First lets address the mythology of the Democrat controlled medias analysis of this "financial crisis".
The 1978 Community Development act passed under Carter, pressured banks and financial institutions to lend to low income families, minorities and people with bad credit.
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac are quasi government agencies known as GSE’s that guarantee half the home mortgages in the US.
Their “GSE” status allowed Fannie/Freddie to amass a dangerous and distorted proportion of the overall market share. Prominent Democratic politicians including Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Chuck Shumer, and Barack Obama are all closely tied and have received substantial contributions from Fannie/Freddie.
Franklin Raines is a former Clinton Administration official who ran Fannie since 1998 and got out with 90 million. Raines instituted a new “pilot program” in 1999 to further loosen lending requirements. He has advised Obama on economic issues.
Clinton and the Republican Congress attempted to implement more oversight over Fannie/Freddie but were resisted by congressional Democrats.
When accounting irregularities were eventually divulged in 2004 Dem’s again resisted more regulation. Rep. Barney Frank quoted was quoted as 2006 saying “These institutions(Fannie/Freddie) are fundamentally sound”.
Glass/Seagal, which separated commercial and investment banking was repealed in 1998 under the CLINTON ADMINISTRATION.
Sarbannes/Oxley, a so called “regulatory reform” measure was passed during the first Bush administration after the Enron Debacle. It simply created more red tape and led to ballooning accounting costs due to increased and arbitrary federal audits.
Hey liberals are you starting to see a pattern here?
Extremely heavy government influence in the housing market/mortgage business and close relationships between the GSE’s and politicians.
Routinely ignored is the Federal Reserves encouragement of malinvestment by mandating artificially low interest rates. Even worse they debase the value of our currency by printing fiat money to finance deficit spending by politicians.
Having the government “fix” this problem is like asking an arsonist to put out a fire he started. And now the left wing media will tell you that it was “unregulated free-market capitalism” that caused this mess. The same old lie, here we go again.
I know, I know….
“The only way we can fix this is even bigger more intrusive government!”
So let me get this straight, the Federal Reserve controls/manipulates the currency. The Government taxes/spends and engages in deficit spending and inflationary monetary policy. They guarantee half the home loans. Then they mandate that private institutions must give loans to people with bad credit, and the media/politicians absolve themselves of all responsibility and say “It was all Wall Streets Fault” and “The evil of Capitalism”. Oh brother, what self righteous nonsense.
Any politician that voted for this “bailout” which is really corporate welfare deserves nothing but contempt(Obama/McCain and all the rest). It will not solve these problems it will only exacerbate them.
If the left really cared about this issue than they would have the assessors appraise everyones property down to the current market value rather than continue to collect property taxes on inflated assessments from 2004-2007 which would also help people refinance their loans.
Oh but then we would have less property tax revenue, and liberal democrats couldn’t have that.
When the media, Democrats, “moderate republicans, and George Bush all team up for legislation you know your in trouble. The fear-mongering that preceded the bailout was unprecedented.
Nobody is “too big to fail”. Institutions that make bad investments SHOULD FAIL. And the 90% of homeowners that are currently paying their mortgages on time should not foot the bill.
Liberals act is if only solution to any problem is intrusion and interference by government. It really is a bizarre mental disorder. They believe that politicians are some kind of combination of Superman and Santa Clause.
If their magical ideology was infallible than why do left wing states like California have such enormous problems?
California is dysfunctional. Stagnant growth, broken schools, crowded prisons, high unemployment, shocking violent crime, high taxes, excessive regulation, suffocating traffic, deteriorating infrastructure, unbalanced budgets, alarming drop out rates, gangs, crowded hospitals. The state is bankrupt and we also have one of the worst bond rates in the country. Amazingly, we have several measures currently on the ballot to spend even more money! Most are pork barrel energy initiatives pushed by corporate backers and special interests.
Politicians don’t have the power to fix your personal financial issues. They do however have the capability to inflict tremendous harm on the economy as a whole and create endless rules that accomplish nothing.
An Obama administration will be nothing more than an extension of the failed policies that got us here in the first place. Get ready for Jimmy Carter part 2.
Besides this housing bubble has been brewing for 20 years. It’s the predictable product of malinvestment encouraged by the Federal Reserves manipulation of interest rates and easy credit policies. Notice that you almost never hear criticism of the Federal Reserve system from the left or neo-conservative republicans.
All this government nonsense is the root of the financial problems. Private lenders with hard currency WOULD NEVER loan to a shaky borrower without coercion.
How often do we hear democrats talk about “affordable housing”. Well thats what this nonsense is all about.
Here in LA Villraigosa wants to spend 5 billion taxpayer dollars to finance new welfare projects for the destitute and illegal immigrants. PEOPLE THAT DON"T PAY TAXES.
Sounds so nice doesn’t it, except every project that’s built tends to fail, become worn down, infested with drugs/crime, condemned and actually encourages the type of behavior the perpetuates poverty. The sweetheart no bid contracts that politicians award to construct “affordable housing” usually end up lining the pockets of political contributors/operators.
The Obama/Rezko fiasco in Chicago is a perfect example.
Have projects, welfare and food stamps helped Cabreni Green in Chicago?
No, its even worse than before.
Are the Marcy projects of Brooklyn nicer places to live today because of the patronage of NY Democrat politicians?
No, once again they are even worse. Crime, drugs, chaos, poverty, unemployment are rampant.
We have a lot of big-hearted democrats here in LA, I guess South Central LA must be getting better right?
Wrong, these schemes don’t work. They just enrich politicians, political operators, and encourage the very conditions that create poverty in the first place. They also create a cycle of dependency which allows politicians to use confiscated wealth to redistribute in order to bribe their constituents for votes.
If you didn’t earn it, you don’t deserve it.
Koreans in LA don’t ask for handouts. They work hard, own business and what a surprise, they end up succeeding.
I don’t see any Indian Americans living in housing projects either. People from these countries often come from circumstances significantly worse than the urban poor in the US. If the left-wingers theory of class disenfranchisement is so irrefutable than why do these people succeed WITH NO GOVERNMENT HELP.
If democrats really cared about the downtrodden poor than once again why not assess housing down to lower taxes and help refinancing.
The reason is they want to keep taxes as high as possible and have a vested interest in continuing to prop up the artificial government created housing boom.
Taxes, inflation and deficit spending hurt the poor more than any “government program” will ever help them.
Inflation confiscates wealth by driving up prices and devaluing the currency. Not one of the solutions proposed by Democrats will help alleviate these problems. And pork barrel energy schemes that benefit politicians and their political patrons will not solve our energy crisis.
WAKE UP, THE CAVALRY ISN"T COMING, AMERICANS MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT NOT POLITICIANS.
The sad truth is McCain's defeat will be an appropriate rebuke. The neocons must be purged NOW.
How can we differentiate ourselves from Democrats when Neo-cons like McCain
support socializing the mortgage industry and team up with the likes of Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold?
If McCain opposed the bailout he could have made a stand, but by supporting it he blurred his position with Obamas on the financial crisis. A critical error, since the bailout is morally wrong and was opposed by an overwhelming majority of the American people. McCain deserves to lose on that issue alone.
McCain would help us keep radical liberals off the bench, but at what cost? Would another neo-conservative administration really help the conservative movement in the long term?
Fortunately, the left wing agenda will only exacerbate the financial crisis and encourage our enemies to challenge America. "Cap and Trade" plus pork barrel energy schemes will mean an energy crisis like Carters during Obama's first term. Far left policies will always fail because they are fundamentally philosophically flawed. We can resist Obama and the left, but the neo-cons only make it harder for us by supporting the same big government policies.
The important question should be how will we fight? Will it be through continued Neo-conservatism or a return to traditional constitutional conservative principles.
America is a center right country. We could turn the tide in 2010, but only if we purge the neo-cons and stand up for the principles of financial conservatism, non interventionist foreign policy and limited government that have been abandoned.
