Posted on 05/07/2010 6:19:17 PM PDT by kristinn
Link to page with YouTube Video.
(Video caption: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaking at a forum on national housing policy on December 11, 2006. Three weeks after making this speech at the Treasury Department, Frank became Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Frank on Democrats taking over regulatory reform:
“You will see far less difference with Democrats taking over in the Financial Services regulatory area than in virtually any other area of public policy, because we did work together on things like regulatory relief and we have more to do yet in the deregulation. One of the things we did was try to reduce the reporting requirements from the banks to the financial detectives.
“Far too much has to be reported now in my judgment.”
On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
“We weren’t doing anything for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issue for me was housing. We were doing something for housing. And I agreed with those who argued that because of the markets’ perceptions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got this great benefit to be able to borrow money cheaply yet the benefit was not being adequately returned to the public.
“There were two things you could have done about that. You could have reduced the benefit. You could have cut back on their ability to borrow as cheaply or you could leave that benefit in place and distribute it more fairly. That’s what we chose to do with the affordable housing fund.”
On the housing bubble in 2006, two years before the housing bubble burst:
“I do want to address this thing about the bubble. I think the bubble is an entirely inappropriate metaphor. Let me just be very clear, houses ain’t tulips. Houses today even with the drop in housing prices are more valuable than tulips were however many years ago when we had the tulip business.”
On plummeting housing prices:
“I think it’s a good thing that housing prices are dropping. A few speculators get stung, that’s icing on the cake. The cake is… the cake is that people can afford to buy houses now. A 10% drop in housing prices is a good thing. Housing was over-valued.
“But let me make this distinction on why it’s not a bubble. I was just thinking about this [unintelligible]… maybe housing suffered from irrational exuberance. But bubbles in history haven’t been cases of irrational exuberance. They have been cases of exuberant irrationality. And there really is a distinction.
“Irrational exuberance means you get a little carried away with something that is basically a good thing. But exuberant irrationality is when you start thinking that tulips or some of those dumb ideas on the internet when there were some of those things that nobody in their right mind wanted to buy, those were excessive.”
On why housing prices plummeting is a good thing:
“Fundamentally I don’t think that there’s a crisis, and I do think that the end result in a 10% drop in many parts of the country will be a more rational and healthier housing market.”
And finally… Frank on his own ability to deal with “things.”
“I’m pretty good with words but I’m not so good with things. I’ve had a lifelong struggle with things. And the less I am responsible dealing with them the better off everybody is.”
Tell us something we didn’t already know.
(h/t Scott McKay)
I thought Barney Fwank had announced he wasn’t running for reelection ?
Gross!
Oh my goodness! I hope O’Reilly will be ready to explode over this on Monday, as he should be. We’ll see what he’s really made of, I guess. If he exposes it, the rest of the country will know about it.
Thank you so much for this posting!
I’m saving it to show some people who don’t agree with me. ;o)
The rumor that Barney Frank was retiring came from Laura Ingraham, who said that her sources told her that Frank would not seek reelection. Frank denied the rumor at the time, and it was noted that were he to retire he would announce it prior to the filing deadline (sometime in June) so that the RATs could get a good candidate on the ballot and hold the seat (the only RAT currently seeking the nomination apart from Frank is a Lyndon LaRouche supporter).
Has anyone heard anything recently about the MA-04 race and whether Frank is staying in?
Well...
I was going to say “no pun intended”...
But...
"But bubbles in history haven’t been cases of irrational exuberance. They have been cases of exuberant irrationality. And there really is a distinction."
My line of work requires that I have good and thorough knowledge of spoken or written bullsh*t intended to snow people -- how to spot it, how to spin it, how to avoid it, how to use it.
This guy is so far gone into bullsh*t that he has lost touch with reality. His world is made of sugar cubes, with reality being water.
He's going down. I don't know when, maybe sooner, maybe later, but inevitably, he isn't going to fade away or evolve, he's going down.
JUST THE OTHER DAY, BWANEY SAID HE WAS "DEFINITELY" RUNNING FOR REELECTION Frank acknowledged that it may be a tougher race than he’s used to. “But, if I want to get re-elected it’s my job to talk about the issues and my record, and that’s the nature of democracy,” he said. Fierce competition or not, Frank said he will “definitely” seek re-election this November.
Bwaney Frank’s 4th congressional district went overwhelmingly for Scott Brown; just five of the 24 cities and towns voted for Coakley.
NOT HIS DECISION TO MAKE What this self-absorbed Lipless Wonder failed to fathom is that his constituients (including those townhallers he sneered at) will decide whether he was fit to run for reelection.
Brown's election gave Fwank his answer loud and clear: "GET OUT---WE DON'T WANT YOU REPRESENTING US."
=======================================
NOTE Fwank was (you should excuse the expression) sucking up to hyphenates..........addressing the "National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals," and the "Asian Real Estate Association of America."
Guess Fwank was forced to suckup to hyphenates when the financial industry didn't come across w/ campaign donations .....ROTFL.
The real question is, how did it take so long for this video to surface?
There should be Congressional aids out the wazoo searching through old CSPAN and media tapes looking for any time of slip-up from a major Democrat.
Frank is one nasty individual.
I can just picture him spitting all over the place as he says this crap. He wouldn't know democracy if it hit him in the face.
The money quote;
“[unintelligible]”
Who is running against Barney Frank?
...and even worse than that, there will be an “event” which will make all of this a footnote BEFORE the election. Mark my word. THe seeds are being laid and the structure is coming into place.
I’ve heard nothing else except the same rumor from Laura Ingraham.
Scott Brown won Frank’s district and did so decisively.
Maybe it MIGHT be worth a bit of effort, eh?
It IS worth the effort
but will anyone do it? Try it? Suggest it? Plan it?
Hey I know get that $1,000,000 back from the Fat NY Lesbian the Republicans supported and use it to run agains the Fat Gay lisping dude.
Ha Ha
See how interesting USA politics has become !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democrats caught on tape...
(Barney Frank is included in the clip, as are congress members Gregory Meeks, Maxine Waters and some others)
“Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute, 9/24/2008
excerpt...
"Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for the now-government controlled Fannie Mae. The column revealed the two had split up at the time but also said Frank was referring to Moses as his "spouse." Another Washington Post report said Frank called Moses his "lover" and that the two were "still friends" after the breakup.
Frank was and remains a stalwart defender of Fannie Mae, which is now under FBI investigation along with its sister organization Freddie Mac, American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) – all recently participants in government bailouts. But Frank has derailed efforts to regulate the institution, as well as denying it posed any financial risk."
http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx
____________________________________________________________
Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest
By Bill Sammon, October 03, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.
So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.
Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."
A top GOP House aide agreed.
"C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws."
Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.
"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."
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."
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.
Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.
Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.
"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said recently.
Bill Sammon is FOX News' Washington Deputy Managing Editor.
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,432501,00.html
Bawney’s fault!
yea, i don’t understand.
No he didn’t. The media will ignore it as will the voters in his district. They’ve already elected this freak several times. This won’t make a difference.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.