READER COMMENTS ON

"Rightwing Wall Street Blame Game Misfires at the Community Reinvestment Act"

(10 Responses so far...)





COMMENT #1 [Permalink]

... markg8 said on 10/5/2008 @ 11:58 am PT...





I've been countering this crap at wingnut blogs all week. They're trying to blame Fannie and Freddie too and I have no doubt that they'll be quoting that NYT piece out today with Sen. Jack Reed pressuring Freddie's manager to buy more low income loans back in 2004. I also have no doubt the reporter found 5 Repub senators saying the same thing at that hearing but chose not to use it. Isn't that what the Republican "ownership society" was all about? Some idiot at US News wrote an op-ed Friday suggesting McCain take it to Obama about Fannie and Freddie. About 100 wingnuts agreed whining McCain is being much too nice and has to attack, attack, attack! The problem for McCain is that he has 19 campaign advisers that have lobbied for Fannie and Freddie including his manager Rick Davis who only stopped receiving his $15,000 a mth from Freddie I think it is in August when the "communists" in the Bush adminstration nationalized it. It's fun to write this stuff and watch their heads explode. You can almost see the little little starbursts coming through the screen and ricocheting around the living room. ;-}

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... tbrown said on 10/5/2008 @ 12:12 pm PT...





the meltdown has little to do with RACISM.The clear facts are that Fannie/Freddie had no real assests behind them and they continued on their mission of buying mortgages.Then lobbied and fought any oversight.This was done in 2003-2004.Just watch the C_SPAN tapes of those hearings where Congressmen like Maxine Waters,Barney Franks et al attack the AUDITOR(who is telling Congress that Fannie is 10.6 Billion in the red) and contend there is nothing wrong with Fannie/Freddie. Your attempt to hide the above by raising a RACE isssue will lead us to not be able to FIX the problem.You should be ASHAMED

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]

... tbrown said on 10/5/2008 @ 12:27 pm PT...





One point for Brad to consider.It was 2004 when the Auditor made his findings to Congress showing the 10.6 billion lossess.In Jan 2005 Franklin Raines is forced to step down. (over the issues raised in the Audit)It is from this point on that Obama starts receiving his campaign contributions from Fannie/Freddie (appox 140,000).Oh yes Obama did write a letter to the Sec of Treas in late 2007 about compensation and accting issues.Sounds like an extension of Voting PRESENT or "if you need me just call".What an absolute JOKE

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]

... Agent 99 said on 10/5/2008 @ 1:07 pm PT...





Just take out two hours and watch this movie. It will make a lot of things going on in the current "meltdown" clearer to you.

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]

... Ancient said on 10/5/2008 @ 1:59 pm PT...





Thanks Des, for carrying on in the war against ignorance...the only war I'll fight in!

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]

... markg8 said on 10/5/2008 @ 2:07 pm PT...





"Then lobbied and fought any oversight." And all those lobbyists are now running McCain's campaign. Davis himself headed the Homeownership Alliance, the lobbying group formed by Fannie and Freddie in 2000 to fend off any oversight. From 2000 to 2005 his company received $35,000 a month for that work. Then when the FMs closed HA in 2005 Davis asked for and received $15,000 a month personally for nothing more than his access to McCain. The people running McCain's campaign successfully fought off efforts to stop Fannie and Freddie from doing the same stupid unregulated deals as the now dead, absorbed, or floundering big five investment banks on Wall St. Fannie and Freddie have lots of assets but like most of Wall St. so much of it is unsellable right now. Just like my deceased parents house my siblings and I inherited this spring. It's worth $400,000 but if no prospective buyers can get a mortgage in a frozen credit market we can't sell it anymore than Fannie can sell mortgage backed securities even if the mortgages backing them are 96% sound.

COMMENT #7 [Permalink]

... DES said on 10/5/2008 @ 6:24 pm PT...





TBrown, it helps to read the post before commenting; you are talking about mismanagement and debunked rumors relating to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not the Community Reinvestment Act that is the subject of this post. Secondly, the factual evidence, as excerpted in the post above and available elsewhere for anyone who chooses to look, shows that the CRA is not at fault in the meltdown on Wall St. This industry report released in July 2008 shows that the majority of subprime-rate loans originated in 2006 were made to non-Hispanic Whites and upper-income borrowers. To what would you ascribe the reasoning behind this demonstrably false accusation from the rightwing media, pointing to the CRA, if not thinly-veiled racism? Seriously, I'd like to know. Thirdly, whether in reference to Fannie, Freddie, the CRA, or any other entity involved in the banking system, if you can find ONE CASE in which the lenders were FORCED by the law to give a bad loan that they otherwise would not have made, forced by law or "pressure" to endanger their own banks and their own jobs and ultimately the entire financial system, please by all means link to it here. "Pressure" to increase investment in low-income and minority communities is simply not a plausible excuse for the lending industry to justify their utter abandonment of sound banking practices. The CRA is a convenient scapegoat.

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]

... TEDEGER said on 10/5/2008 @ 11:40 pm PT...





The culprit is plain GREED. Lots of lenders created that abominalion called the "Variable rate loan." Now, anyone with any sense KNOWS that a "Variable Rate" NEVER goes DOWN! People who could afford 5% and were making their payments watched as the interest rates doubled or worse, suddenly making the interest deadly. Had the lenders been willing to renegotiate much of the disaster could have been avoided, but the selfish greedy bastriches held out for loot, and lost it all. CRIME PAYS - but sometimes not very well.

COMMENT #9 [Permalink]

... CLB said on 10/6/2008 @ 2:01 pm PT...





The wingers have been targeting Obama through FM2 for months as an attack and dodge away from McCain's Keating involvements. And the notion that poor (black) folks who could not afford their loans are now looting taxpayers (like Reagan's non-existent welfare queens) is an attempt, as it was with Reagan, to fly in below overt attack levels.

COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... CambridgeKnitter said on 10/9/2008 @ 7:24 pm PT...

