Barack Obama

[transjen]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Before you pin the blame on Bush, you should know a little more history...

** 2001
April: The Administration's FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is "a potential problem," because "financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity."

** 2002
May: The President calls for the disclosure and corporate governance principles contained in his 10-point plan for corporate responsibility to apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (OMB Prompt Letter to OFHEO, 5/29/02)

** 2003
January: Freddie Mac announces it has to restate financial results for the previous three years.

February: The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) releases a report explaining that "although investors perceive an implicit Federal guarantee of [GSE] obligations," "the government has provided no explicit legal backing for them." As a consequence, unexpected problems at a GSE could immediately spread into financial sectors beyond the housing market. ("Systemic Risk: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Role of OFHEO," OFHEO Report, 2/4/03)

September: Fannie Mae discloses SEC investigation and acknowledges OFHEO's review found earnings manipulations.

September: Treasury Secretary John Snow testifies before the House Financial Services Committee to recommend that Congress enact "legislation to create a new Federal agency to regulate and supervise the financial activities of our housing-related government sponsored enterprises" and set prudent and appropriate minimum capital adequacy requirements.

October: Fannie Mae discloses $1.2 billion accounting error.

November: Council of the Economic Advisers (CEA) Chairman Greg Mankiw explains that any "legislation to reform GSE regulation should empower the new regulator with sufficient strength and credibility to reduce systemic risk." To reduce the potential for systemic instability, the regulator would have "broad authority to set both risk-based and minimum capital standards" and "receivership powers necessary to wind down the affairs of a troubled GSE." (N. Gregory Mankiw, Remarks At The Conference Of State Bank Supervisors State Banking Summit And Leadership, 11/6/03)

** 2004
February: The President's FY05 Budget again highlights the risk posed by the explosive growth of the GSEs and their low levels of required capital, and called for creation of a new, world-class regulator: "The Administration has determined that the safety and soundness regulators of the housing GSEs lack sufficient power and stature to meet their responsibilities, and therefore...should be replaced with a new strengthened regulator." (2005 Budget Analytic Perspectives, pg. 83)

February: CEA Chairman Mankiw cautions Congress to "not take [the financial market's] strength for granted." Again, the call from the Administration was to reduce this risk by "ensuring that the housing GSEs are overseen by an effective regulator." (N. Gregory Mankiw, Op-Ed, "Keeping Fannie And Freddie's House In Order," Financial Times, 2/24/04)

June: Deputy Secretary of Treasury Samuel Bodman spotlights the risk posed by the GSEs and called for reform, saying "We do not have a world-class system of supervision of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), even though the importance of the housing financial system that the GSEs serve demands the best in supervision to ensure the long-term vitality of that system. Therefore, the Administration has called for a new, first class, regulatory supervisor for the three housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banking System." (Samuel Bodman, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Testimony, 6/16/04)

** 2005
April: Treasury Secretary John Snow repeats his call for GSE reform, saying "Events that have transpired since I testified before this Committee in 2003 reinforce concerns over the systemic risks posed by the GSEs and further highlight the need for real GSE reform to ensure that our housing finance system remains a strong and vibrant source of funding for expanding homeownership opportunities in America... Half-measures will only exacerbate the risks to our financial system." (Secretary John W. Snow, "Testimony Before The U.S. House Financial Services Committee," 4/13/05)

** 2007
July: Two Bear Stearns hedge funds invested in mortgage securities collapse.

August: President Bush emphatically calls on Congress to pass a reform package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying "first things first when it comes to those two institutions. Congress needs to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused, and then I will consider other options." (President George W. Bush, Press Conference, The White House, 8/9/07)

September: RealtyTrac announces foreclosure filings up 243,000 in August - up 115 percent from the year before.

September: Single-family existing home sales decreases 7.5 percent from the previous month - the lowest level in nine years. Median sale price of existing homes fell six percent from the year before.

December: President Bush again warns Congress of the need to pass legislation reforming GSEs, saying "These institutions provide liquidity in the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital they operate safely and operate soundly. So I've called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs - and ensures they focus on their important housing mission. The GSE reform bill passed by the House earlier this year is a good start. But the Senate has not acted. And the United States Senate needs to pass this legislation soon." (President George W. Bush, Discusses Housing, The White House, 12/6/07)

** 2008
January: Bank of America announces it will buy Countrywide.

January: Citigroup announces mortgage portfolio lost $18.1 billion in value.

February: Assistant Secretary David Nason reiterates the urgency of reforms, says "A new regulatory structure for the housing GSEs is essential if these entities are to continue to perform their public mission successfully." (David Nason, Testimony On Reforming GSE Regulation, Senate Committee On Banking, Housing And Urban Affairs, 2/7/08)

March: Bear Stearns announces it will sell itself to JPMorgan Chase.

March: President Bush calls on Congress to take action and "move forward with reforms on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They need to continue to modernize the FHA, as well as allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to homeowners to refinance their mortgages." (President George W. Bush, Remarks To The Economic Club Of New York, New York, NY, 3/14/08)

April: President Bush urges Congress to pass the much needed legislation and "modernize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [There are] constructive things Congress can do that will encourage the housing market to correct quickly by ... helping people stay in their homes." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With Cabinet, the White House, 4/14/08)

May: President Bush issues several pleas to Congress to pass legislation reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the situation deteriorates further.

"Americans are concerned about making their mortgage payments and keeping their homes. Yet Congress has failed to pass legislation I have repeatedly requested to modernize the Federal Housing Administration that will help more families stay in their homes, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance sub-prime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/3/08)

"[T]he government ought to be helping creditworthy people stay in their homes. And one way we can do that - and Congress is making progress on this - is the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That reform will come with a strong, independent regulator." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With The Secretary Of The Treasury, the White House, 5/19/08)

"Congress needs to pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/31/08)

June: As foreclosure rates continued to rise in the first quarter, the President once again asks Congress to take the necessary measures to address this challenge, saying "we need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." (President George W. Bush, Remarks At Swearing In Ceremony For Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 6/6/08)

July: Congress finally heeds the President's call for action and passes reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it becomes clear that the institutions are failing.

Gee thanks congress for that timely action.

A very nice little fairy tale but hard to swallow from a president who only believe goverment should not be involved and let the lenders take care of it this is the son of a man who like Reagen believed in dereguration , And since most of the dates you list are when he had all three branchs in his pocket if he did ask it was BS for he know full well the REPs would never put regulations in place so the lieing weasel could lie and say i tried and it's not my fault Jennifer

[transjen]

before i get accused of not giving credit to what W accomplished in his 8 yrs, I'll will give him credit for what he did and he deserves credit and should not be cheated. W spent more time on vaction then any other president and yet he still manged to screw up everything way to go W. He lost more jobs then he created agian way to go W. He lied to congress about WMDS and started a BS war causing over 4000 brave troops their lives for his lies agian why to go W. He was warned about Binladin and he didn't pay attention to the warning as he was more conserned with tax cuts and making plans to invade Iraq agian way to go W. On 9/11 he was safely in FL reading my pet goat to 1st graders and when his aid told him what happend he just went back to reading the book no schook no anger nothing perhaps because he know ahead of time about the planed attack and wanted to use it as his excuss to invade Iraq after all Rove and Newt always said another Peark Harbor is what the GOP needed for support say way to go W. W fast tracks more free trade aggreements causing even more job loses by allowing more US companies to pack up and leave to find cheap labor and lies about how we should be thankful for all the job these aggrements will create but he forgets the jobs created will not be here so way to go W. Just some of the credit that W is due and if the secert stuff he did ever become public there should be more credit given him and hopefully when the war crimes trails start he will receve all the credit he deserves Jennifer

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by transjen

A very nice little fairy tale but hard to swallow from a president who only believe goverment should not be involved and let the lenders take care of it this is the son of a man who like Reagen believed in dereguration , And since most of the dates you list are when he had all three branchs in his pocket if he did ask it was BS for he know full well the REPs would never put regulations in place so the lieing weasel could lie and say i tried and it's not my fault Jennifer

Nice spin. Well I guess evidence and reality don't rank too high with you.

Originally Posted by transjen

He was warned about Binladin and he didn't pay attention to the warning as he was more conserned with tax cuts and making plans to invade Iraq agian way to go W. On 9/11 he was safely in FL reading my pet goat to 1st graders and when his aid told him what happend he just went back to reading the book no schook no anger nothing perhaps because he know ahead of time about the planed attack and wanted to use it as his excuss to invade Iraq after all Rove and Newt always said another Peark Harbor is what the GOP needed for support say way to go W.

I knew you were brainwashed, but OMG. I'm going to avoid violating the rule about arguments in Dilbert's Rules of Order. Enjoy your fairy tale.

[randolph]

Re: Tracy's post Bush warnings
The repeated requests by Bush to do something is not surprising. If Bush could get congress, to do something and we got a recession then Bush could blame Congress. Also, Congress did not want to do anything for the same reason. The Bush sequence of warnings shows that the Bush administration was aware that things were going wrong for years and did nothing. Bush did not need Congress to do something, the Treasury and the Fed could have done something to calm down the financial system. Greenspan could have simply raised interest rates to calm things down. The extremely low rates produced and excess of liquidity that the financial markets had to deal with, which resulted in the abuses that led to the meltdown. The booming housing market and stock market were good for Bush and helped compensate for the bad news from Iraq and his low ratings.

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by randolph

Re: Tracy's post Bush warnings
The repeated requests by Bush to do something is not surprising. If Bush could get congress, to do something and we got a recession then Bush could blame Congress.

Congress (mostly dems) repeatedly said that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were financially sound. I have posted videos of this. You can see it from their own lips. We now know this to be completely false. Bush had been warning congress about it throughout his 2 terms. He had been asking congress to regulate the financial institutions, which we now know they needed. Leave the spin out and let's just deal with the facts. Otherwise we'll be saying "Is too" "Is not" "Is too" "Is not" for all eternity.

Originally Posted by randolph

Also, Congress did not want to do anything for the same reason.

This is why they didn't want to do anything about Freddie & Fannie:

Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

Name                    Office  Party/State    Total                   
1. Dodd, Christopher J    S        D-CT      $133,900                
2. Kerry, John            S        D-MA      $111,000                
3. Obama, Barack          S        D-IL      $105,849                
4. Clinton, Hillary       S        D-NY       $75,550                 
5. Kanjorski, Paul E      H        D-PA       $65,500                 
6. Bennett, Robert F      S        R-UT       $61,499                 
7. Johnson, Tim           S        D-SD       $61,000                 
8. Conrad, Kent           S        D-ND       $58,991                 
9. Davis, Tom             H        R-VA       $55,499                 
10. Bond, Christopher S   S        R-MO       $55,400                 
11. Bachus, Spencer       H        R-AL       $55,300                 
12. Shelby, Richard C     S        R-AL       $55,000                 
13. Emanuel, Rahm         H        D-IL       $51,750                 
14. Reed, Jack            S        D-RI       $50,750                 
15. Carper, Tom           S        D-DE       $44,389                 
16. Frank, Barney         H        D-MA       $40,100                 
17. Maloney, Carolyn B    H        D-NY       $38,750                 
18. Bean, Melissa         H        D-IL       $37,249                 
19. Blunt, Roy            H        R-MO       $36,500                 
20. Pryce, Deborah        H        R-OH       $34,750                 
21. Miller, Gary          H        R-CA       $33,000                 
22. Pelosi, Nancy         H        D-CA       $32,750                 
23. Reynolds, Tom         H        R-NY       $32,700                 
24. Hoyer, Steny H        H        D-MD       $30,500                 
25. Hooley, Darlene       H        D-OR       $28,750

These are total contributions made from 1989-2008. Interesting isn't it how Obama worked his way up to the number 3 spot (Hilary's up there too) on Freddie and Fannie campaign contributions after, what 2 years in congress? Near where others have been in office for 20+ years. Things that make you go hmmmmm.

Originally Posted by randolph

The Bush sequence of warnings shows that the Bush administration was aware that things were going wrong for years and did nothing.

What can Bush do? He can only ask congress to act.

Originally Posted by randolph

Bush did not need Congress to do something, the Treasury and the Fed could have done something to calm down the financial system.

With what money? Doesn't that come from congress?

Originally Posted by randolph

Greenspan could have simply raised interest rates to calm things down. The extremely low rates produced and excess of liquidity that the financial markets had to deal with, which resulted in the abuses that led to the meltdown. The booming housing market and stock market were good for Bush and helped compensate for the bad news from Iraq and his low ratings.

Yes, Greenspan could have raised interest rates. He liked to make his presidents look good and did so for both Clinton and Bush. Even with higher interest rates, the CRA required Freddie and Fannie to make loans available to minorities who couldn't afford them. But yes, it might have at least caused these people requesting loans to rethink if that was wise.

[transjen]

Why not show a list of top donors to W? showing the drug companies, investment banks insurence companies credit card companies the oil industry, W raised more funds from special intrest that anyone could have from there wildest dreams agian you are quick to point the blame over to the DEMS and over look at what THE LIEING WEASEL W did Jennifer

[randolph]

Yes, Greenspan could have raised interest rates. He liked to make his presidents look good and did so for both Clinton and Bush. Even with higher interest rates, the CRA required Freddie and Fannie to make loans available to minorities who couldn't afford them. But yes, it might have at least caused these people requesting loans to rethink if that was wise.

This was not only unwise but just plain stupid, it put the whole system at risk. We should have learned from Johnsons subsidized housing fiasco. Democrats, especially Dodd will have to take a lot of blame for ignoring that. Dodd got a lot of money from fanny/freddy because he was in charge of the committee overseeing them.
It is very apparent that until we prevent Congressmen from being bribed by special interests the public will continue to get screwed and the economy will be at risk. The airwaves belong to the public why cant we require the TV stations to provide free air time for politicians? this would dramatically reduce the need for vast amounts of campaign money to get elected. The billion dollars spent by Obama is obscene something must be done to restore credibility to government.

[TracyCoxx]

I take back some of what I said about BO learning from his mistakes. He claimed his stimulus package would limit the loss of jobs and that unemployment would peak at 8% by this fall. It's already at 9.4% and still rising.

His solution? Keep spending money... and faster!!!