Is the New York Times now suggesting that the Democrats might have had something to do with our current economic troubles? I mention this only because the Dems (to their credit) made piles of hay off the economic crisis leading up to election day… it was those damn Republicans and their addiction to deregulation. What a load of crap.
They get to write the first draft of history. Maybe its time for a re-write.
2004 Video: Democrats Defend Fannie/Freddie from Regulation:
"We've been through nearly a dozen hearings where frankly we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. Mr. Chairman we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and in particular at Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines."-Rep. Maxine Waters, 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL36nwCSYUM
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History of Fannie Mae scandal
Associated Press, December 7, 2006
"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
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Guilty Party: ACORN, Obama, and the mortgage mess
Mona Charen, September 30, 2008
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzk4MmVkNzA1NGQ2NGRkZjQ2YjNmYjdlODZkMmQ4N2I=
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An ACORN Falls from the Tree: A congressional outrage
Ken Blackwell, September 29, 2008
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2Y5MTc0ZTAyMmE1Mjk3NGE3OWRiY2FkMjZlN2YxYzc=
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Inside Obama’s Acorn:
By their fruits ye shall know them
Stanley Kurtz, May 29, 2008
"What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, you’d know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, I’d wager, does Barack Obama."
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI
How does it go? “The saddest words of tongue or pen are those that say it might have been.” The extremely sad fact of the matter is/was that when the Republicans had their chance to run the country they did a poor job. Think Reagan and his tax increases and 55 mph speed limit. Think Bush and his “No child left behind” or his drug prescription plan or his extremely large fiscal deficits. As you sow, so shall ye reap.
One years in the making.
Forcing financial institutions to make bad loans using ACORN,political correctness,the race card,and a feckless President Bush made said institutions cover their loses by bundling bad paper with good and then selling them for a profit to corrupt GSEs like Fannie and Freddie (government sponsored enterprises)where from the beginning the taxpayer was the collaterall.
From Jimmy Carter to Barney Frank,it has been a well played leftist silent coup intended to enslave Americans to socialist tyranny by putting government in control of the once free markets—or the economy,if you wish—control the money and you control those who rely on it—Leninism 101.
When the GOP let the above happen by abandoning their conservative base they abandoned America and the US Constitution as well because they wanted to be “popular” with the MSN and Hollywood.Sick,shallow and seditious became the Republican paradign.
Now only a “popular” uprising supported by the only constitutional right left with bite—the 2nd—may save the America that counts.
Bush's shilling for (and McCain's voting for) a massive bailout did nothing but cement the image of the GOP as being the really big government party.
My sister, who is a "bush lied, people died, lefty was putting this mess 100% on Bush until I asked her do you think the situation would have been different if Kerry were in the White House? She could not honestly answer no.
Economic problems of this magnitude are not possible without a failure of leadership from both parties.
Which economic troubles, The Great Democratic Crash of 08 or the Great Democratic Depression 08-xx ?
I always felt that "Evil Daddy Warbucks", aka Soros, had a lot to do with the dollar devaluing problems, and other things, so why not tank the market on purpose.
It is interesting that the problems didn't get out of control until the Dims controlled Congress...hmmm...
“Did Democrats Have Something to Do with the Economic Troubles?”
How about EVERYTHING ?
People seem to get confused about what the problem really is because it is kind of complex. Deregulation did not cause it and there is nowhere anyone can point to say this law made all these banks go nuts. It didn’t happen. If that did happen, the housing market as a whole would not have responded to rising interest rates, which it most certainly did.
We actually had two problems that fed each other. The first one was the housing bubble that is the result of artificially low interest rates; which by itself would not have caused the financial system to collapse. The second problem was the collapse of the mortage backed securities market, which did lead to the collapse of the financial system. So why did the MBS market collapse?
Subprime lending couldn’t exist within the framework of accepted lending standards. And of course, the main culprits, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were exempt from the banking acts because they could never hope to carry out their charters under them without the government funding it. It wasn’t until Fannie and Freddie were put under these acts, abscent of government funding, that the whole house of cards started coming down and their main partner in crony capitalism, Countrywide, was the first to collapse.
Congress knew that in order to get what it wanted it had to have these government entities out there doing it so it would imply some sort of government guarantee, and they would buy up the mortgages as fast as the banks who were involved, either volunarily or by coersion, could write them, and then spread them around as secuirites to keep the government off the hook. And to make it more of a reality, they had to get high credit ratings for these instruments so they chopped them up and mixed good with bad to imply less risk and/or to obscure what was really behind them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to get investors willing to pony up the cash.
In the end, it had nothing to do with industry wide deregulation, but everything to do with the government trying to get something for nothing and not following its own rules to get there. If the diversified securities had not been there, we would have had some pain with the bursting of the housing bubble, but it would not have lead to the collapse of the financial system.
Democrats claim deregulation is the cause of the meltdown however they overwhelmingly supported and Clinton signed into law the deregulation bill they claim is responsible. The deregulation bill had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of subprime loans but it did have a CRA requirement at the insistence of the Dems.
Very frustrating that the Republicans took the blame for the meltdown. Worse yet, those Democrats most responsible for the meltdown were in charge of fixing it. Dodd and Frank were the Dems front men working on the Bailout. No wonder the initial bailout bill had ACORN provisions.
The 2008 election was an embarrassment. We allowed the Democrats to hang the subprime collapse right around our necks like boat anchors.
Does a bear use the woods for a toilet?
Does the sun rise in the east?
Is Obama an illegal?
Obama was saying, more particularly, that all the deregulation of the banking industry during the Bush years caused the crisis. President Carter said this too.
But guess what? The last time any legislation was passed deregulating the financial markets was 1999.
Just another example of the media not doing its job.
1913 Fed Reserve/Fed Reserve Act = Woodrow Wilson Dem
1938 Fannie/Freddie Created = FDR Dem
1968 Fannie/Freddie Chartered as GSE = Johnson Dem
1977 CRA = Carter Dem
1990’s CRA build w/ expansionary subprime lending = Clinton & Congress = Dems & some repubs
1990’s Abolished Glass/Steagall Act = Clinton Dem
2007 Abolishment of Uptick Rule = SEC not related
I see a hell of a lot more Dems in there than I do Repubs in regards to the main causes of this crisis - it’s been a long build up and all these institutions and rules were ideas of the Dems!
Isn’t it wonderful to have a truly conservative network like FOX news! The insight alone is an absolute Godsend. And here these masters of “fair and balanced” journalism are finally (perhaps) stumbling upon facts known to Free Republic and its readers for a very long time...that the left is responsible for the financial fiasco in which we find ourselves embroiled. Gee, what ever would we do without such brave television reporting!
Upchuck Schumer, being on the banking committee, was in a particularly vital position to start the dominos falling when he announced to the media that Indymac was about to go under, causing an immediate run on that struggling bank’s cash assets which pushed them into failure at just the right time for the democrats’ election/coup campaign.