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The Real Culprits In This Meltdown
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY ^ | Monday, September 15, 2008

Posted on 09/16/2008 9:10:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin

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."

Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the '90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: clintonlegacy; corruption; economy; elections; govwatch; housingbubble; marxism; obama
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"Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government's fingerprints all over it."
1 posted on 09/16/2008 9:10:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

bookmark


2 posted on 09/16/2008 9:12:07 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: BenLurkin

november 12, 1999.


3 posted on 09/16/2008 9:12:10 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: BenLurkin
Barack Obama's ACORN was instigating it all.
4 posted on 09/16/2008 9:14:30 PM PDT by unspun (Mike Huckabee: Government's job is "protect us, not have to provide for us.")
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To: BenLurkin
The root cause of todays destruction is the reckless blame game fighting over what ought to be bipartisan matters of simple economic competence.

Throw all the bombs you like in either direction, and the result will be utter poverty for all concerned.

For the love of God, stop treating this as just another occasion for reckless political hate, and put the country first for once in your lives.

5 posted on 09/16/2008 9:15:00 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: BenLurkin

Will people like Paulsen, McCain, and the remaining congressional Republicans have the courage to tell this to a Democrat congress and Democrat presidential candidate... or will they cave entirely and parrot the Democrat party line?


6 posted on 09/16/2008 9:17:29 PM PDT by dr_who
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To: BenLurkin

When the gov’t gets involved in trying to encourage markets to ignore the tried and true economic rules (in favor of “social engineering”)that have stood it in good stead for decades, you get this present fiasco.

Once again the “Law of Unintended Consequences” is on display for all to see.


7 posted on 09/16/2008 9:19:21 PM PDT by MCCRon58 (Freedom does not mean you are free from the consequences of your own freely made decisions.)
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To: BenLurkin
And the worst is far from over. By the time it is, we'll all be paying for Clinton's social experiment, one that Obama hopes to trump with a whole new round of meddling in the housing and jobs markets. In fact, the social experiment Obama has planned could dwarf both the Great Society and New Deal in size and scope.

Dear Lord help us in our hour of need...

8 posted on 09/16/2008 9:19:53 PM PDT by Ronzo (Poetry can be a better tool of understanding than tedious scribblings of winners of the Noble Prize)
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To: JasonC
First of all...it's not that bad.

Second..let the truth be told. Truth is a good thing.

Finally...those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. SO let's learn from it and not trust government again with these types of matters.

In the meantime, while panic mongerers are wringing their hands, the Federal government is taking steps to insinuate itself into industries where it has no business — and can only do harm in the long term.

9 posted on 09/16/2008 9:21:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin (.)
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To: ken21

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

Info on CRA


10 posted on 09/16/2008 9:26:25 PM PDT by Noswad
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To: MCCRon58

Exactly. Government intervention coupled with corporate greed and individual greed and ignorance is a toxic cocktail which we will all drink.


11 posted on 09/16/2008 9:27:01 PM PDT by berdie
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To: BenLurkin
This is only part of the story.

It is amazing that despite the mortgage crisis, and despite $4.50 diesel that this economy has still managed to grow.

The rest of the story requires following the money. Who was running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the ground? Who was receiving the largest infusions of campaign funds from those entities? Now those responsible are trying to step away from the problem and blame the Administration.

Gee, I can't wait to see how much more they can screw up the energy policy of this country.

12 posted on 09/16/2008 9:27:06 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Noswad

thanks.

>Racial inequities in mortgage acceptance rates (as reported by Inner City Press, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, ACORN and other groups) are cited as a primary reason to maintain or even increase the scope of the CRA.<


13 posted on 09/16/2008 9:27:54 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: USNBandit

>It is amazing that despite the mortgage crisis, and despite $4.50 diesel that this economy has still managed to grow.<

you’re right!

amazing.

liberal-socialism acts like a brake on a car going 60 mph; if they didn’t destroy incentive and production, we’d be unstoppable!

po’ folks would be driving mercedes.


14 posted on 09/16/2008 9:29:56 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: BenLurkin
This is the scum-sucking Leftists' PLAN. No matter what "party" they belong to.

Threaten private business with taxes and regulations if they don't toe the line.

When the bottom falls out, blame said private business for doing what the Beltway Scumsuckers, made them do.

They ought to all be [can't say that here; I value this forum].

15 posted on 09/16/2008 9:35:26 PM PDT by FlyVet
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To: BenLurkin

Rush: “You would not believe the extent to which Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae existed to prop up liberal Democrat politicians and their favored agencies and organizations and PACs. It’s just stunning. Obama is number two, Chris Dodd is number one, Hillary ranks pretty high up there as well. But they better be careful here because it is clear — you know, we started yesterday talking about all this, and the thing that’s going on here with the financial markets and the housing market, this was not the result of a failure of capitalism.”

This was a result of too much government involvement. Government gets involved in this stuff, uses these instruments for their own pleasure and their own survival, and when things go south, they blame capitalism and say we need new regulation. Investor’s Business Daily today with a couple of great editorials on this, we’ll get to them in just a second. One of them really takes it to the Clinton administration for getting involved in the whole process of making sure that people who could never pay back a mortgage were given mortgages in the first place. Carly Fiorina was on David Gregory’s show on MSNBC last night, and Gregory said, “Is it inconsistent to say that McCain believes in more regulation and federal bailout, and still talk about belief in free markets?”

FIORINA: I think you are confusing John McCain’s positions by painting it as hands-off, free market laissez-faire. I think that has been perhaps true of the Bush administration the last four years in terms of a Wild, Wild West with no regulation, but it is definitely not what John McCain believes. I think the better model for John McCain is Teddy Roosevelt, who believed that there was a robust role for government. And John McCain has consistently believed there is a role for government, a role for government is to make sure that institutions are accountable and transparent. But he also has said that, if anyone, Fannie and Freddie frankly shouldn’t exist as government entities, that the role to support the mortgage market is not something that the federal government and the American taxpayer should guarantee.

RUSH: Now, most of that’s right on the money. But there’s something in there that is off target. Why bash Bush here when all of these regulations and all of these screw-ups originated with Democrats, when Democrats have their hands in the till on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. I understand they’ve gotta distance themselves from Bush because the Democrats are running out saying McCain is just another four years of Bush and so forth, but this is a gratuitous attack on Bush, and it would have been better aimed at Democrats.”

Thank you Rush!


16 posted on 09/16/2008 9:36:18 PM PDT by jonrick46
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To: JasonC

Jamie Gorelick: democratic minion...

Even though she had no previous training nor experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed Vice Chairman of FNMA from 1997 to 2003. She served alongside former Clinton Administration official Franklin Raines, and earned over 26 million during her six years there. During that period, FNMA developed a $10 billion accounting scandal. [10] One example of falsified financial transactions that helped the company meet earnings targets for 1998, a “manipulation” that triggered multimillion-dollar bonuses for top executives. [11] Gorelick received $779,625. On March 25, 2002, Business Week interviewed Gorelick about the health of “Fanny Mae”. [12] Gorelick is quoted as saying, “We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody’s gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength — without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions.” [12] One year later, Government Regulators “accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Gorelick


The dems are in this up to their necks...

I remind you of the playbook:

In his Rules for Radicals, Alinsky outlines his strategy in organizing, writing,

“There’s another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevski [4] said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families - more than seventy million people - whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don’t encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let’s not let it happen by default..”[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky


Leftist radicals, closet communists, and their democratic allies are TRYING to bring about financial, social, and culteral RUIN...

One only need take them at their own word...

They cannot institute the radical social changes they seek without first artificially creating a situation of dispair ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky

Even the messiah has greedily accepted their money:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2083947/posts

Soro’s is using his billion to undermine our finacial stablity and economic freedom as part of this concerted effort...

Not even a conspiracy...it’s right out in the open...

They are screwing the the dollar..encouraging our enemies to cut back on oil production...they forced they changes to force loans in the previously “redlined” areas where banks quit writing loans becuase of the default rate...they created the “sub-prime” market through force of law......

Sorry...I’m not afriad to define my enemy...even if he is domestic...


17 posted on 09/16/2008 9:37:16 PM PDT by Crim (Dont frak with the Zeitgeist....http://falconparty.com/)
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To: Eagles6

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2084047/posts


18 posted on 09/16/2008 9:42:03 PM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck)
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To: BenLurkin

And if that doesnt do it for ya...stroll over to DU and witness the GLEE when they think Wall street might crash...

They hate they “rich”..while Zero attends a 28,000 a plate dinner in hollywierd and pockets 9 mill in one evening...

Liberalism IS a mental disorder...there is no other logical explaination...


19 posted on 09/16/2008 9:42:33 PM PDT by Crim (Dont frak with the Zeitgeist....http://falconparty.com/)
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To: jonrick46

“think that has been perhaps true of the Bush administration the last four years in terms of a Wild, Wild West with no regulation”

Only an idiot could think that financial markets have been the wild West since the creation of the Federal Reserve, the flight from the gold standard, and the rise of Keynesian economics. We don’t need more regulation to handle bad business; we need a free market!


20 posted on 09/16/2008 9:46:06 PM PDT by Tublecane
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