Posted on 09/15/2008 3:30:46 PM PDT by Wuli
The insane leader of the House of Representatives said today: "We Cannot Afford to Continue Failed Republican Economic Policies" referring to current problems in our financial markets; like the pending bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers - a leading Wall Street investment house.
And yet, Pelosi, by the facts, is nothing but a liar, as to whose "policies" have "failed".
Both the "sub-prime" crisis and many of its aftermaths are completely related to total lack of due diligence by Congress in their oversight role of Freddie and Fannie.
Since 2000, when Republican House leaders attempted major reforms of Freddie and Fannie it has been Democrats who have led in resisting those reforms. They have been assisted by everyone in Congress who has taken bribes (campaign contributions) from Freddie and Fannie, which was bi-partisan but overwhelmingly Democrat-leaning effort in the majority.
The lack of reforms allowed the spread between the liabilities and assets of Freddie and Fannie to grow exponentially, in favor of huge liabilities and declining real assets. It was a scenario that the Pelosi Liberals loved because they were using the risk of the taxpayers (who would be on the hook for Fred/Fan losses) to inflate the revenues and so-called "profits" of Freddie/Fanny, where they had appointed their liberal stalwarts as CEOs.
Without that increased and unsustainable risk allowed to Freddie and Fannie, they would not have been able to soak up the mortgages, the asset-inflated mortgages, lent in the real estate bubble. In fact, without the allowances, and lack of safeguards, given to Freddie and Fannie - favored by leading Democrats and opposed, more often, by some Republicans - it is unlikely that there would have been a real estate bubble. That bubble required Freddie and Fannie to assume most of the asset-inflated risk that the bubble needed - which they did; now, by themselves holding about 50% of all U.S. residential mortgages.
That - the greed and negligence of Freddie and Fannie - required the lack-of-due-diligence with the lack-of-moral-risk combination that only Freddie and Fannie possessed - lack of moral risk because their charter implies that it is the taxpayer who will assume their risk as the last resort.
The real-estate bubble, the sub-prime meltdown and many resulting issues stem from the Pelosi liberals with their love of government betrayal of markets, in institutions like Freddie and Fannie; followed by the lack of due-diligent oversight on those institutions.
And Lehman Brothers? Without a Freddie/Fannie allowed to have 50% of U.S. mortgage liabilities against less than $100 billion in real assets, with the implied guarantee that the U.S. government would not let Freddie/Fannie fail, there would have been no such huge amount of asset-inflated mortgage-backed securities, or asset-inflated Freddie/Fannie stock in the "financial system".
Should we cry for Lehman? No.
We should cry for the U.S. government and the American people because the U.S. House of Representatives is led by such a liar as Pelosi, when it comes to the foundation of the current financial crisis. It's her and Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and Barack Obama - and all the major players who took major bribes from Freddie and Fannie and failed to reign in the excesses of the risks they were taking; excesses that made the real-estate bubble possible; excesses that provided the means with which to securitize the asset-inflated sub-prime bubble; excesses that could not have been sustained in their size without the congressionally allowed risk-leniency given Freddie and Fannie.
The failures in our financial system stem from real estate mortgage problems that stem from liberals like Pelosi refusing to reign in the risk excesses of Freddie and Fannie. That's a failure of Democrats economic policies, not Republicans.
W pushed home ownership, too, as well as government growth, and a weak dollar that led to higher prices for oil and other commodities.
It’s time to IMPEACH PELOSI and the democratic congress, because they will not help the American people by allowing a DRILL BILL that WORKS...what they are offering is for us to drill in places there is NO OIL, even offshore.
I blame both sides in Congress for forcing banks to lend mortgage money to those least able to pay it back. I lay it at the feet of Congress that our banks tried to sell off the bad loans in packages overseas. (If you had made these loans would you wait for the borrowers to default? I think not.)The present destruction and rubble on the financial highways of America and the world are caused by the US Congress messing with the system.
Why doesn’t McCain, when pushed by Obama about being another Bush, proclaim that Obama voted with the Dem leaders 92% of the time?
“W pushed home ownership, too, as well as government growth, and a weak dollar that led to higher prices for oil and other commodities.”
The Fed only made interest rates low. It alone did not make the housing bubble. That needed what only too-risky rules given to Freddie and Fannie could provide - a buyer for the bulk of the asset-inflated mortgages. Republican leaders n the House, beginning in 2000 tried to head that off.
One need only look at the Freddie and Fannie bribes paid to Congress (more than 75% to Dims), and to the major Dim leaders who blocked reforms - Dodd and Frank - to understand that Freddie/Fannie problems were enabled, with true negligence, by Democrat leaders and the current problems in the “financial system” stem from the problems inside Freddie and Fannie - which are irrespective of the value of the dollar.
What’s the source of this op-ed? Is this a vanity, er what?
When you dig into how he whole works - the entire mortgage business - the excesses and their scale were only made possible by how far stretched, between assets and liabilities that Freddie and Fannie were allowed to become; which was only possible because when the warning signs were there the Democrats refused the reforms that would have limited the risks of Freddie and Fannie (which would have vastly limited where the real-estate bubble could market most of it’s mortgages).
Rush mentioned on his show today that the 2 biggest political contributors that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave to were: 1) Chris Dodd - connecticut (see FR about low interest loan he got on a house) and SURPRISE? 2) Barack O’Bama!
If Pelosi really cares, why is she not calling for a massive investigation of the failed financial institutions?
What’s the source of this thing? Is it a vanity?
Before this is over she may be begging to be let into prison.
McCain should be putting out ads now connecting the Pelosi-Reid Congress with the Obama economic solutions and mocking them. It would do what in ‘94, Newt did, by nationalizing the election. The economic messes are part and parcel a Dem problem as well as a Bush or Clinton or a Reagan problem. And it is tax hikes, regs. that should be exposed by those ads.
“Source” in terms of who wrote it, yes, a “vanity” which I did select (but I guess I forgot to put “vanity” in the title).
As far as the facts - the current history record, even in the LameStream Media has the Dim’s role in the Freddie/Fannie crisis, and how that crisis IS the origin of the financial crisis.
McCain should be putting out ads now connecting the Pelosi-Reid Congress with the Obama economic solutions and mocking them. It would do what in ‘94, Newt did, by nationalizing the election. The economic messes are part and parcel a Dem problem as well as a Bush or Clinton or a Reagan problem. And it is tax hikes, regs. that should be exposed by those ads.
McCain should be putting out ads now connecting the Pelosi-Reid Congress with the Obama economic solutions and mocking them. It would do what in ‘94, Newt did, by nationalizing the election. The economic messes are part and parcel a Dem problem as well as a Bush or Clinton or a Reagan problem. And it is tax hikes, regs. that should be exposed by those ads.
How ‘bout we can’t afford a crazy grandma two steps away from the presidency and her bony finger on the button. She’s an old lady who’d be better off baking cookies for her five, surely neglected-by-their-grandma grandkids. Can’t even get her own religion right, her approval rating literally can’t go lower without hitting the negatives, she talks about how we need to follow an energy policy that she will personally make lots of profits from, and to top it off, she’s just a big bag of fluffy crap.
I love using liberal smear tactics back on them.
Great post, Wuli!
You have written an excellent summary of the financial situation.
It is a pity that the pop media personalities are either too ignorant or too partisan to report it as you have so well put it.
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