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The Real Culprits In This Meltdown
IBD Editorials ^ | September 15, 2008

Posted on 09/15/2008 5:21:16 PM PDT by Kaslin

Big Government: Barack Obama and Democrats blame the historic financial turmoil on the market. But if it's dysfunctional, Democrats during the Clinton years are a prime reason for it.


Obama in a statement yesterday blamed the shocking new round of subprime-related bankruptcies on the free-market system, and specifically the "trickle-down" economics of the Bush administration, which he tried to gig opponent John McCain for wanting to extend.

But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but "predatory."

(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banks; clinton; corruption; economicpolicy; economy; elections; govwatch; housingbubble; liberalism; marxism; obama; socialism; subprimelending
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To: ConservativeMind
Thank you, President Clinton.

Thank You, President Clinton, for 911, China Gate and all the other scandals that will prove your evil/corrupt/treasonous legacy, (the full impact of which has not been realized yet), but one by one will come to full realization, someday soon.



Stupid-AssCrats……………Lots of Baggage!
21 posted on 09/15/2008 5:57:58 PM PDT by knyteflyte3 (Freedom is not for FREE)
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To: Kaslin

While we are searching for who to blame, how about those expensive and expansive oversight committees of Congress? Where in the hell have they been? Out to lunch, as usual, too busy with re-election campaigns, increasing their own power and wealth, to spend any quality time on “the people’s business”. Every single one of these political hacks should be dragged from their offices and given some street justice.


22 posted on 09/15/2008 5:58:54 PM PDT by Czar ((Still Fed Up to the Teeth with Washington))
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To: Czar

If some Congress doesn’t start sending a few of the criminals like Gore lick to Justice for prosecution, the democrat program for racking taxpayer dollars off via graft then taxpayer paying the bill will get much worse. This Republic cannot survive the type of criminal work the clinton era embedded in the taxpayer supported enterprises like Fannie and Freddie.


23 posted on 09/15/2008 6:09:14 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Kaslin; TigerLikesRooster
There are bunches of culprits in this story, but William O'Neil founder of IBD was a principal beneficiary of and participant in the great pump and dump momentum investing at 50 and 100 times earnings movement that became known as the dot com bubble.

So, lots of finger pointing is in order, but fingers could be pointed at this corner as well as away from it.

24 posted on 09/15/2008 6:13:14 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: xcamel
Great article, including this tidbit:

Investigators found that of the $90.12 million Raines was paid in that six-year period, more than $52 million came from EPS bonuses...Gorelick’s situation was similar. OFHEO found that she took home $26.46 million in the period from 1998 to 2002 (she left in that year, so she wasn’t there for the entire period under investigation). Of that figure, nearly $15 million came from EPS bonuses.

Nice.

25 posted on 09/15/2008 6:16:08 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

It has not gotten nearly enough coverage here on FR


26 posted on 09/15/2008 6:19:38 PM PDT by xcamel (Conservatives start smart, and get rich, liberals start rich, and get stupid.)
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To: Kaslin

Believe it or not, the following Washington Post story lays the blame on the Dems and the Clinton administration (sort of, lol).

Miracles never cease/s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302638.html

Excerpt:

In October 1992, a brief debate unfolded on the floor of the House of Representatives over a bill to create a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On one side stood Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican concerned that Congress was “hamstringing” this new regulator at the behest of the companies.

He warned that the two companies were changing “from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the stockholding few.”

On the other side stood Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who said the companies served a public purpose. They were in the business of lowering the price of mortgage loans.

Congress chose to create a weak regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The agency was required to get its budget approved by Congress, while agencies that regulated banks set their own budgets. That gave congressional allies an easy way to exert pressure.

“Fannie Mae’s lobbyists worked to insure that [the] agency was poorly funded and its budget remained subject to approval in the annual appropriations process,” OFHEO said more than a decade later in a report on Fannie Mae. “The goal of senior management was straightforward: to force OFHEO to rely on the [Fannie] for information and expertise to the degree that Fannie Mae would essentially regulate itself.”

ASSHATS!


27 posted on 09/15/2008 6:22:05 PM PDT by khnyny ("The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.")
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To: ConservativeMind

Well lets not forget that program Bush endorsed to help minorities buy homes. This also helped the current mess.


28 posted on 09/15/2008 6:23:13 PM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: Kaslin

bttt......


29 posted on 09/15/2008 6:24:48 PM PDT by knyteflyte3 (Freedom is not for FREE)
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To: knyteflyte3

bttt...


30 posted on 09/15/2008 6:27:50 PM PDT by knyteflyte3 (Freedom is not for FREE)
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To: brydic1
You're right - not looking good at all in Asia.


31 posted on 09/15/2008 6:45:00 PM PDT by library user
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To: Kaslin
FANNIE-GATE

Post HERE

32 posted on 09/15/2008 6:54:58 PM PDT by paul in cape
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To: EyeGuy

The Democrats have bought the African-Americans off, and are trying to buy everyone else off. It seems everyone voting Democrat have their hands out for something.

The people not working want free money, the pedophiles and homos want more rights and the pacifists want peace at any price.


33 posted on 09/15/2008 7:00:01 PM PDT by Charles N
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To: xcamel

Actually there has been much coverage of Fannie Mae bonuses and irregular accounting practices. The millions that Raines and Gorelick is astounding.

Gorelick, in particular, seems to be everywhere. The 9/11 commission, Fannie Mae, and more recently the Duke lacrosse lawsuits. She is a big buddy of Steele who just took over at Wachovia. That is very disturbing. Maybe she’ll clean up more millions if Steele takes Wachovia down.


34 posted on 09/15/2008 7:06:58 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: Kaslin
[and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions.]
 
I'll take "Predatory U.S. Ambassadors to the Netherlands" for $1000, Jack.
 
Surely Roland Arnal, the "Godfather of Subprime", and owner of Ameriquest had a teensy weensy bit to do with creating this fiasco?
 
Now, repeat after me:
"This was a Bi-Partisan Charlie Foxtrot"
"This was a Bi-Partisan Charlie Foxtrot"
"This was a Bi-Partisan Charlie Foxtrot"
 
 
So, Instead of trying to see if any political milk can be squeezed out of the dead sub-prime cash cow...
 
 
 
 
 
Let's just move on and try to ensure this never happens again, shall we? 
 

35 posted on 09/15/2008 7:31:41 PM PDT by LomanBill (A bird flies because the right wing opposes the left.)
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To: Kaslin
The Real Culprits In This Meltdown

Well, the real fact remains that, through Clinton, a huge transfer of wealth has occurred. And isn't that what Clinton and Marxists like Obama wanted to begin with? Clinton was successful during his 2 terms at dong his part, and now Obama wants to outdo Clinton.

If people who couldn't afford mortgages are bailed out, which apparently they will, then they will have obtained a huge government benefit or transfer of wealth, which those "homeowners" didn't know they had coming.

Slick Willy pulled a slick one over on the American people. And Obama promises to be even slicker.
36 posted on 09/15/2008 7:43:12 PM PDT by adorno
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To: Kaslin
Ya know, Clinton was just another career politically hack, but there should come a day when some of the people here should stop blaming Clinton. It's almost 8 years now since this fat nosed liar held office.

Our leadership from the top down *reeks*.

37 posted on 09/15/2008 7:44:55 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: Evil Slayer
I think Bush should address the Nation from the Oval Office and do the FDR speech. “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself”.

No, his speech should be about how this country and the world have finally run out of "greater fools", so we should all stop hoping for something for nothing.

38 posted on 09/15/2008 7:54:26 PM PDT by Theophilus (Abortion: 9/11 Every Single Day)
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To: AndyJackson

Perhaps so, but monkeying with the banking system seems much more egregious. How many taxpayer bailouts happened when the tech bubble burst?


39 posted on 09/15/2008 8:02:49 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (Happiness is a choice!)
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To: Trailerpark Badass
How many taxpayer bailouts happened when the tech bubble burst?

Ah you see, if you were not paying attention, that Greenspan dropped interest rates and started pumping the real estate bubble in order to offset the deflationary effects of the dot com bubble. So, it is all connected together under the whole package of loose monetary policy.

40 posted on 09/15/2008 8:57:56 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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