The new budget offer from the White House is unbelievable!

reply to post by sheepslayer247


Fannie and Freddie weren't forced. Barney Frank and others knew exactly what they were doing.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


They have no intention of paying down the debt on their watch. They might have to cut some funds to their criminal friends on Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex.

Neither side is being reasonable. They are both aiming for the endzone and a "Hail Mary" to win the ballgame...and the final score will end up 0 to 0.

This is not why we elect people. Well...this is not why I voted. I voted to get people to work together to solve problems...even when we might not like the solutions, something has to be done.

Or...maybe not. Maybe these boneheads know something that we don't and they just use this stuff to scare us back into our cages...I do not know anymore.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

There's something wrong with that guy Geithner, I don't like him and from what I've gathered he has a very shady background. Obama should have replaced him a long time ago.

Also, their bid to increase taxes on the wealthiest is a political sham, because simply closing loopholes and limiting deductions would be sufficient to raise all the revenue from the rich they would need ie: Romney paid only 14% on annual earnings in excess of 10 mil. Got those folks paying closer to 30, like everyone else, would take care of it.

Sad to see the Whitehouse playing political jeopardy with the financial well being of the nation.

reply to post by macman


If you are referring to Dodd-Frank, it wasn't passed until 2010.

Fannie and Freddie only became a problem in 2005/2006 when they began to make subprime loans because they were losing market share to private banks that did not have to operate under ethical codes of conduct. So they followed suit.

After they realized the implications of such bad loan practices...they stopped. But it was too late and they quickly became a scapegoat for the corporate lenders. Two men in particular that worked hard to pass this BS into accepted mantra was Peter Wallison and Ed Pinto at the American Enterprise think-tank (a conservative group)

So I fail to see how Barney Frank really has anything to do with it..

reply to post by sheepslayer247


2003 by Barney Frank
In 2003, Frank also stated what has been called his "famous dice roll":[48] "I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness [in the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that we have in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidised housing.

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
reply to post by macman

 

It depends on the context in which Fannie/Freddie become such a problem. Was it because they were giving out bad loans, or were they sunk down by the government forcing them to buy-up bad mortgages from the corporations that would have just foreclosed on people....instead of working with them?

What's the saying: "privatize profits and socialize debt"?

Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial and housing crisis; meltdown

youtu.be...



Community Reinvestment Act
en.wikipedia.org...

Regulatory changes 1995

In July 1993, President Bill Clinton asked regulators to reform the CRA

youtu.be...

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I think you are correct. Raising taxes on the rich will not close the deficit. They are just doing it to make the vanishing middle class feel better...like everyone is equally suffering...whatever.

Raising taxes, closing loop holes and reducing deductions is only part of the answer. The out of control spending has to be addressed. I'm not talking about the precious "entitlements"...I'm talking about the enormous cost of bureaucracy, the pork projects, the "glad handing" to lobbyists...etc...etc...etc.

There is a reason a hammer cost $150.00 dollars...it's because the request to buy said hammer has to be passed through 15 different hands so they can all feel special and give it their approval...just buy the damn hammer....

reply to post by macman


This statement has been thrown around many times by those against Barney Frank, and a quick google search will show you just how many times this statement is used....but taken out of context.

He was referring to subsidized housing and how Fannie/Freddie would be the place best suited to take a chance on much needed subsidezed housing for the poor.

Most importantly, this has nothing to do with loan practices that took place in 2005/2006, as this statement was made in 2003.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Ouch, this is gonna hurt.

A tactic to dwell even more in depts? Do they know that "debt" means "minus" something, not "gain" something"?

republicans blocked universal health care, repubs block everything good for the environment...look at the voting record in the house...

repubs blocked everything good for Humanity and Mother Earth...



Truth is Truth.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Again, the CRA was not a player in the housing market troubles. It was not until the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act repealed Glass-Steagal were any banks or government entities allowed to make subprime loans. Fannie/Freddie were only part of the scam for 2 years and were still in good shape until they were forced to digest billions of bad debt from corporations.

By the way, if you watch the Britt Hume video...he contradicts himself and has to use special wording to imply Fannie/Freddie were the problem, but also admits that other lenders are at fault as well. Why is that not discussed?

Tim Geithner Covers for Corruption On Pennsylvania Avenue
www.forbes.com...
Last Friday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner charged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that those who oppose the Obama Administration’s regulatory regime for the financial services industry “seem to be suffering from amnesia about how close America came to complete financial collapse under the outdated regulatory system we had before Wall Street reform.” Au contraire, Secretary Geithner, it is you who choose to ignore and misrepresent the lessons of the financial crisis by perpetuating the myth that the source of the crisis was a lack of regulation.

First, your essay glosses over the central role the federal government played in creating the crisis. In particular, the government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac directed $5.2 trillion (that is trillion with a “t”) of capital to increase the supply of mortgages. In addition, it passed a law that required banks to make billions of dollars in loans to individuals that were unlikely to pay off the loans, in the end with 0% down.

In 1998, Fannie Mae announced it would purchase mortgages with only 3% down. And, in 2001, it offered a program that required no down payment at all. Between 2001 and 2004, subprime mortgages grew from $160 billion to $540 billion. And between 2005 and 2007, Fannie Mae’s acquisition of mortgages with less than 10% down almost tripled. These loans are now known as “subprime” and “alt A” loans. At the time they were made, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac encouraged their issuance by lowering their standards and buying them up from the now vilified mortgage brokers, S&Ls, banks and Wall Street investment banks.

store food

reply to post by Jeremiah65



It truly is a mess.

I can't even wrap my mind around it anymore it is so convoluted.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I'm damn near the point of saying...

Screw it, let's jump off the cliff already.

Maybe the house should burn down. It's ridden with termites and dry rot alraedy. We can build another after all is said and done.

And we won't have those pesky Democrats (Termites) and Republicans (Dry-rot) getting in the way.

This is the exact attitude to have at this moment in time.

All in this age must learn to agree with this view in order to live into the Kingdom of God. Just replace "we can build another..." with "God will build another..."

The kingdoms of this age must collapse for the Kingdom of God to reign, all mankind must learn beyond the shadow of a doubt that all of mankinds systems of governement fail at creating peace among men long term. Only God's governement can produce everlasting peace. This is the greatest witness of this age, we are wrong; God is right.

Thy Kingdom come...thy will be done on Earth

God Bless,

Obama is educated on constitutional law. How can he even endorse such a proposal? It is obvious that for many terms TPTB are attempting to dismantle constitutional guards and funnel power to the executive aka tyranny/dictatorship.

TPTB are not worried about the debt. They have us arguing over a fraudulent debt which has been designed to cause systemic failure. They are just trying to scare you into pushing for them to give up constitutional safeguards in the name of saving us from financial destruction.

This is the Hegelian dialectic at play here people.

Originally posted by cornucopia
republicans blocked universal health care, repubs block everything good for the environment...look at the voting record in the house...

repubs blocked everything good for Humanity and Mother Earth...



Truth is Truth.

The truth is that partisanship is what got us here and it took both sides to make it. Dems have screwed us to the wall and Republicans have made sure we got sent the bill for the drill and screws used to do it. It's really a joint effort all the way, as it's becoming clearer and clearer.

Personalities play a role, and Timmy Geithner needs some of that unemployment he's been a chief part of causing here lately. Harvard has a fine business and economics school. Surely Obama can call on alum to serve the role with true background and education on the topic for Secretary of the Treasury. ....If he wanted to.

This is what we get though:

President Obama and House GOP leaders promised greater efforts to step back from the partisan brink Friday, acknowledging that Washington's toxic political climate has made it increasingly tough to tackle major problems.

The pledge was immediately called into question, however, as the two parties repeatedly expressed sharply differing viewpoints during a rare meeting at a House Republican retreat in Baltimore.

Obama accepted an invitation from House GOP leaders to address their caucus. His speech Friday was followed by an often pointed question-and-answer session.

Source - CNN


Now, It's Friday, Nov 30 2012. When would you guess that article is dated? Might it surprise you to know that was reported on events which happened in 2010? Bipartisanship worked so well...Didn't it? Both sides sounded so sincere about wanting to find it. Both sides killed it where it stood and had the scraps for dinner or something because not a shred could be found over the past couple years.

Now it's not Health Care, it's 4 different bad things independently coming together in January to cause a 'Cliff', and the best Treasury comes up with is more of the same same and a new twist of just doing away with those silly limits on debt spending?

Umm.. Yeah.. There are NO partisans in office who aren't to blame at some level, but there are individual people who shoulder more than others to be sure. Geithner looks about as proper a fit in his job as that idiot Press Secretary Carney. Some changes in human resources might be a great start to a second term.

(Self Snipped - Related to material since removed)