Fannie, Freddie, Folly

Member Comments

• Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/15/2008 1:44:51 PM

  Comment: Bill Clinton points to liberal Congressional Democrats' protection of Fannie and Freddie from scrutiny as a primary cause of the current economic meltdown.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsynspIqAoE
  
  To prove Bill Clinton's point, this is a link to a C-SPAN video clip of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCains attempt at S.190. to fix fannie and freddie.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
  
  "Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis"
  
  The link below describes how some of those Democrats in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN. See: Wall Street Journal
  
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
  
  And here is Lou Dobbs reporting on ACORN corruption and ties to Obama, including Obama Campaign paying ACORN $800,000 for voter registration activities, and Obama representing them when he was a practicing attorney.
  
  http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/10/09/ldt.tucker.acorn.under.fire.cnn
  
  

• Posted By: DiamondJim @ 07/13/2008 10:11:36 AM

  Comment: Posted By: cutter37 @ 07/12/2008 7:54:01 PM
  Comment: If the Gov't. had never gotten into the social engineering business (promoting and pushing for everyone to own a home, many of whom should be apartment dwellers-not the end of the world you know) we might well of not had this "subprime" (read: poor risk) fiasco. Now the imbeciles in Congress conduct hearings to deflect blame from their own incompetence.
  
  I can't believe you so grossly misunderstand the "sub prime" lease fraud.
  "Sub Prime" mortgages existed not because of social engineering (some call it the "American Dream" and the maintenace of a healthy middle class that is the basis of our democracy) but due to greed, fraud and lack of adequate regulation. This is a product of a centerpiece of neo-conservatism, i.e., "DEREGULATION".
  This mess will now be dumped on the American people, not just in the loss of the "American dream" but by the assumed bailout og Ginnie May and Freddie Mac, adding ane estimated $5 trillion dollars to the national debt, which embarassingly was brought about during the 20 + year tenure of Republican "fiscal conservatives".
  Your "knee jerk" "blame the government"response shows that you have been properly brainwashed bt the "neo-cons"
  The "imbiciles in Congress were led by largely neo-con extremists.
  You are shooting youself in the foot.
  The answer is not so east as "blame the government" "That's just scapegoating".

• Posted By: Nins @ 07/13/2008 1:29:22 AM

  Comment: Know why McCain wants to distance himself from former Senator Phil Gramm? It's not because of Gramm's obnoxious remarks calling Americans "a nation of whiners" who are in "a mental recession." Those remarks were so ascerbic that they may've been made just to give McCain an excuse to distance himself from Gramm. This issue is a lot deeper than it looks on the surface.
  
  When Gramm was a Senator he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. He pushed through the legislation known as the "Enron Loophole." This loophole allowed US investment banks to bypass Federal regulations governing futures trading, and is the reason why investment banks were able to falsely inflate the prices of oil, wheat, corn and other commodities through massive futures trading, causing your costs of gas, heating oil and food to go through the roof.
  
  Gramm also created the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act, which got rid of the laws that seperate banking, insurance and brokerage activities in America. The Gramm Act was touted as a new way to protect consumer privacy, but the real meat on the Act's bones was banking deregulation. Essentially, this Act did away with laws written after the Great Depression to protect us from another Wall Street/Banking Industry collapse. That's right, Gramm stripped the system of it's safe guards nine years ago, and guess what? The value of the dollar has nose-dived, four major economic institutions have failed, Wall Street is unstable, and we are in a worsening recession.
  
  Notably, the US investment banks that gained the most from the Enron Loophole and from the Gramm Act contributed more than a million dollars to Gramm's campaign.
  
  Currently Gramm is Vice Chairman of UBS, the Swiss Bank that came up with the idea of "death bonds." Worse, though, UBS is involved in a scam where they sold auction rate securities to American customers. Auction rate securities are supposed to be as safe as cash, but the way UBS did it, the fees garnished by their in-house investment bankers were intentionally higher than the return on the securities, ripping off their American customers. The Massachusetts Attorney General has already filed charges against UBS, and private brokers world-wide have dropped UBS stock. UBS is forecasted to lose 82.91% of it's value in 2008. We are talking about the corporate bank where Gramm is Vice Chairman. Looking at his track record there and at the havoc he has wrought on the US economy through the Senate Banking Committee, it's clear that Gramm is a either criminal or grossly incompetent.
  
  Now McCain wants nothing to do with Gramm, wants us to forget Gramm has been a key player on McCain's team. Gramm was McCain's campaign CO-CHAIR and LEADING ECONOMIC ADVISOR. Previously, McCain had said that he planned to appoint Gramm as SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
  
  With Gramm as McCain's leading economic advisor, now you know why economists and analysts say that McCain's economic policy plans are untenable.