take. Their needs to be an investigation on how 5 government agencies, given the task of oversight, turned a blind eye. The senate banking committee should be disbanded, and any polititian who received money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be prosecuted now! Don’t play partisan cop from information from partisan talking heads. Their are Democrats and republicans that need to be in jail along with the CEOs & CFOs. You guys are just happy to play the blame game while our country gets hosed. Do some research on your own, and you’ll see who was getting the kickbacks.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:07 amI am witholding my taxes if this becomes law. Let them see how well they run the country without revenue.
FCUKING REPUBLICAN CLOWNS.
THROW ALL OF THEM IN GITMO
October 1st, 2008 at 12:18 amHoly SH|T Has anyone put these pieces together???
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1
“The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga., ”
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/stories//2008/09/29/gas_shortage.html
“Two more weeks of gas chaos, official says
Atlanta’s chaotic gasoline shortage should be back to normal by Columbus Day, Oct. 13, at the latest, said Randy Bly of AAA South. That means about two more weeks of uncertainty, desperate searches for stations with gasoline and long lines at stations that do have gas.
Bly said Nashville had fuel shortages similar to those in metro Atlanta, but now 70 to 80 percent of the city is being supplied.”
Hmmm, the Army violating the Posse Comitatus Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
And everyone is occupied with the bailout…
October 1st, 2008 at 12:44 amI smell martial law in parts of Georgia around the corner.
Nice copy/paste job, stupid troll. Here’s a more simple version.
World commodity markets, driven by Wall Street/Washington largess going back 20 of the last 28 years (and before), have been systematically collapsing. This coincides with the response to 9/11 and has been especially pronounced since world demand, and price, for oil started down. But, the continuing, cascading, collapses have left major investment banks without liquidity. Banks, through unwise if not criminal practices, can’t afford to pay each other.
There are a vast number of reasons for the collapse but some of it can be blamed on the consistent eroding of American credit since Chimpy took office. Many of the root causes were set in motion decades ago. There are plenty of villans from all political camps. Many are not political at all. However it borders on the absurd to suggest that a jump in foreclosures is bringing down multi-national investment banks.
Correction. It’s beyond absurd. It’s ridiculous, untrue, and cruel. It’s the petty excuse of a gang of crooks who got caught. It’s as absurd as blaming the Democrats when Republicans have set economic policy for at least 20 of the last 28 years.
And I challenge any stupid troll to find one credible source who states unequivocally that defaults on individual mortgages are a driving factor.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:46 amtruthtalker Says:
Nothing worth reading. Prove your baseless assertions and delusional fantasies wrong? How about YOU are an idiot. What happened was much simpler. When the Glass Steagal act was killed it allowed mortgage banks to bundle their loans and sell them to Financial institutions. The banks didnt care if the loans were good or not. In fact once they ran out of decent loans they aggressively pushed refinances and lied on applications to make bad loans because they didnt care if they were paid back since they were going to bundle and sell them to the financial institutions. The financial institutions also didnt care how solid the loans were since A) in the short term it looked like growth and justified the big bonus’ and higher stock prices and B) they KNEW that this country always has had socialism for the rich so when the bills came due they could count on the taxpayer to bail them out. It takes blazing all new trails of stupidity and ideological blindness to the point of retardation to claim the problem was TOO MUCH REGULATION. You are a braindead moronic hiveminder.
Your racist BS about minorities comes straight out of the Limborg I am sure it sounded good when you heard it on the radio but its BS. The redlining was a well established practice it was PROVEN that banks were denying minorities loans when they had absolute equal financial data. The Atlanta Constitution won a Pulitzer Prize doing groudbreaking investigation on EXACLTY this. YOU are a liar and a fool. Your rightwing talking points is bogus, racist claptrap.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:07 amActually they are blaming Newt Gingrich, right. Wasn’t it his House of Representative that push any legislation?
I did’t hear nothing about who deregulated Wall St and the Mortgage institutions to peddle and speculate on these?
So where did that deregualation that allowed that occur come from?
Let us not forget, aren’t these banks and business people smarter and more conservative and prudent to make such loans even if they can legally? After all, business takes care of us with our fooods, and merchandise that it is not tainted with any harmful lead in the paints or Sal monela in our foods. Right?
October 1st, 2008 at 1:41 amURGENT ACTION NEEDED
Sen Maj Leader Harry Reed is planning on bringing back the inadequate give away that was defeated in the house. It’s going to be voted on Wednesday or Thurs. He needs to be told by email, fax, phone that it is not good enough. his contact info is:
528 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327
Toll Free for Nevadans:
1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343)
The core concept proposed by Bush is flawed. Call some hearings and ask some economists. Google Sweden 1992 banking crisis. They had good success promptly steering their financial institutions back to safety. Learn the lessons, write it for the Democratic base, and own it. The “compromise” tweeking that was done to the Bush proposal resulted in a toothless and weak 100 page bill that tried to bury and hide its weakness from the voters. Rather than condescendingly claiming that the American people didn’t understand (Cf, McSame of Obama at first debate), or that the leadership didn’t explain it well enough, the reality is that public outrage finally made the Republicans blink, to borrow from Palin. If they vote in favor of bailing out the bad actors, they lose votes from constituents in five weeks at the next election. That is their only moral hazard. The bill that failed would not have prevented one of the 10K daily foreclosures, could have been filibustered until Bush spent all $700B, would only have made some parachutes non-tax-deductible, merely required a report “suggesting” how the taxpayer will be paid back, and allowed the same bunch of lobbyists to set prices for their trash that the taxpayers would pay. As a final insult, instead of providing more confidence through transparency, the failed bill would allow Paulson to suspend the mark-to-market rule. This is intellectual dishonesty that will further erode confidence in our banking system. Do a better job on all these issues and allow bankruptcy judges to implement the rewriting of loans, or face the wrath of the voters. I think many voters would accept a temporary governmental equity position in the banking sector as long as the bad guys aren’t seen as maintaining their ability to subvert the programs and continue to rip off the system. Don’t pull another FISA cave.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:53 amLaura, Laura, Laura,
What secrets dark and dank loom in the recesses of your mind?
Lost there amidst the discarded crosses and faux piety for your fellow man…
lies a space, like a room. So bereft of light, so cold as to snuff out all hope of reason and compassion. Containing only hate. Unreasoned, uncontrolled and ever-present hate.
“some peoples sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others” – in that, you’ve done well.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:39 amThese people are vicious predators preying on the vulnerable to supply their opulent lifestyle. Blaming the victim for their desperation or ignorance is no better than a thief blaming the person robbed for not locking their door.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:11 amThanks to illness and a crooked insurance company I’m a real live poor person.
We were tempted into one ourselves but I didn’t want to be tied down to a mortgage. My wife and I have a bit of a traveling bug, although kids and MS have provided a pretty good cure for that. They won’t take NO for an answer.
Constant calls and mail trying to convince you of all the reasons home ownership is best for everyone. Constantly fishing for a weak moment. That’s how credit cards and payday loans work, too. They are all looking for that moment of vulnerability when credit looks like the answer to a worried person’s current situation.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:19 amAnn Coulter had a really cute, really catchy phrase in her article last week to describe what happen.
She said it was, “…an affirmative-action time bomb.”
Here’s the whole paragraph:
“A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative-action time bomb, and now it’s gone off.”
BTW, how many of the failed mortgages were made to illegal immigrants?
October 1st, 2008 at 11:34 amTracy__5 Says:
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#41
“It has been proven that the Community Reinvestment Act has had the greatest success because the loans have always been paid on time and are currently being paid.”
Proven? Cite some proof that all of the loans made thru the CRA have always been paid back. Again I said it was ONE of the reasons not THE reason.
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You do know you are an idiot right? YOU guys are making the claim it was the problem or even a significant PART of the problem its up to YOU to prove it not to reverse the burden of proof and say something as mindnumbingly ignorant as either show every loan ever made under the program was paid on time or you are vindicated. That is just world class stupid. Cough up YOUR proof that it was a significant part of the problem.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:28 pmUS style capitalism is so lame that sub prime loans can harm it?
October 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pmTracy__5 Says:
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#45
“Well, at least Tracist has the bawlz to show up and try to swim against the tide.”
Yes, everyone here wants to blame many people but exempt those who signed their names. If you are going to buy a house you need to take at least some responsibility for what the details say.
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Here is the thing about that. What are you going to do about people who are vulnerable to high pressure sales? Is there a solution there? There IS a solution to keeping the financial institutions from gaming the sytem because they are sure the short term is all they have to worry about since there is never a long term risk, since they are sure the taxpayers will come along and bail them out. MORE regulation and we stop doing things like ending the regulations we have like Glass Steagal. Then we put bigtime strings on whatever bailout we finally cough up. So that they dont get those huge bonuses anymore no golden parachutes. Tax the bejeesus out of those kind of transactions and make it economically distasteful for corporations to pay out huge CEO salaries that are in no way based on how they help the company. There ARE several answers to THAT problem. These banks were selling these homes to people, alright naive people, based on the idea that the rising value of their homes would give them equity they could use. They may deserve SOME of the blame but what is not acceptable is to blame the ending of the redlining. I have seen NO evidence this is in any way to blame. What I did see was that refinance agencies targeted older minority neighborhoods where people were cash poor but had good equity for predatory loans that didnt even help the people but got them into loans they would never be able to pay back. When states tried to pass laws saying that there had to be a demonstrable benifit for loans big money poured in and defeated them. These businesses were perdatory, they were greedy, looking to make loans and they didnt CARE if they were paid back. They only cared about how making a lot of loans looked on paper for the short term. We can do things to force corporations to care more about the long term and take responsibility for sacrificing ethics and long term best interest to short term flash
October 1st, 2008 at 12:43 pmvigor Says:
Ann Coulter had a really cute, really catchy phrase in her article last week to describe what happen.
She said it was, “…an affirmative-action time bomb.”
Here’s the whole paragraph:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
Ann Coulter is an ignorant racist PIG without a shred of decency who spouts any stupid thing that will throw red meat to the stupidest, most ignorant racists in our society. That is people like YOU. No one else takes her seriously. YOU are a moron. Ann is just a soulless piece of garbage who has nothing but contempt for those stupid enough to think she makes sense. Sadly that is people as stupid as YOU
October 1st, 2008 at 12:49 pmDiscriminating against a white or minority business owner or homeowner because of their zip code was wrong. It kept growth from occurring in these neighborhoods. This was the problem Clinton sought to fix. It had nothing to do with easy loans for those on the bottom. Bush and his Republican controlled Congress did that. If you doubt me here are the words from the horse’s mouth…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8&eurl=http://circuitousnoodle.blogspot.com/2008/09/obama-on-debate-mccainbush-gop-caused.html
October 1st, 2008 at 3:01 pm