Jimmah At Fault For This Financial Mess

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IBD details what many of us already know about this economic crisis we are in. That being the fact that the genesis of it lay at the feet of Democrats. Most thought it was the fault of Clinton, but in fact it goes back a bit further back to the single worst President in recent memory….Jimmy Carter: (h/t Newsbusters)

To hear today’s Democrats, you’d think all this started in the last couple years. But the crisis began much earlier. The Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas.

Age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so on the basis of race.

These well-intended rules were supercharged in the early 1990s by President Clinton. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans.

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Failure to comply meant your bank might not be allowed to expand lending, add new branches or merge with other companies. Banks were given a so-called “CRA rating” that graded how diverse their lending portfolio was.

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In the name of diversity, banks began making huge numbers of loans that they previously would not have. They opened branches in poor areas to lift their CRA ratings.

Meanwhile, Congress gave Fannie and Freddie the go-ahead to finance it all by buying loans from banks, then repackaging and securitizing them for resale on the open market.

That’s how the contagion began.

With those changes, the subprime market took off. From a mere $35 billion in loans in 1994, it soared to $1 trillion by 2008.

Everyone should read the article from beginning to end….lots of detail. While the MSM has been busy blaming the collapse of some of our financial businesses to Republicans they have ignored the true start of the thing, which should surprise no one. Bush and McCain warned of this mess years ago and our Congress critters did nothing.

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I have just post a comment on another thread, but now that I just finish reading yours, I think I should link it here also. So here it is:

“The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but “predatory.”

Read the rest of this editorial:
THE REAL CULPRITS IN THIS MELTDOWN
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306370789279709

Craig:
But to hear Nancy Pelosi tell it, the Democrats are in absolutely no way responsible, so thats the truth of it. 🙂 It almost seems that the Democrats modus operandi is to get in office and get comfortable, do nothing to govern the country, then blame the Republicans when the bottom falls out. Biden has been doing this for 35 years so what qualifications does he have to be vice president that Sara Palin does not have?

The scary thing is that the country is dumbed down just enough, getting their news from the MSM, to elect the Dems regardless. It’s almost as if they’d vote for the devil if he had a (D) after his name.

Could you do me a favor? I tried to respond to you and several other people who commented on my post: MSM Jackals. The page opens but I cannot get to the response box and send. I can only see the very top of the response box and it will go no further. The scroll arrow goes all the way to the bottom of the bar indicating the end of the page has been reached although there is more. Normally if the page is slow loading, you can reach the end of the bar and it returns to a higher position as the page loads, but not in this instance. The page opens completely but the bar runs out of space to open the page. Is this happening on your computer on this post?

Thanks

“The turmoil in the housing market and the resulting financial crisis is just the latest example of political failure. Politicians wanted more home ownership than the market produces on its own, especially among low-income families. To encourage this politically popular goal, Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM – news – people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE – news – people ) were allowed to privatize their profits and socialize their losses. At the same time, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required them to expand their commitment to affordable housing. Freddie and Fannie achieved this goal by buying bundles of subprime mortgages.”

Read more:
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/09/18/market-organic-regulation-oped-cx_rr_0918roberts.html

Add into this mix the Sarbanes Oxley Act which resulted in traditional investment banking underwriting to move to London and away from New York and you have Wall Street firms desperately seeking out new revenue opportunities. Lenders with poor quality loans you want to move off your balance sheet, meet investment banks looking for new product to underwrite. From top to bottom this crisis, as is any economic crisis from the Great Depression, to the massive inflation of the 1970s, to the current energry crisis and credit crisis have at their root massive government failure. What is the natural prescription though… more government regulation.

there are also independents that are running around saying the repubs casued this with their global greed. i don’t get it, it comes down to people who should never had a loan in the first place got loans and then defaulted. i think that is the simplist terms you can use. i know that carter started this thinking that every one should be able to own a home. well yeah you should be able to own a home, everyone should as long as you have the money to pay for the home and don’t default. duh, you have to pay your bills so you don’t lose the house. i wouldn’t loan money to a friend who i knew didn’t usually pay money back. hello, thats like just giving money away.

Craig:
In other words: “Democratic members of Congress along with Bill Clinton, jump-started the policies set by Jimmy Carter, for the purpose of buying votes, and set new, much lower, lending standards for banks, mortgage companies, and other lending institutions towards lower income Americans, ie, blacks, poor whites, and the alike.”

“Both George Bush and John McCain, for what its worth, put forth bills to regulate and reign in the out-of-control market, but the Democrats killed both bills.”

“In essence, loans were made to people who never had a chance of paying back the loan. The lending institutions knew that the people had no chance to pay back the loan, yet they gave them the loan, since the new regulations decreed that the people got the loan.”

“People of moderate, and of wealthier means then got into the game, buying up houses and ‘flipping’ them, speculating on the rapidly rising increase in ‘valuation’ of the homes with the expectations of making massive profits off the sales.”

“Democrats in the meantime made millions off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and invested in their future, the top three recipients being Christopher Dodd, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.”

“As defaulted loans mounted, the banks and other lending institutions began to feel the pinch.”

” When the bottom falls out, the depth of the problem shocks the nation, and thus economy, to the core. Congress is helpless to come up with a solution. Or more truthfully speaking, since they say the Republicans caused the problem, the Democrats would rether go home for the recess.””

“The Federal Government steps in, bails out selective lending institutions, and takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, thus saving the ‘Masters of the Universe’, and sticking the taxpayers with the bag for untold decades to come.”

“Next day, its business as usual, stock market after severe losses a few days before, rebounds with the free cash and loses only .3% this past week.”

“Meanwhile, market speculators who put some millions in the rock bottom stock of Wachovia and other financial institutions made a killing Friday on the Federal baill-out.”

“And for the middle class……..the hits just keep on coming.”

It goes back farther than Carter. It started with FDR. Elimination of the Gold standard, massive government subsidation of failing industry (rewarding poor performers), and the spread of Keynesian socialist policy have all perverted our economy beyond recognition. It’s not the military-industrial complex we should’ve feared, it’s the monstrous federal government and laissez-faire money printing / devaluation of our currency.

We are effectively slaves to the federal government because they can devalue every dime you have earned or ever will earn.

The government can buy out all these failed companies but they will accomplish nothing until they repeal the laws that force banks to lend to people who default or do not have the credit to buy a house. The democrats will never do this. Therefore, they same thing will happen on down the road a few years from now.

AND, LET US NOT FORGET THAT…

many of those who are responsible for the current financial disaster . . .

. . . ARE EITHER NOW, OR HAVE BEEN, (r probably will be) OBAMA’S FINANCIAL ADVISORS!!!
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2008/09/pritzker-must-resign.html

…AND JUST WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT THEY WANT TO DO TO HEALTH CARE!
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2008/09/folks-who-brought-you-fannie-mae.html

It’s all designed to create a big pool of money from which they can siphon off at will.