Posted on 09/08/2008 5:42:26 AM PDT by reaganaut1
"[The Obama campaign has] a huge problem with the mortgage and housing market story, and everyone is missing it," says a Republican political media consultant with ties to the Obama campaign due to the bipartisan nature of the firm he does work with.
"You look at Obama's economic advisers, the guys he has counted on from day one and who have raised him a ton -- and I mean a ton -- of money: Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of them are waist to neck deep in the mortgage debacle."
Both Raines and Johnson have served as CEO of Fannie Mae, with Raines taking over from Johnson. Both are key political and economic advisers to Obama.
"How can Obama go out with a straight face and saw it was Republicans who made this mess, when it is his key advisers who ran the agencies that made the big mess what it is?" says a Democrat House member who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "It's his people who are responsible for what may well be the single largest government bailout in history. And every single one of them made millions off the collapse that are lining Obama's campaign coffers. If the McCain campaign let's this one go, they deserve to lose."
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
In addition to Raines being neck deep in the Fannie Mae debacle, let’s not forget Gorelick.
He's got a point. Let's see if the Maverick is willing to shoot down the enemy when it's in distress.
Let us hope we have a GOP pitbull who will bring this up TODAY in the campaign and continue with it
Jim Johnson was selected by Obama to “vet” his VP
No DNC ownage of the GOP on the mortgage crisis, please
This information DEFINITELY needs to be brought squarely in front of the American electorate!!!
When I was young, jobs grown-ups had were doctors, plumbers, lawyers, dentists, stock brokers and so on. I had never heard of “Community Organizer” until this Presidential season. How does a Community Organizer get paid? How is this work relevant to current financial conditions?
The present subprime financial strains have as its genesis the policies promoted in the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), compliance with which is a prerequisite for financial institution innovation. The CRA requires the “[A]ppropriate Federal financial supervisory agency” to assess a financial institution’s record of “[m]eeting the credit needs of its entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods…” 12 U.S.C. § 2903. The supervising agency then, “[S]hall prepare a written evaluation of the institution’s record of meeting the credit needs of its entire community, including low-and moderate-income neighborhoods. 12 U.S.C. § 2906(a)(1). In this report, it assigns a rating of: “outstanding”; “satisfactory”; “needs to improve”; or “substantial noncompliance.” 12 U.S.C. 2906(b)(2).
Under the regulatory scheme, the FDIC assesses the CRA performance of a bank based upon lending, investment, and service tests. 12 CFR § 345.24(a)(1). The FDIC evaluates the performance of a bank in predetermined “assessment areas.” 12 C.F.R. § 345.41. The FDIC takes into account any views expressed by “interested parties” in considering CRA performance. 12 C.F.R. § 345.29(c).
Alternatively, financial institutions may submit a “strategic plan.” 12 C.F.R. § 345.27. As part of this submission, “[A] bank shall … [i]nformally seek suggestions from members of the public in its assessment area(s) covered by the plan while developing the plan.” 12 C.F.R. § 345.27(d)(1).
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, passed in 1999, makes the CRA ratings assigned by a supervising authority of critical importance to financial institutions. One of the reforms under Gramm-Leach-Bliley is the repeal of the depression era Glass-Steagall Act , which prohibited combining insurance and securities companies. However, under Gramm-Leach-Bliley, regulators may withhold authorization for a financial institution to enter into new lines of business, based upon its CRA ratings.
Thus, multi-billion dollar transactions may rise or fall based upon the input of “community organizations.” For example, Bruce Marks of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America won loan commitments totaling $3.8 billion from Bank of America, First Union Corporation, and the Fleet Financial Group in one city - Boston.
To move from the abstract to the concrete, we can look to, for example, a Sept. 20, 2004 press release, “Citigroup and ACORN Sign Groundbreaking Agreement to Expand Access to Financial Services in Communities Around the Country”. There Citibank touted that it and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) agreed to collaborate on several initiatives, including:
— Form an affordable mortgage-lending program between Citigroup and ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC) to develop a specialized mortgage product for all AHC’s homeownership centers, and make mortgages available to immigrants who have previously been shut out of credit markets. *** — Focus on community development lending to increase affordable housing in areas where the Citibank Community Development and ACORN footprints coincide. — Provide borrowers with access to the best combination of loan product, price, service, and attributes. — Establish a net-benefit test for real estate secured loans.
We now call real estate secured loans issued in compliance with these programs, “Subprime.”
Barak Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with ACORN. Acorn’s Madeleine Talbot first drew Mr. Obama into his alliance with ACORN. Toni Foulkes, a Chicago Acorn leader, has described that it specifically sought out Mr. Obama’s representation in a case it filed seeking to force the State of Illinois to comply with motor voter requirements. Mr. Foulkes likewise makes it clear that Mr. Obama’s post-law school role organizing “Project VOTE” in 1992 was undertaken in direct partnership with ACORN. Likewise, Mr. Obama’s volunteered his services yearly a key figure in Acorn’s leadership-training seminars. Furthermore, Obama’s service on the boards of Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation allowed him to help direct tens of millions of dollars in grants to various liberal organizations, including Chicago Acorn, whose endorsement Obama sought and won in his State Senate race.
So, the “Community Reinvestment Act” seeks input from “Community Organizers” like ACORN in rating financial institutions on their compliance in issuing subprime loans. Without satisfying “Community Organizers,” financial institutions cannot escape depression era restrictions on innovation. What is the price of this satisfaction? Today it seems to be the federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the cost of billions of taxpayer dollars.
The guy is a real light-weight to have him surrounded by these crooks. Serious lapses of judgment.
11 posted on Sunday, September 07, 2008 11:04:51 PM by Alia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2077248/posts
ACORN has all kinds of linked sisterhood-is-powerful organizations throughout the nation. ACORN’S “sister” in CA is Greenlining Institute. California’s Greenlining Institute: Arm-Twisting for Financial Affirmative Action By John Gizzi-—snip
The Greenlining Institute goes where the money is. Last month’s Foundation Watch described its role in promoting a philanthropy disclosure bill that prompted large private foundations in California to promise more grants for minority group nonprofits.
A master at shaking down deep-pocketed institutions, Greenlining ordinarily takes on banks and other financial institutions, pushing them to make more credit available to higher-risk, low-income homeowners and businesses, and its efforts may very well have contributed to the nation’s current economic problems.
—end snip
another snip; next article in the pdf:
-—snip
Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN and affiliated groups in 1999 and 2000, the New York Times reported July 9. Amazingly, Dale Rathke remained a paid employee of ACORN until June when word of the scandal broke in ACORN circles.
Meanwhile, the vote fraud specialists at ACORN have already gotten their fall vote fraud campaign underway. ACORN National President Maude Hurd said she did not believe a former employee in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who collected up to 150 questionable voter registrations, deliberately sought to register ineligible people. The excuse always seems to be that the worker was temporary.”
-—end snip
A must read article for those interested in seeing exactly what ACORN is; the following is a superb expose of ACORN, Greenlining, ad nauseum (the sister groups of ACORN through diverse states).
Published in 2004, The Manhattan Institute via Wall Street Journal:
Credit Where It’s Not Due, February 10, 2004, By Howard Husock
—snip
But the bank-haters — including activist groups like ACORN, the Greenlining Institute, and National Community Reinvestment Coalition, whose collective raison d’etre lies in the supposed market failure of the mortgage lending industry — don’t see all this as an advance at all. With HUD oversight, they pressure Fannie and Freddie not to purchase sub-prime loans, which are denounced as “predatory.” They have pushed a wave of “anti-predatory” lending legislation through state legislatures, based in such vague criteria that rating agencies, fearful of potential liability, have said they can’t rate the risk of mortgage bonds which include sub-prime loans. Were it not for the courageous decision by Comptroller of the Currency John Hawke to exempt nationally chartered banks from these state laws, sub-prime mortgage lending might well dry up. Mr. Hawke was undeterred by threats of lawsuits by Eliot Spitzer, and his Connecticut counterpart Richard Blumenthal.
—end snip
Ping!
Boss’Nass (sic) you know, Jar Jar binks’s big boss from Star Wars episode 1 would have handled it like this:
Boss: “Whossssa dissss?”
Jar Jar: “She’sa una maany peoples jusst triy’n to makin da payments boss”
Boss: “ Is Sheeesa underpilverraged?”
JarJar: “Yessum Big boss guy, wagen atun di miinium”
Boss: : “Maybee weesa being friennds”
Senator that is conservative: “But what of the people that have no ownership of thier own homes, or of those that do, but can barely keep up with thier payments, and would be hurt by paying extra taxes for this obvious bailout”
Boss: “Awaaaaaaay wit you”
Senator that is conservative: “Our societies are tied together, if this bailout proceeds, this in and of itself may pretty much guaruntee economic doom for all of us!”
Boss: “Blaa Blaaa Blaaaa Blaa Bla Bla bla bla bl bl bl bl bl”
90% of liberals oppose this bailout, 80% of conservatives do, but 100% of bankers support it, so it was unfortunately a done deal.
Interesting, not surprising but interesting.
Great post! Could you make it a standalone — post it as an article?
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