3
POPS Thomas Sowell Opines --- Do Facts Matter? So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago. Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter? We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't. Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter? Then there is the question of being against the "greed" of CEOs and for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis. Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines?
1
POPSNo.1 of the Fannie Five - Chris Dodd The Center for Public Integrity criticized Dodd for “being the leading advocate in the Senate on behalf of the accounting industry.” Political consultant and commentator Dick Morris wrote that Dodd had received more from accounting firm Arthur Andersen than any other Democrat and bore responsibility for trying to shield accounting firms from investor fraud liability in cases such as the Enron scandal. Arthur Anderson was forced to surrender its license to conduct CPA business in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dodd.
2
POPSDemocrat Fingerprints Are All Over The Financial Crisis ........under stricter regulatory control. In 2006, it was revealed that Fannie Mae had overstated its earnings – to which its senior executives' bonuses were linked – by a stunning $9.3billion. Between 1998 and 2003, Fannie Mae's executive chairman, Franklin Raines, picked up over $90m in bonuses and stock options. Yet Barney Frank and his chums blocked all Bush's attempts to put a rein on Raines. During the House Financial Services Committee hearing following Bush's initiative, Frank declared: "The more people exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness , the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury which I do not see. "There were nearly a dozen hearings where we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. Mr Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly at Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr Franklin Raines."
4
POPSBill Clinton Agrees That Democrats To Blame For Crisis Sept. 25, 2008, A Day That Will Be Recorded In History: With incentives in place, banks poured billions of dollars of loans into poor communities, often "no doc" and "no income" loans that required no money down and no verification of income. By 2007, Fannie and Freddie owned or guaranteed nearly half of the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market -- a staggering exposure. Worse still was the cronyism. Fannie and Freddie became home to out-of-work politicians, mostly Clinton Democrats. An informal survey of their top officials shows a roughly 2-to-1 dominance of Democrats over Republicans. Then there were the campaign donations. From 1989 to 2008, some 384 politicians got their tip jars filled by Fannie and Freddie: #1 Senator Dodd #2 Senator Obama
4
POPSObama - a popular Freddie Mac Senator Obama is in the top 4 of political contribution recipients from Freddie Mac. The other 3, also Democrats. Then add Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to the mix and it's very 'clear' how they blame the Bush administration for the debacle.
8
POPSMcCain's Version of 'Leadership' So basically, he had to rush off to Washington to keep a chair warm. Nice stunt. The piece goes on: Sen. Chris Dodd said, “Instead of being a rescue plan for our economy it was a rescue plan for John McCain .” Sen. Chuck Schumer urged Bush to “respectfully tell Sen. McCain to get out of town. He’s not helping .” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added, “We had Senator Bennett, a high ranking official, who said these are the principles. And then, guess who came to town? And it all fell apart.” Leadership? I don't think so.
1
POPSBush and Cronies in US Stock Market A 'stock' be created in a popular 'Market' place with holes to confine ankles and wrists of Bush and his cronies, for victims of their 'Stock Market' shenanigan to have a go to vent their feelings.
2
POPSThe Banking Bailout and Those Bells and Whistles 
It seemed like everyone was on the same page--it lasted for about 24 hours. But the funds are not uncontroversial and have been criticized as a method by which politicians can cater to special interests. The funds were set to receive funding from Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE ) in this summer's Housing Bill. The uncertainty over the funds is tied directly to the uncertainty with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which need new legislation from the next Congress. The Treasury program to buy equity and securities from Fannie and Freddie only lasts through 2009. Under the new proposal, however, the funds will be addressed now. Together they receive one-fifth of the profits from the Treasury's purchasing program. Of that fifth, 65% go to the Housing Trust Fund and 35% to the Capital Magnet Fund. The remainder of the profits would stay with the Treasury. Not exactly the clean and simple passage that everyone was talking about on Sunday morning.
0
POPSCROOKS Driving home from a meeting I heard Chris Dood in a news bite, saying something like - "Democrats are not about to sign off on this 700B bailout until we're assured that congress will have oversight." I cursed. "You MFCSMFF! You're a bigger crook than your old man!"
2
POPSWho Supported Fannie R E G U L A T I O N ? !! It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money:
0
POPSlawmakers promise fast action on bailout You can expect the bailout to cost many more times than even specified here, You see they have to prevent these falures before the FDIC insurance fund is used up then any new failures will be feed wolves. There saving favorites.
3
POPSDemocrats In Congress Eye Emergency Bailout — And More But that’s just a start. • Bankruptcy protection for homeowners. Some Democrats see this bill as a golden opportunity to renew their push.... • Social spending and infrastructure funds. The most liberal Democrats are pushing to have an economic stimulus package — with unemployment extensions, infrastructure spending and aid to states — tacked on to the bill. Democratic aides said that more stringent regulations and perhaps a crackdown on CEO compensation is a longer term discussion that may need to wait. • Foreclosure protection. Dodd was intentionally vague when he insisted on foreclosure protection for homeowners..... Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) said, “We have to communicate the fact that if the big guys fail, then your savings, your retirement, your mortgage will be in trouble.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, “It would be a huge problem if the package were used that way ,” Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said.
1
POPSSunday Clip - Who would I vote for? Ron Paul is leading with Australia at www.whowouldtheworldelect.com statistics below, with 1289 votes.. Check out your own country. See what nuts are not listed on the menu at westernfrontonline.net. I'd never heard of Jack Grimes till today nor United Fascist Union.
3
POPSBigPicture=Acorn+Fannie+SubPrimeGoneMad 1993,Congress gave Fannie and Freddie the go-ahead to finance it all by buying loans from banks, then repackaging and securitizing them for resale on the open market. "We have to use every means at our disposal to end discrimination and to end it as quickly as possible," Clinton's comptroller of the currency, Eugene Ludwig, told the Senate Banking Committee in 1993. Wall Street eagerly sold the new mortgage-backed securities. Not only were they pooled investments, mixing good and bad, but they were backed with the implicit guarantee of government.
6
POPSSen. Reid said ``no one knows what to do'' ``They already have the authority; it's just a question of moving it up a couple of years,'' House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, told reporters yesterday. ``We're trying to work that out.'' Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the Fed also has the power to buy and dispose of bad debt stemming from the subprime-mortgage crisis. ``The Fed has the authority to move in this area,'' Dodd told reporters in Washington. Creating a separate agency to take on bad debt, akin to the Resolution Trust Corp. set up in 1989 to absorb losses from savings-and-loan associations, would take about a year, he said. Instead, the Fed should use its own authority to act. ``The last thing you need,''Sen Isakson R-Ga, said, ``are 535 people, not many of whom are that well-versed in financial markets, trying to do quick fixes to a market correction that's one of the more significant that we've ever seen.''
0
POPSDemocrats: Fannie, Freddie And The Housing Crisis and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are GSEs. The GSEs give to Democrats primarily. Republicans tried to reform it, but got out lobbied every time. In 2005, Republican Mike Oxley, then chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, brought up a reform bill (H.R. 1461), and Fannie and Freddie's lobbyists set out to weaken it. The bill was rendered so toothless that Card promised to oppose it and Oxley pulled the bill instead. When there was a Republican Congress, Congressional leadership tried to do the right thing, but Fannie and Freddie's lobbyists picked off some weak Republicans. With a Democratic Congress, Fannie and Freddie just feed at the trough. Third, these guys are some of the most powerful figures in the Democratic lobbyist-operative firmament. Obama was forced to fire James Johnson, his first VP Vetter. Johnson had been CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson, while a consultant for Fannie and Countrywide, was passing out below market loans to Senator Dodd among others.
7
POPS The $4 Billion Senator Only last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced an investigation into the role of rumor-peddlers in the run on Bear Stearns. We somehow doubt that Mr. Schumer will receive similar SEC scrutiny for his very similar role in bringing about a liquidity crisis at IndyMac. But he may be more deserving. Last week, Mr. Schumer's Senate colleague Chris Dodd took the spotlight to insist that everything was fine, just fine, at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For how that turned out, see here. In its own way, Mr. Dodd's declaration was as irresponsible as Mr. Schumer's, given that its goal was to protect the companies from greater regulatory scrutiny of the kind long proposed by the Bush Administration. http://online.wsj.com/ Paulson's Fannie Test Mr. Schumer was not content merely to share his profound concern with regulators. He also leaked the June 26 letter to the press – which is more like shouting "fire" in a crowded bank than dialing 911.
1
POPSObama Should Follow Feingold
That’s bad — not just because Obama is putting politics ahead of principle, but because he’s calculating the politics wrong. As Feingold proved when he was overwhelmingly re-elected in a swing state in 2004, after casting the sole vote against the Patriot Act, standing strong for the Bill of Rights attracts rather than sacrifices votes. Even worse is the deceptive claim that the “compromise” on FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) reached by the Bush administration and congressional leaders allows for meaningful scrutiny. As Feingold says, “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the president’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the co
2
POPSObama Pro Quo Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who also chairs a subcommittee that oversees taxation and IRS oversight, had to donate $10,700 in loan savings from Countrywide when his deal came to light. Obama's veep vetter James Johnson quit after his Countrywide arrangement became known. Yet another Democrat's sweetheart mortgage deal is exposed — and this time it's the party's standard bearer. What could Sen. Barack Obama do for a lender in exchange for more than $100,000? Plenty. If Obama is animated by high ideals for the future, why are we finding so many lowdown deals in his past?
3
POPSHousing Bill Threatens Personal Privacy Email Petition The Senate is currently considering a $300 billion mortgage bailout for the riskiest borrowers and their banks. Recently, it was revealed that Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the primary architect of the compromise bill that ultimately ended up on the Senate floor, had received a special “VIP” loan from Countrywide Financial, which stands to be one of the primary beneficiaries of the bill. Unfortunately, the irresponsible economics and the VIP scandal are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bad policy in the mortgage bailout. Hidden within the bill is a provision added by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) that would greatly expand the power of the Internal Revenue Service to monitor what Americans buy online. Sen. Grassley’s provision would require the nation’s electronic payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.
4
POPSThree Broadcast Networks Earned A Big Fat Zero Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke also benefited, as did one prominent Republican — former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson. Shalala and Holbrooke had left public office when they got their deals. But it was reasonable for Mozilo to think they'd serve again in another Democratic administration. And what, many wonder, was the quid pro quo for all this? Just a month ago, in unusually harsh language, Dodd ripped into President Bush on the subprime mess and defended a $400 billion plan that would bail out the subprime lending industry — including Mozilo. The Democrats' initial response has been to stall. They hope the problem will disappear until after the election. They need to investigate it fully, immediately and without prejudice — or risk having it blow up in their faces.
3
POPS"Vetters" Search For Obama Veep Jones, a Vietnam vet born in Kansas City, MO (swing state alert!), was a career military officer rising to one of the highest posts possible. Being the least known potential veep, it shouldn't be surprising that the vetters have to spend more time on him in their various conversations on the Hill. But the fact that he's being, um, added to the very long short list, is an interesting development. Besides Jones, the other names on the list bandied about with congressional Dems include (and not in any order): Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius, Ted Strickland, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Jim Webb, Bill Nelson, Jack Reed, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Tom Daschle, and Sam Nunn. You'll notice a few names NOT on this list (that's not my exclusion -- hint hint). Besides Jones, I'm told the two other names that invited extended discussion were Biden and Strickland. Take this chatter for what it is -- chatter.
0
POPSTwo months paid vacation! The Family and Medical Leave Act is necessary, but needs adjustment so business leaders can be shown the same respect they show their employees.
1
POPSSenate's Wiretap Vote "The defeat of these antiwar amendments means the legislation now moves to the House in a strong position. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in the Dodd-Obama camp, but 21 Blue Dog Democrats have sent her a letter saying they are happy with the Senate bill. She may try to pass the restrictions that failed in the Senate, and Republicans should tell her to make their day. This is a fight Senator McCain should want to have right up through Election Day, with Democrats having to explain why they want to hamstring the best weapon -- real-time surveillance -- we have against al Qaeda."
0
POPSPut Me In Coach!
I've talked to a number of folks this week who are echoing some of the sentiments mentioned in this article from IndyStar.com about the Land of Indians actually getting to be a player in the selection of the Democratic nominee for President this year. People who I've known for a long time who I KNOW never vote in the primary are checking their voter registrations twice to make sure they are eligible to vote and are practically salivating at the prospect of having their vote count for something. My man Chris Dodd dropped out long ago so I am a bit less excited at getting to choose between the Exelon/Consolidated Edison candidate or the Walmart candidate. While every other Democrat I know are licking their chops in anticipation at having a Real! Live! Democrat! in the Carlyle Group Home on Pennsylvania Avenue in DC, I am beginning to get a sinking feeling in my gut that the next four years will be the wildest ride yet this nation has experienced regardless of the President's last nam
1
POPSBank Bailout Bill Begins
I did this big video job on 'Safety Training for Zookeepers, but to customer went broke because a tiger escaped and killed two people and they got sued. "We can't afford to pay for the safety film now," they said. I told the government and they said they would help and buy the video tapes from me. "We'll give you more money than you'd get if you erased the tapes and pay you to re-edit the film so it might be able to be shown on the Home Improvement Channel.: Nice government, I thought. They also give subsidies to Exxon, which declared today it made more money IN HISTORY than any US corporation. I'm glad they get the subsidies and glad the government gives me money in case any job falls through. So this 20-billion to the mortgage banks to pay off all their bad loans sounds like a good idea to me. Nice too that not only did they get big fees and resale profits on the bad loans but that now we can pay 'em to 'restructure,' the loans and sell them to us." (Note: I'm being
1
POPS FISA Debate Heats Up Dodd, Hard-Left Push For Filibuster Currently, that deal is scheduled to sunset in early February. The Democrats’ strategy is transparent. They realize their position underscores how weak they are on national security and how beholden they are to the CAIR/ACLU/MoveOn.org Left, which is more animated by the “rights” of terrorists than the lives of Americans. If they can con the Bush administration into accepting the 18-month extension, that takes the issue off the table for the 2008 election. Not only would Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama be able to avoid being accountable for their party’s unpopular position. The ducking would further help one of them win the presidency, whereupon she or he could help Democrats sculpt a more terrorist-friendly FISA in 2009, when no one is up for re-election and public scrutiny ebbs. h/t Andy McCarthy
2
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update