Barney Frank: Fannie and Freddie should get RISKY

The Examiner ^ | June 24, 2009 | Heather Hogue

[Heather Hogue]

The economy has tanked but a couple of Dems are determined to ensure that it’s sufficiently flushed down the toilet. Representatives Barney Frank and Anthony Weiner wrote a letter to the CEO’s of Freddie and Fannie, warning them their lending restrictions are too harsh.

[Cementjungle]

Isn’t that what started this mess in the first place (i.e. the CRA, subprimes, etc.)?

[duckman]

Words Fail Me.

[A CA Guy]

Franks and other Democrats made the mess a lot worse, but it started with Clinton in 1993.
Frank saw to it that unstable loans because a larger and larger portions of all loans made by government law.

Government caused this, not banks, Bush or financiers.

Loan requirements should be that people must qualify for the fully adjusted rates, not the teaser rates.
No more no look loans.

[ETL]

Media Mum on Barney Frank's Fannie Mae Love Connection:
Democratic House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute, 9/24/2008

excerpt...

"Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for the now-government controlled Fannie Mae. The column revealed the two had split up at the time but also said Frank was referring to Moses as his "spouse." Another Washington Post report said Frank called Moses his "lover" and that the two were "still friends" after the breakup.

Frank was and remains a stalwart defender of Fannie Mae, which is now under FBI investigation along with its sister organization Freddie Mac, American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) – all recently participants in government bailouts. But Frank has derailed efforts to regulate the institution, as well as denying it posed any financial risk."

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

Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest

By Bill Sammon, October 03, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."

A top GOP House aide agreed.

"C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws."

Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said recently.

Bill Sammon is FOX News' Washington Deputy Managing Editor.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,432501,00.html
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Rush Limbaugh's Barney Frank/"Banking Queen" parody of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" (fun-nee!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwVWXN0Pyq4

[ETL]

Isn’t that what started this mess in the first place (i.e. the CRA, subprimes, etc.)?

Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
_____________________________________________________

History of Fannie Mae scandal
"Fannie Mae announces its long-awaited restatement, erasing $6.3 billion in profit from 2001 through June 30, 2004."
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/12/07/history_of_fannie_mae_scandal/?page=1
_____________________________________________________

Bailout Politics: The Congressional Dems who enabled this crisis are now being trusted to fix it?
Thomas Sowell, September 30, 2008
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWE3OWU3OTExYzNlNTUzMzY2YmJmOWZjMzcwN2M1NjU=
_____________________________________________________

Guilty Party: ACORN, Obama, and the mortgage mess
Mona Charen, September 30, 2008
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzk4MmVkNzA1NGQ2NGRkZjQ2YjNmYjdlODZkMmQ4N2I=
_____________________________________________________

An ACORN Falls from the Tree: A congressional outrage
Ken Blackwell, September 29, 2008
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2Y5MTc0ZTAyMmE1Mjk3NGE3OWRiY2FkMjZlN2YxYzc=

[Nuc1]

Time to send Barney to Iran.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Bwany likes it rough w/o protection? Who knew! /s

[ronnie raygun]

One man I would love to see tar and feathered.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Frank gets risky? Or Fwank gets ‘whiskey’? But let’s not forget Weiner. Frank and Weiner get frisky.

[Hildy]

This is SO misleading...as I understand it, this has nothing to do with lending to people who are not credit worthy. Let me explain what's happening in the condo market...lenders have criteria that are very restrictive. If you want to buy into a condominium that has less than 70% OWNER occupancy, many lenders won't lend. Now, in this market, there are many many building where this is the case. It's a vicious cycle..if nobody can buy, how can you ever have 70% owner occupancy? And who suffers? The people who own because HOA dues aren't paid.

I'm telling you as a member of the board of a luxury condo complex that it just isn't right..or fair...for anyone. If I have the money and I meet all the criteria for the loan, then the loan should be made. The condo market is a disaster waiting to happen and unless these units can be sold, we are in for another huge market bust.

[Rickster GloucesterVA]

Let me ask (again)-

Has anyone ever seen Barney Frank and Elmer Fudd in the same room at the same time? Hmmm?

:-)

[MeekOneGOP]

RE: Bwanie Fwank:

Nothin’ a good KNUCKLE SANDWICH won’t fix!!!

[PhilDragoo]

Jail not bail for the shrieking fairy who blocked reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

[MeekOneGOP]

Amen!

I second that!

Throw him UNDER the jail!

[PhilDragoo]

Washington political discourse needs a new tone.

RICO-fruttis need to meet Mickey.

[MeekOneGOP]

Wow! That’ll TEACH ‘im !!! :^O