Weisberg: What Kind of Capitalism Is This? | Newsweek Newsweek Voices - Jacob Weisberg

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Posted By: melpol @ 10/09/2008 8:29:05 PM

Television viewers have their mind on sex. It has become a question of the better bed partner---Obama or McCain? Its not what you say but the way that you say it---youth always says it better. Obama will slip and slide into the #1 bedroom. Call it a landslide if you want to be discreet.

The government is now giving away the treasury to banks in the hope that they will have more to lend the borrower. That is a great way to stimulate the economy as long as the banks make all of the potential borrowers eligible for a big fat loan. The only problem is that the banks will go bust again when most of the big fat loans are not repaid. But the problem will be solved when Uncle Sam comes to the rescue and bails out the banks for a second time. There must have been an economic genuis that devised this theory to keep us all happy. It is deserving of a Nobel Prize.

I have lost everything including my live in girlfriend. My portfolio was worth over three million dollars only four years ago---now it is worthless. My creditors have been hounding me day and night and I had to disconnect my phone service in order to get some sleep. All I am left with is savings of less than 75 hundred dollars. I blame my stock broker for advising me to invest all my hard earned money in the auto industry and even my car needs a new transmission. Instead of me weeping I have started over again by mopping floors in the local fast food restaurant. We all learn from experience and what I learned is to keep my money under the mattress.

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Posted By: doggon @ 10/07/2008 6:08:03 PM

with less then 30 days left before elections BUSH finally got the country going in the right direction.

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Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/07/2008 12:05:40 PM

The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

Then there is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd who allegedly got special mortgage deals from Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to 'friends' of company's chairman.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25140560/

For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

"House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive."

The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And then there is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm.

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm.

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Posted By: Tea6 @ 10/06/2008 11:44:33 AM

Good thing we passed that bailout bill.
Otherwise the stock market would drop below 10,000 and people will lose trillions in their 401ks.
Opps, did not work.

Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/05/2008 2:32:18 AM
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Obama is getting a bump out of this because people are not being reminded of the whole history where the economy is concerned, and who did what when. Call it bias by omission. The media simply says that the economy is Obamas strong issue, but never discusses the facts in detail. Further, who had a majority when is rarely relevant. If the simplistic Party In Power model were true, then the Democrats would not have needed the House Republicans when they tried to pass the bailout bill, as Democrats have the majority in both houses and there is no threat of a veto. In theory, they do not need the Republicans to vote at all. In fact, something like twelve (12) Democrats from Barney Franks own banking committee voted against the bill. Obviously, it is not so simple and the media does the voter a disservice by doing little more than reinforcing the error. A similar argument would be to say that the economy appeared to be doing fine until the Democrats took over control of Congress and the power of the purse, then it tanked. As an aside, the media also misleads regarding the Clinton economy when they fail to mention that it also ended in a recession, requiring the first round of Bush stimulus checks immediately after he took office..

Do Obama and the Democrats deserve a lift in the polls as a result of the financial and mortgage problems? The answer from history is a clear NO. Here's the lead of a New York Times story on September 30, 1999: Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending [link below]. That's 1999 folks. Clinton Administration, I believe.

Here's the lead of a New York Times story on Sept. 11, 2003: The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. [see link below]

McCain said in co-sponsoring the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190: If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole.

What was Barney Frank and fellow Democrats saying at the time of these attempted reforms? According to reports, Representative Barney Frank(D-MA) claimed of the thrifts "These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing." Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) added of the reforms "I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing." [ See Community Reinvestment Act, link below w/ history]

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Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/05/2008 2:32:07 AM

The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

???House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive.???

The last link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN. See:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=M2QwNDhkZTg2OGYzZjkzM2E2NDEwM2U5OGVkNTc0YzU=

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260

http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080926