Free Republic

fter a worldwide financial meltdown — and a $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout — the need for common-sense financial reforms was clear. But now, even though the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (known as Dodd-Frank, after Rep. Barney Frank and me, its sponsors) is only beginning to take effect, critics are launching false attacks against the law in an effort to undermine it. Whether they are intentionally misleading or just misguided, they are wrong about the law’s purpose and impact. 1. Dodd-Frank is deepening the economic slowdown. Critics who charge that the law is aggravating the recession...

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich got worked up when asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests at last night's Bloomberg-Washington Post debate. Gingrich first sought to tie the protests to "left-wing agitators" before calling for the firing of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He then doubled down, calling on former Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank to be thrown in jail, not anyone on Wall Street. Asked if he actually meant for them to do prison time, Gingrich said he did, alluding to past ethical scandals. Watch the video below: CLICK ABOVE LINK...

Newt Gingrich is asked about the Occupy Wall Street movement at the Bloomberg debate in New Hampshire: New Gingrich: "If they want to change things, the first thing to do is fire Bernanke, who is a disaster as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The second person to fire is Geithner. The fact is, in both the Bush and the Obama administrations the fix has been in. And I think it's perfectly reasonable to be angry. But let's be clear about who put the fix in. The fix was put in by the federal government. If you want to put people...

Abstract: Five of the world's richest hedge fund managers, including George Soros, the man who the broke the Bank of England, have been called to account by US politicians for their role in the collapse of the global financial system. The quintet – including John Paulson, who made $3.7bn (£2.49bn) last year betting against the US mortgage market – were grilled over their roles in buying unregulated derivatives products, which some politicians believe contributed to the financial markets' meltdown. The men, who each earned more than $1bn each last year, were called to account by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, who...

Barack Obama Has Destroyed the Economy in Two-and-a-Half Years July 14, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "Boehner: Dealing With the White House 'Has Been Like Dealing With Jell-O' -- In a meeting with a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill office this morning [he] criticized President Obama and White House officials for their lack of resolve in negotiations. 'Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o,' Boehner said. 'Some days it's firmer than others. Sometimes it's like they've left it out over night.' Boehner explained that talks broke down over the weekend because,...

In just a few days some fairly big changes in the commodities and currency trading markets are expected to land with a thud.  The changes stem from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act aimed primarily at consumer lending, but is also having a wide ranging impact on securities trading.  Some of the changes are fairly straightforward and are intended to curb speculation that comes at the expense of consumers.  Others are aimed at curbing the excesses of the largely unregulated derivatives market.  Most of those changes will generally be good for consumers, all were well-intended but, like...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Falling home prices have shrunk equity so much that the proportion of their homes that Americans actually own is near its lowest point since World War II. The Federal Reserve says average home equity plunged from more than 61 percent at the start of 2001 to 38 percent in the January-March quarter this year. That drop comes as home prices in big metro areas have reached their lowest level since 2002.

Chris Dodd on front lines of movie copyright war Less than a month into his new job as head of the Motion Picture Association of America, former Sen. Chris Dodd finds himself in the midst of another high-pitched battle. This time the issue isn’t health care and financial reform. It’s copyright infringement, an ongoing tug-of-war since the advent of broadband internet access. Members of the Motion Picture Association filed suit in a federal court in Los Angeles Monday, accusing a movie-rental web site, Zediva, of illegally streaming films online. Zediva offers movies after they are available on DVD, but weeks...

Countrywide’s VIP program is the first subpoena target for House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said a committee aide. The “Friends of Angelo” program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, has been under committee investigation since 2008 for allegedly granting generous mortgage deals to influential government officials, lawmakers and employees at Fannie Mae. “Countrywide orchestrated a deliberate and calculated effort to use relationships with people in high places in order to manipulate public policy and further their bottom line to the detriment of the American taxpayers even at the expense of its own lending standards,”...

Issa demands details on Countrywide's VIP loan programBy Peter Schroeder - 02/16/11 06:31 PM ET Bank of America will have to turn over all documents and records tied to Countrywide Financial's VIP lending program after House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued a subpoena for them Wednesday. Issa announced the far-reaching subpoena, his first as chairman of the panel, and made clear that he wanted to know specifically what public employees or elected officials may have benefited from the program. Issa is looking for all documents about the program, and is particularly interested in what "covered borrowers" were involved...

Let me see if I can summarize what has happened over the last few years. Democrats in Congress specifically Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy changed some laws forcing banks to extend loans to people with bad credit (the CRA). They also changed some laws allowing other companies to “bundle mortgages” and sell them with little to no regulations. Then Al Sharpton, La Raza and ACORN legally extorted financial institutions into loaning large sums to people who couldn’t afford the interest payments much less the loans. All these “loans” were traded back and forth between hedge funds in order...

As the final days of his long congressional career were falling from the calendar, corrupt Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd was uplifted as one special interest after another heaped praise upon him. They were the beneficiaries of his years of generosity with other people's money and his advocacy of federal mandates that enriched them. And for all those years, they completed the quid pro quos by delivering copious sums and manpower for his re-election campaigns. In another context, prosecutors would call this extortion or racketeering; in this context, however, it's just called government. The news media, new and old, also kissed...

"He is lying, he did it last April in front of the House Financial Services Committee," a man yelled at David Lowman, the CEO of Chase Home Lending. Man to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT): "Chairman, let the homeowners speak! Let them speak. Homeowners, tell your story!" He was quickly escorted from the hearing on foreclosure practices.

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?by novelist Orson Scott Card, a Democrat_________..      This [financial crisis] was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it.  One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules.  The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them...Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans.  (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me.  It's as if the Pentagon were...

Last night, President Obama again tried to revise history by blaming our current financial crisis on the war in Iraq stating “We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits.” Of course he and his brethren on the left continue to ignore Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s contribution to the current crisis. Between the two institutions they have secured nearly sixty percent of the $12 Trillion in mortgages in the United States, a large portion of which were subprime...

On July 21, when President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, he promised: “There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.” How long will this Obama promise last? Well, The New York Times reports today that “the Obama administration on Wednesday pumped $3 billion into programs intended to stop the unemployed from losing their homes,” including a program announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that “will draw on $1 billion authorized by the new financial overhaul law.” That’s right. The Dodd-Frank “no more taxpayer-funded bailouts forever” bill is not even a month old, and already...

"And speaking of Countrywide, how can a bill written by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank possibly solve anything, when they were right in there ... right there with the collapse at every level in the first place? Isn't this a little like asking Mel Gibson to write your company's rules on anger management and racial tolerance?" — commentator Glenn Beck, July 22 Corrupt Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., indeed wrote the financial-industry-overhaul bill that President Obama has signed into law. Among the bill's most grievous errors, it rewarded the worst and most asleep-at-the-switch actors in the...

Ethics: A probe by Rep. Darrell Issa has now uncovered 173 sweetheart loans made by Countrywide Financial Corp. to 42 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives. As is too often the case, it's a regulatory problem. Of the 173 loans, 150 were made to borrowers who identified themselves as employees of Fannie Mae. Loan recipients from the institution include Jamie Gorelick, a former vice chair of Fannie Mae; James Johnson, former chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae; Daniel Mudd, a former Fannie Mae president and CEO; and Franklin Raines, former Fannie Mae chairman and CEO. Issa, ranking member of the...

The 2,319 page financial regulation bill that just passed Congress is filled with vague, complicated language. Some language will weaken our financial system and make it less efficient. Other language appears to mandate racial and gender employment quotas in dozens of Federal agencies. In the name of making sure that there is not another financial crisis, the bill does nothing to address what caused the mortgage problems created by government regulations that forced banks to make risky loans that they didn't want to make. It does nothing to rein in the $400 billion in losses created by government entities Fannie...

The Dodd/Frank Wall Street bill (oh, the irony) just passed the Senate and is headed to President Obama’s desk. Obama will be signing into law what Bob Belvedere calls the Fascist Take Over of the Free Market bill. To recap, it does nothing to address the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problem that was at the center of the financial crisis. Nor does it do anything about “too big to fail” which, if I recall correctly, was the original intent of financial reform. What the Fascist Take Over of the Free Market bill does do is reward more of the...