Frank, Dodd villains in housing meltdown

This is a special series on the "occupy" phenomenon, and how the government's meddling in the credit bubble opened the floodgates. This is the fourth column in the series.

Notice how both have virtually disappeared since the passage of Frank-Dodd? =.=

''Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis.''

bump

Thank you for this thread. It is amazing to me that these types of articles did not come out in 2008.

The actions of Dodd and Frank, described in this article make me want to throw up.

There also was a homosexual connection to the whole debacle:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html

Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

....... The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

The timing of their relationship sure makes you wonder.... Who is this Moses guy and what other connections does he have?

I'm still fuming over his, "I think I want to roll the dice some more on this" comment when being questioned about what they were doing to the housing sector via Freddie and Fannie.

Yeah, you're real good at "rolling the dice" with other people's money. This a** is one of the main reasons we are in the trouble we are in. I can't see this jerk without wanting to throw something at the t.v.

Cloward-Pivens strategy for the financial industry.

Who is this Moses guy and what other connections does he have?

We've been asking those questions up here since 2008.

In 2001, President George Bush raised red flags and sounded warning bells in his 2002 budget request, saying “Fannie and Freddie are potential problems.” In his 2003 budget, Bush’s warnings were upgraded to “systemic risk that could spread beyond the housing sector”, and he pushed Congress to establish a “strong, world-class regulatory agency to oversee Fannie and Freddie”. Bush’s legislation was blocked by Dodd, Schumer, and Obama in the Senate, who conveniently accepted significant campaign contributions from Fan and Fred. Over in the House, Barney Frank stated that Fan and Fred were “financially sound…. I do not see financial losses…scenarios.” In 2003, Bush proposed a capital-reserve requirement for Fan and Fred, but was again ignored by Congress.

Ah, yes. Once again we are presented with the canard that the most pro-illegal alien President in the history of the United States attempted to save America.

If the above canard were true, why would Bush want to rein in Fannie and Freddie when he had just signed an agreement with Mexico to set up programs to allow Mexican illegal aliens unprecedented access to the US banking system?

The answer is he wouldn't.

Bush worked with Vicente Fox and banks, banking regulators and the very same lawmakers mentioned above to open up the US banking system to illegal aliens and visa-versa to pump up the US housing and credit market.

On February 16, 2001, just 3 weeks after his inauguration, President George W. Bush met with Mexican President Vicente Fox to discuss the terms of the Partnership for Prosperity Agreement (with Mexico). (See: Partnership for Prosperity Agreement (with Mexico))

The P4P agreement was signed on September 6, 2001.

On June 17, 2002, Bush held a press conference. In this press conference he said that by 2010 he wanted to see 5.5 million new 'minority' home owners.

He called on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase commitments to the 'minority' market by $440 billion. (See: President Calls for Expanding Opporunities to Home Ownership)

Why would a President, supposedly concerned with Fannie and Freddie overspending call on them to increase their outlays to the tune of almost $500 billion dollars?

The answer is he wouldn't.

On October 26, 2001, Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 into law. Contained in section 326(b) was the provision that allowed US banks to accept the Mexican Matricula Consular card as valid ID for opening a bank account.

Congress sent a request for opinion to Bush's Treasury Dept. about 326(b). Bush's Treasury responded:

“The proposed rules set forth the requirement that financial institutions would have to establish a customer identification and verification program applicable to all new accounts that are opened, regardless of whether the customer is a U.S. citizen or a foreign national. While the proposed rules prescribe minimum standards for such programs, they leave sufficient flexibility to permit financial institutions to tailor their program to fit their business operations. The customer identification program would have to contain reasonable procedures for identifying any person, including a business, that opens an account, setting forth the type of identifying information that the financial institution will require. At a minimum, for U.S. persons the proposed rules would require financial institutions to obtain the following information: name, address, taxpayer identification number, and, for individuals, date of birth. While a taxpayer identification number is not required for non-U.S. persons, a financial institution must describe what type of information it will require of a non-U.S. person in place of a taxpayer identification number. The regulations state that financial institutions may accept one or more of the following: a U.S. taxpayer identification number; a passport number and country of issuance; an alien identification card number, or the number and country of issuance of any other government-issued document evidencing nationality or residence and bearing a photograph or similar safeguard.”

This also contained a footnote (17):

“Thus, the proposed regulations do not discourage bank acceptance of the ‘matricula consular’ identity card that is being issued by the Mexican government to immigrants.” (See: Treasury Department Issues USA PATRIOT Act Report to Congress)

Note that no Mexican banks accept their own government's Matricula Consular card as valid ID for opening a bank account because the bearer's identity is all but untraceable. In contrast, thanks to Bush's Treasury Dept., almost all US banks accept it.

Why would a President supposedly fighting a war on terror allow US banks to accept a form of identification that is completely unreliable?

The answer is that he was more concerned with helping out his Wall Street banker buddies than he was about the safety of US citizens. In response to the mandate contained in the P4P agreement, the New Alliance Task Force was formed in May 2003. (See: New Alliance Task Force)

The NATF is a broad-based coalition of 62 members, including the FDIC, Mexican Consulate, 34 banks, community-based organizations, federal bank regulatory agencies, government agencies, and representatives from the secondary market and private mortgage insurance (PMI) companies.

Their goal was to open the Mexican illegal alien market to US banks and visa-versa using low-cost remittances as the bait. As Bush's 2002 speeches show he was talking about hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars going to directly benefit millions of Mexican illegal aliens.

The NATF was organized into four working groups that were tasked with the following goals:

Financial Education—educates immigrants on the benefits and importance of holding accounts, the credit process, and mainstream banking.
Bank Products and Services Working Group—encourages banks and thrifts to develop financial service products with remittance features as a strategy to reach the unbanked immigrant community.
Mortgage Products—created the New Alliance Model Loan Product for potential homeowners who pay taxes using an ITIN.
Social Projects—provides scholarship funds for immigrant students and fosters economic support for Plazas Comunitarias, a program that will give Mexican citizens an opportunity to finish their high school education.

Why would a President supposedly concerned with Fannie and Freddie overspending set up an alliance between banks, banking regulators and the Mexican consulates to institute programs to allow Mexican illegal aliens further access to US government housing financing?

The answer is that Bush was more concerned with pumping up the US housing market with Mexican illegal aliens than he was with preventing a US housing collapse.

In Bush's June 17, 2002 speech, he also called for the creation of the American Dream Down Payment Fund. "And so here are some of the ways to address the issue. First, the single greatest barrier to first time homeownership is a high downpayment. It is really hard for many, many, low income families to make the high downpayment. And so that's why I propose and urge Congress to fully fund the American Dream Downpayment Fund. This will use money, taxpayers' money to help a qualified, low income buyer make a downpayment. And that's important."

And, the 108th Congress (2003-2005) responded with the American Dream Downpayment Act:

"Amends the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to: (1) authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to State and local participating jurisdictions for downpayment assistance and related home repair to low-income, first-time home buyers; and (2) limit family assistance to the greater of six percent of the purchase price or $10,000. Requires a participating jurisdiction to include intended grant uses in its fiscal year comprehensive housing affordability strategy under such Act."

"Sets forth State and local jurisdiction allocation formulas. Permits fund reallocation."

"Requires the Comptroller General to report respecting the impact of such grants on a State-by-State basis."

"Terminates grant authority after December 31, 2007. Authorizes specified FY 2004 through 2007 appropriations."

"Makes the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 inapplicable to such assistance."

The act was authorized to appropriate up to $200 million per year of US taxpayer funds between FY2004 through FY2007 to go to Bush's 'minorities'.

The sponsor and co-sponsors of this $800 million giveaway:

Sponsor: Sen. Wayne Allard [R-CO]

Co-sponsors:
Sen. Samuel Brownback [R-KS]
Sen. Conrad Burns [R-MT]
Sen. Ben Campbell [R-CO]
Sen. Michael Crapo [R-ID]
Sen. Michael Enzi [R-WY]
Sen. Charles Hagel [R-NE]
Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R-AK]
Sen. Richard Santorum [R-PA]
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R-AL]

Why would a President supposedly concerned with the collapse of the housing market call for, and sign into law, a program that gives away US tax dollars to Mexican illegal aliens to use as a down payment on a US house?

The truth is that Bush was only concerned with helping out one constituency --Wall Street bankers.

Never forget that like his daddy before him, George W. Bush comes from a long line of Wall Street bankers and it is this constituency that he served from the time he came into office until the day he left.

As we have long been admonished by political writers --follow the money.

btt

Thank you for this thread. It is amazing to me that these types of articles did not come out in 2008.

That's because the Bush propaganda machine was just spooling up.

What's amazing to me is that conservatives swallow this propaganda without question.

” - - - What’s amazing to me is that conservatives swallow this propaganda without question.”

I agree. When you figure out why, PING me.