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(Our Morally Bankrupt World)
Today, all is woe in Liberal-land. Today's "shocking, upset vote" is a major failure on the part of Nancy Pelosi who took this Bill to a vote without knowing if she had the requisite number of votes. Obviously, she didn't.
The huge bailout plan that, in their minds would’ve ratified “An end to the Supply-Side market-based era and a return to more government oversight and control,” seems to have run aground on the shoals of Conservatism.
The huge bailout Bill went down to defeat in the House of Representatives, as 95 Democrats (over 40% of the Democrats) and 133 Republicans voted against the measure.
Nancy Pelosi is outraged.
Harry Reid is outraged.
Barney Frank is outraged.
Reportedly constituents flooded Congressional offices 100 to 1 against the measure.
If your Legislator didn’t vote in accordance with the wishes of his constituents, you might want to re-consider your vote next time.
As some have noted, and as usual, there is LOTS of blame to go around.
That said, to their credit BOTH G W Bush and John McCain fought to rein in BOTH Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003 and AGAIN in 2005, both times to have been both “outmanned and overwhelmed by lobbyists” according to Richard Baker of La.
It appears that some Wall Streeters even KNEW of the toxic nature of the bad debt that Fannie and Freddie were packaging as “government-backed mortgage securities” and laughed, “Let’s hope we’re all wealthy and retired before this all blows up.”
Shameful!
BUT not nearly as shameful and SHAMELESS as government bureaucrats, like Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines and others basically mandating malfeasance at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This just shows the utter moral bankruptcy of our age, an age in which most people are unable to forego putting personal gain over what's right.
Some have argued, “Look, we’ve got to take care of the poor one way or the other. We could continue to let them languish in Trailer Parks and in Public Housing, OR we could try to get them into “the ownership culture” and hope that that culture moves them to be more productive, more traditional in their thinking.”
Many Conservatives bought into this!
A surprising number, in fact. I suppose “hope springs eternal,” and yeah, I’m probably far from a nice guy, even now unable to resist the “I told ya so, I knew these poor, dumb bastards wouldn’t clean up their acts. What were you guys thinking?”
OK, so I’m NOT a nice guy.
Seems you can’t be honest and nice now-a-days.
Do I blame low-income, “high-risk” Americans for taking on mortgages they almost certainly KNEW they couldn’t afford?
Why should they be any different than anyone else in today’s morally bankrupt world?
Weren’t banks and mortgage brokers largely to blame?
Certainly they were as guilty as the unqualified borrowers, BUT, it seems as though the CRA was used by some nefarious politicians and activist groups (like ACORN) to force banks to make tons of these high-risk loans.
It seems that the Enron guys of this debacle were the folks at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their Congressional allies (Frank and Dodd among the leaders).
But that’s now how this crisis is being reported, nor how the bailout is being defined. Perhaps because the mainstream media (MSM) is peopled with so many people who never took much math in College, they aren’t all that adept at logic either.
For whatever reason, the current bailout has wrongly been described as “A Wall Street bailout,” instead of the “Short-term credit market bailout” that it really is. That might well be due to some in the MSM not understanding the current issue
There are probably more partisan reasons for the MSM not making much of Senator Frank’s or Senator Dodd’s role in this, the Eronesque malfeasance at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the role that various “community activist” and “housing activist” groups (like ACORN) played in all this.
The huge bailout plan that, in their minds would’ve ratified “An end to the Supply-Side market-based era and a return to more government oversight and control,” seems to have run aground on the shoals of Conservatism.
The huge bailout Bill went down to defeat in the House of Representatives, as 95 Democrats (over 40% of the Democrats) and 133 Republicans voted against the measure.
Nancy Pelosi is outraged.
Harry Reid is outraged.
Barney Frank is outraged.
Reportedly constituents flooded Congressional offices 100 to 1 against the measure.
If your Legislator didn’t vote in accordance with the wishes of his constituents, you might want to re-consider your vote next time.
As some have noted, and as usual, there is LOTS of blame to go around.
That said, to their credit BOTH G W Bush and John McCain fought to rein in BOTH Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003 and AGAIN in 2005, both times to have been both “outmanned and overwhelmed by lobbyists” according to Richard Baker of La.
It appears that some Wall Streeters even KNEW of the toxic nature of the bad debt that Fannie and Freddie were packaging as “government-backed mortgage securities” and laughed, “Let’s hope we’re all wealthy and retired before this all blows up.”
Shameful!
BUT not nearly as shameful and SHAMELESS as government bureaucrats, like Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines and others basically mandating malfeasance at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This just shows the utter moral bankruptcy of our age, an age in which most people are unable to forego putting personal gain over what's right.
Some have argued, “Look, we’ve got to take care of the poor one way or the other. We could continue to let them languish in Trailer Parks and in Public Housing, OR we could try to get them into “the ownership culture” and hope that that culture moves them to be more productive, more traditional in their thinking.”
Many Conservatives bought into this!
A surprising number, in fact. I suppose “hope springs eternal,” and yeah, I’m probably far from a nice guy, even now unable to resist the “I told ya so, I knew these poor, dumb bastards wouldn’t clean up their acts. What were you guys thinking?”
OK, so I’m NOT a nice guy.
Seems you can’t be honest and nice now-a-days.
Do I blame low-income, “high-risk” Americans for taking on mortgages they almost certainly KNEW they couldn’t afford?
Why should they be any different than anyone else in today’s morally bankrupt world?
Weren’t banks and mortgage brokers largely to blame?
Certainly they were as guilty as the unqualified borrowers, BUT, it seems as though the CRA was used by some nefarious politicians and activist groups (like ACORN) to force banks to make tons of these high-risk loans.
It seems that the Enron guys of this debacle were the folks at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their Congressional allies (Frank and Dodd among the leaders).
But that’s now how this crisis is being reported, nor how the bailout is being defined. Perhaps because the mainstream media (MSM) is peopled with so many people who never took much math in College, they aren’t all that adept at logic either.
For whatever reason, the current bailout has wrongly been described as “A Wall Street bailout,” instead of the “Short-term credit market bailout” that it really is. That might well be due to some in the MSM not understanding the current issue
There are probably more partisan reasons for the MSM not making much of Senator Frank’s or Senator Dodd’s role in this, the Eronesque malfeasance at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the role that various “community activist” and “housing activist” groups (like ACORN) played in all this.
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The fact that the MSM isn't reporting this accurately is a major problem.
No Banker Left behind failed to get the Splurge!
ReplyDeletehave you read barry's blog yet? if he's right, NOW we'll have a clueless dolt in the White House.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated to the topic...IT'S A BOY!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah Courtney this does smack of the NBLB (No Banker Left Behind) ACT, although I think both sides agree that the "short-term credit markets" must be preserved.
ReplyDeleteThe PROBLEM for ALL of us the mass misunderstanding propogated by a MSM that is both inept (CAN'T understand) and malicious (UNWILLING to understand) at the same time.
THE cause, not the primary cause but THE cause of the credit crisis was government retooling the CRA to force banks to make more loans available to more "low-income" or high-risk borrowers.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exacerbated this, then bought up, bundled up and fraudulently misnamed the "stinky bundle" as "government-backed mortgaeg securities" and proceeded to sell these bundles to Wall Street and other Capital Markets.
OVER-regulation caused the current crisis.
Forcing banks to loan to high-risk borrowers is really no different than forcing supermarkets to sell food BELOW their cost, while telling them (on the snide), "Don't worry, there'll be a BIG bailout coming your way and you'll recoup all your losses and then some!"
It's all BAD NEWS!
And it's mainly the fault of ghouls like Barney frank and Chris Dodd.
Isaw Rachel and it may well shake out that way.
ReplyDeleteTo date, I'm non-plussed with McCain's campaign and there've been times I've suspected he was "trying to lose."
And who knows?
Maybe he sees what's coming and wants no part of it.
His recent actions haven't helped him at all.
First, he did the right thing in suspending his campaign, then he claimed credit for forging an acceptable compromise.
Then he re-started his campaign and Pelosi all but submarined the compromise Bill, making McCain look like the grand-stander many saw him as anyway!
As Pat Buchanan said the other say, "He should've followed his initial instincts and stayed in Washington until a deal was signed, sealed and delivered."
For better or worse...and it's very much for the WORSE, the GOP is getting the blame for this meltdown, despite the fact that it was due to OVER-regulation (banks being forced to loan money to high-risk borrowers on spec) via the retooled CRA...Fannie and Freddie exacerbated the problem with the help of Senators Frank and Dodd, BUT the facts of this tale of woe are of no interest to the MSM 9nt sexy enough) and too many people's eyes glaze over at the thought of such concepts.
It's easir to go with the inane but catchy sound-bite, "Bush-McCain fu*ked up the economy!"
It doesn't matter that Bush and McCain were part of a minority in D.C. who sought to rein in the abuses at Fannie and Freddie back in 2003 and AGAIN in 2005.
There's an irony in all that somewhere.
CONGRATULATIONS Terry!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to you and your family.