Biden Blames Unpopularity Of Administration On....Wait For It......

[Munky]

If Bush made me cynical of govt, O'biden only further contributed to that cynicism.

 

[Fern]

Sure, but before that it was a Republican-controlled Congress and Presidency that did NOTHING to address or to even acknowledge the problems that led up to all of this. All Bush wanted to do was grant amnesty to the illegals.

Under Bush's watch, the rate of the nation's transformation into a third world country increased dramatically and he did NOTHING to address it nor to even acknowledge the causes.

For the record, I think both the Republicans and Democrats deserve blame for the state of our nation's economy and I want to get rid of both parties. However, I have greater animosity towards the Republicans. As I see it, the Democrats are just stupid. The Republicans know what they're doing and are vicious and also advocate religious dictatorship.

Seventeen times, Bush publicly called for reform of both institutions. But Democrats and Republicans in Congress ignored the warnings and denied there were any problems.

Link to chronology of Bush's requests for financial reform:

http://newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/gse-financial-timeline/2008/09/22/id/325475

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
In 2003, the Bush Administration attempted to create an agency to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill never made progress in Congress, facing sharp opposition by Democrats.[48]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Econom..._W._Bush_administration#Regulatory_philosophy

September 11, 2003
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10— The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are 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.''

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/b...d-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

Just keepin it real.

Fern

 

[Jhhnn]

Notice the dates... Fannie and Freddie weren't really in trouble as of 2003. By 2007, after being used and abused by the Bush Admin and their banking buddies, they were sinkersville.

GSE loans and bonds originated in 2003 and earlier are *not* a major issue in the banking and mortgage imbroglio...

Repubs' interests in reform only went so far as grabbing headlines and creating plausible deniability, anyway. From the conceptualization of the "Ownership Society" platform forward, the Bush Admin basically forced the GSE's to buy crap thru their regulator, HUD. Executive bonuses depended on meeting the HUD goals, and we all know what that means...

 

[Fern]

He warned of needed reform every year, not just in 2003.

Fern

 

[Jhhnn]

He warned of needed reform every year, not just in 2003.

Fern

Yep, even as his regulators basically stuffed the GSE's full of Liars' loans and bonds based on them.

Deeds speak louder than words, particularly in reference to the Bush Admin.... In concert with Greenspan's FRB, they facilitated the greatest top down looting spree in the history of finance, then bailed out the perps with public funds when it went over the edge.

They created perception with what they said, reality with what they did, and the two don't match. It's just that simple.

 

[werepossum]

Yep, even as his regulators basically stuffed the GSE's full of Liars' loans and bonds based on them.

Deeds speak louder than words, particularly in reference to the Bush Admin.... In concert with Greenspan's FRB, they facilitated the greatest top down looting spree in the history of finance, then bailed out the perps with public funds when it went over the edge.

They created perception with what they said, reality with what they did, and the two don't match. It's just that simple.

Must be nice to only need one argument for all situations. Bu-Bu-Bush! Bu-Bu-Bush!

Funny, Glenn Beck did an hour or two in '04 or '05 about the coming collapse. He traced the problem as it grew from Carter's modest addition turning a guarantee for the middle class into a tiny bit of giveaway for the poor, traced every increase in the required rate of low income participation, traced the way "outdated metrics" like listing and verification of income and employment and credit history had been tossed in the GSE's struggle to meet their mandate, traced the way mortgage companies had been allowed to write junk loans with impunity which were then purchased by the GSEs and issued as securities, traced the way the repealing of the last of Glass-Steagall (in '99 - remember who was President in '99?) allowed every facet of our financial sector to invest in these suddenly sky-rocketing but doomed securities, traced the way they were rebundled to make them seem less risky, and predicted every aspect of how it was going to bring our whole economy down. The Democrats set the stage for the housing collapse, the Republicans did nothing to fix it and set the stage for the housing collapse to bring down the whole economy, and the Democrats fought tooth and nail to prevent Bush and McCain from fixing the system before it collapsed. (Remember, before the "Volcker Rule" there was McCain-Cantwell to restore Glass-Steagall.) I think you'd agree that Beck isn't the smartest guy, but he could see (at least after it was explained to him) exactly what was going to happen and why.

There are no clean hands in this one for either side. And nothing has been fixed - TARP brought short-term liquidity and government ownership instead of liquidating the "Toxic Assets", Glass-Steagall is still repealed, the GSEs still bear the same insane mandates.