Obama secures major new endorsement...

Fannie and Freddie, as government sponsored enterprises, were major players in the credit default swap crisis. As best I can tell, they bought them and they sold them with the implied backing of the US government. Isn't this in some part why the financial meltdown is global? Didn't Fannie and Freddie spread the credit default swaps like a virus?

This Bloomberg Article implicates Fannie and Freddie as big time traders in the credit default swaps: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Aren't a large portion of the credit default swaps just heaps of worthless paper generated as subprime loans? Didn't the CRA and its subsequent "strengthening" by Clinton lead to the rise in subprime lending? Wouldn't the market for credit default swaps have been much smaller if Fannie and Freddie were not there to enable the creation of, and the perpetuation of, subprime loans? Did the government overstep its bounds and coerce the banks into lending to unqualified buyers?

You say that the Republicans blocked regulation of these industries... C-SPAN videos show just the opposite. It shows the Democrats blocking regulation of the GSE's.

Here is the link!!! Everyone should watch this closely.
YouTube - Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

 

Bob there is a difference about talking about something a lauding it, you missed the subtle nuance.

Also I take it that since you remain silent on the subject you are tacitly agreeing that your original post it not true.

And my advice to any interested parties is don’t get your information from U-Ttube; read up on caolaterized debt instruments and credit default swaps, they have been created to the tune of a hundred trillion dollars (yes trillon), if it were just a mortgage problem we could handle it; but I kid you not this looming problem is the equivalent of economic weapons s of mass destruction; we are in uncharted waters! I also Encourage you to read up on how the problem developed as there is quite a bit more to the story that C-Span videos. And Bob the graph shows your statement on taxes is incorrect.


PS: GENERAL WARNING you may not want to read up on Credit Default Swaps because you might get very seriously depressed and scared (I am not kidding around here), it is like the red and blue pills in the Matrix. These instruments are so diabolical in their down side implications that you might wish you had never heard of them. However if you can cope with fear and loss at least you will know what is very probably coming.

 

Jim, I admitted that Post #1 was satirical in nature multiple times. Post #52 is one example wherein I did so.

 

Bob I missed that, this thread is gotten so long it is hard to keep up ( I know what satire means Bob)

 

I know... No problems though.

This is all in fun anyway...

I am passionate about my conservative views.

You are passionate about your __________ (fill in the blank) views.

<You know I wanted to use the "L word" there, but I refrained.>

You are formidable and keep me on my toes, but I love it.

Hey, what are the chances of me getting your vote in 2012?

I would appoint you to some cushy position... Nothing where you could spend money, effect tax policy, or defense. Maybe, agriculture or something.

Eddie would be the VP though.

 

I humbly accept the offer to run as DrBob's running mate. Thank You.

 

are VFR's republican or democrat.I should have bought a Harley to be more patriotic.You guys are losing it.Lets talk about religion next.Think about the world.Electionmania drives people crazy like Mccain.Waiting for Palin's porno with Joe the plumber

 

I’ll touch on this one first, I might not get to the second one addressed to me until tomorrow (Eastern Time Zone thing going on here.)

In 1977, Carter passed legislation called the Community Re-investment Act. Essentially, this was a mandate on the banking industry that said to the effect, if you are going to conduct business in a community, you are going to lend to the people in that community. It essentially outlawed a practice called redlining.

The banks used the practice of redlining to separate out people who were high risk and not credit worthy. This was not motivated by racism, rather the unfortunate circumstance of inner-city minorities made them high risk and unable to obtain loans. Hence, they were normally redlined.

The Act was somewhat weak to penalize banks who continued to uphold reasonable lending practices for determining credit-worthiness. Then came Clinton. Clinton strengthed the bill by decree essentially. He used it to demand that banks lend money to people whether or not they were truly credit worthy. Under Clinton, welfare checks and unemployment checks became proof of income. Standards for down payments had to be dropped, otherwise people without the means to come up with a down payment would have been redlined and the banks would not have been able to, in essence, meet their quota of loans to these core Democratic constituencies.

Under Clinton, if a bank did not make loans to adequate numbers of people who were "high risk"/minority then the government could prevent them from growing through acquisition or merger, etc. ACORN became complicit in this coercion also.

Anyway, under Clinton, the Community Re-investment Act became a tool for creating Affirmative Action in Lending.

People who couldn't afford a down payment- no problem. People who didn't have a job- no problem, you get welfare right? People who couldn't afford normal interest rates- no problem, we will cut the interest rate below the prime rate for five years or whatever, then we will make it up in the last 25 years.

Now, the market is flooded with a bunch of people who would not qualify under the old criteria for lending practices but now are suddenly made qualified because of the Clinton actions.

Here comes the building of the bubble...
Set number of homes + whole bunch of new buyers = increased demand = housing prices go up through the roof. More in some regions of the country than others.

Now we need more houses on the market so the builders start building. They finance for materials and labor knowing that there are plenty of approved (although not necessarily qualified buyers out there). For several years it was a boon.

Then the bubble burst. These un-"qualified" buyers went into default. That meant a whole bunch of foreclosed houses went on the market and the subprime market collapsed. The net result was:

Bunch of houses on the market + few truly qualified buyers = more supply of houses than demand and the value of all houses fell through the basement. The people who were building houses were screwed because there were no interested/qualified buyers to buy what they built at the price they needed to get out relatively un-skinned.

Fannie and Freddie played a role because they would buy these subprime loans from the banks. This gave the banks more money to lend to other underqualified applicants. Anyway, Fannie and Freddie would hold them or package them and sell them to investment banks, etc that were looking to profit from the interest payments as people paid on their loans. Coming from Freddie and Fannie, there was a bit of an implied gaurantee on them. That is why the collapse of Fannie and Freddie set off the string of failures of Lehman, AIG, Wachovia, etc.

As far as the bubble bursting under a Republican administration... There were multiple calls by Republicans to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as early as 2004 if not before. These calls for regulation were shot down in the Congress by Democrats. Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, and the Congressional Black Caucus in the House and Chris Dodd and some others in the Senate prevented Republican backed plans for controlling Fannie and Freddie.

Here is an important video to watch: (YouTube - Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis[/SIZE]

The Democrats did not want anything to happen to their racket. Fannie and Freddie were enabling their key voting blocks to get loans even if they couldn't afford to pay them back. Also, they were getting nice, FAT campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie. Obama has gotten almost as much campaign cash in 2 years as Chris Dodd got in 20 years. Obama is #2 on their list of cash recipients.

All of this goes without elaborating too much on Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson who were former CEOs at Fannie/Freddie. Raines was in Clinton's cabinet... Johnson was on Obama's VP search committee with Caroline Kennedy.

Raines got fired from Fannie and Freddie when he hid 200 million dollars of expenses… That made the books of Fannie look better than they really were and it triggered a nice bonus for him to the tune of about 29 million bucks if I remember right. He would not have gotten a bonus at all if the 200 million was posted properly. This kind of corruption makes Enron look upstanding. At one time, Raines claimed to be an Obama adviser but Obama threw him under the bus when Fannie and Freddie died.

In any case, watch the video... YOU WILL SEE THE DEMOCRATS DEFENDING FANNIE AND FREDDIE AND ACCUSING ANYONE WHO WANTED TO REIGN THEM IN OF BEING RACIST.

 

Back from the spa, sorry......nobody can protect a punk...you're on your own

 

I am a kooky creationist.

 

Poor EVT, getting himself all worked up over the comments of a liberal...I'm sorry to hear that you wasted all your time in college. Man, this isn't even fair.....

 

Why do you have to single out 4th and 5th gen riders? Profiling is despicable....

 

May I be the first to suggest it's time to seek therapy Dr. Bob? the first part of the recovery process is admitting that you have a problem.......:tongue:

 

It's always funny how the conservatives can always dish it out but they can never take it.

 

Bob you would need me as your chief economic adviser, thus I could keep you out of trouble.

 

Global Warming= Iradic Weather. Not

Global Warming= Extreme Weather. Higher highs,lower lows. Drought.Flooding.stronger,bigger,bader,more often. You get the point.

Haven't you noticed that 100 year floods are coming every ten years now and major league hurricanes devastate the Gulf Coast several times a season.
I guess you won't figure it out till you house is floating down the river.

"Open your eyes fool can't you see"


:vader:

 

Just a Few of the Many Reasons Why I'm Not a Liberal

I have found that trying to convince (most) liberals by invoking truth, common sense, facts, and the lessons of history is senseless. These things are either foreign to (most) liberals, or they're just not interested in discussing anything that proves them wrong.

If you want to get through to (most) liberals, you need to get all touchy-feely. Reality doesn't matter to (most) of them - only what they "feel" matters. Their lives are governed strictly by emotions.

Results don't matter to (most of) them either, only intentions. Again, a purely emotional response. To (most of) them, good intentions are the be-all and end-all; results are not to be considered.

I don't know about you, but when my foxhole is being overrun by fanatics, I want the guy/gal next to me to respond to the situation directly and unemotionally, not sit back before (s)he acts and try to decide whether or not these fanatics had bad parents, or were poor, or maybe could be talked to and reasoned with if we are nice to them. I want the guy/gal next to me to pull the trigger first, and think about it after, if (s)he must.

:vader:

 

Do they actually make braile keyboards? I'm at the tail end of taking an eight year history lesson that has taught me all I need to know. Of course, you've had your head down in a foxhole so I do have to give you a little leeway.

 

Some days its warm, some days its cold. Thats why its called weather. They call them 100yr storms because they've happened before. Technically we are in an ice age. When theres ice at the caps, its an ice age. This world goes thru cycles. We are nothing but a flea on Mother Earths back. This place will be here long after we're gone. Hell, I could go for some "Global Warming" right now. Its like 50degrees and I have to ride to work!