Five years, what could have happened five years ago
to throw our economy into a tail spin. Hmmmmmmmmm?
Well long before Fannie Mae went in the tank, Barney Frank got a piece of young male ass as payoff to stifle Bush's efforts at investigations and oversight.
Barney Frank's Fannie and Freddie Muddle(By Sam Dealey September 10, 2008)
...here's a New York Times story from September 2003, clearly showing that the first substantive Fannie and Freddie reform from inside government came from the Bush administration. Spurred by worries that Fannie and Freddie were cooking their books and taking too many risks, Treasury Secretary John Snow proposed placing the companies under Treasury oversight with strict controls over risk and capital reserves. The NYT labeled the proposal "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago" and noted:Mr. Snow said that Congress should eliminate the power of the president to appoint directors to the companies, a sign that the administration is less concerned about the perks of patronage than it is about the potential political problems associated with any new difficulties arising at the companies.So five years ago, there was one of those rare moments in Washington when the branches and personalities of governmentin this case, the Bush administrationare less interested in protecting or expanding their turf than in fixing a looming catastrophe. What was Frank's response to the proposal?
"These two entitiesFannie Mae and Freddie Macare not facing any kind of financial crisis," said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."