Free Republic

My cohort, the sainted Boomer generation, now rules this country and its institutions. The elite of this generation, graduates of the finest schools, cosmopolitan in taste and sensibility, and left-liberal in political and cultural allegiance -- have always been counted the smartest people in the room (just ask them). Now these new Masters of the Universe have made a shambles of the US and world financial system. This is, to be sure, not the construction put upon things by the main stream media, but it is plainly the case. The current market turmoil is a product of every bad trait...

If conservative Republicans are right and the $700 billion financial-sector rescue plan signals America's slide into socialism, you'd think Seth Dellinger would be celebrating. "They can reorganize capitalism in different ways, and they will," says Mr. Dellinger, a college graduate turned working-class meat cutter. "But it is above all with a view toward continuing a system in which a small minority of super-rich families controls everything." To Mr. Dellinger, 32, capitalism's crisis may be socialism's opportunity. He's making the case to anyone who will listen that the U.S. should adopt a Cuban-style government before the Bush administration and Congress empty...

A SNLIVE satirical skit of the financial crisis bailout. Pelosi, Bush and Barney Frank. VIDEO:Click Here

Germany’s HRE says rescue collapsed By James Wilson in Berlin Published: October 5 2008 10:07 | Last updated: October 5 2008 10:07 Hypo Real Estate was racing to find a way to save itself on Sunday after the German property lender revealed the collapse of a previous rescue plan. A consortium of banks that was to provide HRE with an emergency liquidity line had now declined to do so, HRE said at the weekend. The reversal threatens a dramatic escalation of the financial crisis in Germany and leaves HRE and the Berlin government scrambling to come up with an alternative...

"Digg" the blog's comments: http://digg.com/politics/Even_Angry_Liberal_Alec_Baldwin_Knows_B_Frank_Screwed_US?OTC-widget "Even Angry Liberal Alec Baldwin Knows B. Frank Screwed US"

A decision, made under pressure from Congress and investors, to steer Fannie Mae into dangerous corners of the mortgage market proved to be disastrous.

Quite "a coincidence that you're interested in this one," the salesman says. "Another lady was just in here wanting it and she ran home for her checkbook. I can't guarantee it'll still be here in half an hour." Eleven days ago, the entire government of the United States -- OK, no one invited the Supreme Court -- sat in the White House in front of the gathered cameras and played used car salesman. From Bernanke of the Fed to Paulson of the Treasury; from Harry Reid to Nancy Pelosi; from Chris Dodd to John McCain to Barack Obama to their...

Watch The Coulter Factor On Fox News from Sat, 4 Oct 2008 as Ann Coulter gives her two cents on the bailout. This transcript was automatically generated with speech-to-text technology and may not be 100% accurate. NEAL CAVUTO: [play from 0:00]" And again, Ann Coulter has, as well, she says those who are pointing the fingers at the White House, should first take a good look in the mirror, and to a Clinton era push to grant mortgages to the poor and minorities. And those comments got her in a heap of trouble. She's here to explain. Ann, explain. Good...

The rise and fall of our housing market and how did it happen? This is a very high level overview of the pertinent facts. Ok we have heard a lot of talk back and forth on what caused the problems that led to the economic meltdown this year. We have heard that it is both party's fault and that the Democrats share the blame equally with others. Additionally people want you to believe that Glass-Steagal is the main cause here. What I am going to try to do is provide the core facts of this scenario all the way back...

What few today remember is that one of the government's central goals in undertaking mortgage market reform was to segregate American cities by race. As the insurer of much of the national mortgage industry, the FHA fixated obsessively on fears that racial integration would harm real estate values and leave the government responsible for bailing out legions of failed loans. (snip) Wall Street Street's apologists have tried to blame the subprime crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act, Congress' tepid attempt in 1977 to atone for the FHA's sins. This argument, of course, is completely ludicrous, since the vast majority of...

Here is a novel idea coming to Southwestern Pennsylvania for Election Day: Sign up to become a “pollworker,” paid by a “non-partisan effort,” and then ensure that people who shouldn’t be allowed to vote actually will get to vote. This from “Pollworkers for Democracy,” which uses fear tactics based on the recent mortgage crisis as a hook to snag people living on the edge of financial problems: “Imagine being told you've lost the right to vote because the bank foreclosed on your home,” begins the e-mail. It goes on to say that if you lose your home and have to...

She is Black, she's young, she loves America, and she hates Obama. SHE Deserves our applauses !!

Housing prices would never have risen so high without multiple Washington mistakes. Many believe that wild greed and market failure led us into this sorry mess. According to that narrative, investors in search of higher yields bought novel securities that bundled loans made to high-risk borrowers. Banks issued these loans because they could sell them to hungry investors. It was a giant Ponzi scheme that only worked as long as housing prices were on the rise. But housing prices were the result of a speculative mania. Once the bubble burst, too many borrowers had negative equity, and the system collapsed....

Tradecraft Politicians Use Bailout to Grab More Power By Jonathan Hoenig |Jonathan Hoenig Archive |Published: October 2, 2008 There was a time I wrote extensively about promising sectors and stocks. I looked at companies' new products, analyzed earnings and tracked moving averages of securities big and small. I miss those days.In recent weeks, those fundamentals have all but ceased to matter now that politicians are pulling the economy's strings. From restricting trade, such as through the short-sale ban that was just extended, to outright seizure, as was the case with AIG (AIG: 4.02*, +0.09, +2.29%), we are witnessing the biggest...

A federal grand jury in New York is probing the accounting shenanigans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ~~snip~~ Remember the early 2000s, when companies such as WorldCom, Enron, Tyco and Xerox suddenly and spectacularly were revealed to have been cooking their books? Remember the glee expressed by Washington politicians, especially Democrats, as they watched CEOs and their underlings get perp-walked out of their buildings and into federal custody? ~~snip~~ Here's how James B. Lockhart III, head of the Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, described the two companies back in 2006, before the meltdown occurred: "The result of (Fannie's and Freddie's)...

In the boom years the financial world, which we call Wall Street, reaped rewards to satisfy King Midas. In just one recent year, 2006, its firms paid out an astonishing $62 billion in bonuses (no, this is not a typo). The "masters of the universe" created not one bubble, but two: a housing bubble and then a credit bubble, and now that both have burst we face a growing danger of a global financial panic. Every day that passes without a remedy multiplies the risk of a complete freeze up of the financial and credit markets. This threatens a crash...

The Senate Finance Committee has published a summary of some of the additions to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. There are many provisions in the bill that will directly benefit millions of Americans -- what's called the "AMT patch," for instance, which will protect 20 million middle class Americans from seeing a tax increase in 2009. Or tax deductions for tuition, and for teacher expenses. Corporations will see extensions of popular tax cuts -- for research and development, or renewable energies. But there's also some other stuff. My colleague Z. Bryon Wolf points out that it bears mentioning that all...

The financial crisis of the past year has provided a number of surprising twists and turns, and from Bear Stearns Cos. to American International Group Inc., ambiguity has been a big part of the story. Why did Bear Stearns fail, and how does that relate to AIG? It all seems so complex. But really, it isn't. Enough cards on this table have been turned over so that the story is now clear. The economic history books will describe this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some...

Who do I blame for this financial disaster? Let me count the villains. Start with President Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. By their own actions, they have shown that they believe that markets have become too vulnerable under their watch. The Bushies have mishandled the $700 billion bailout at every juncture. They pulled a too-large number out of the hat, then asked Congress to write a blank check. Paulson even rejected limits on the compensation of the geniuses who bought bad mortgage paper with other people's money. No way was Congress going to go along with that scheme. Like...

<p>We were reading President Bush's budget the other day (we know, get a life), when we came across an unusual mention of our all-time favorite companies -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What we found is a tale we think taxpayers and investors should want to hear.</p>