[tomder55]

I agree that everyone suffers when bubbles caused by the unintended consequences of regulatory manipulations to advance a social policy goes south.

[Athos]

I agree that everyone suffers when bubbles caused by the unintended consequences of regulatory manipulations to advance a social policy goes south.

Ha ha. Good one, Tom. But demonstrably false. The CRA Act was in effect since the 70's and apparently did no damage for decades. It was only when Wall Street figured out a way to game securities based on garbage that the S*** hit the fan.

They were helped by deregulation, obviously, but it is impossible to get around the fact that without Moody's and that crowd falsifying ratings that the problem would have been limited to a bank failure here and there.

When the investment banks and the ratings agencies criminally colluded to make billions and billions, the house of cards soon collapsed. None of this is news. It's there for anyone with eyes to see.

Honest people may disagree on regulatory policies and social policies, but there is no doubt about the criminal fraud noted previously.

No offense, but this is almost identical to the position of the Right when WMD's were shown to be false. Then change the argument to how bad Saddam was. The present analogy it to simply blame regulation where the true blame is as clear as the nose on your face.

The saddest, and most dangerous, aspect of all this is that sound bites tend to sway the public. Anyone who takes the time to inform themselves will not be swayed, but it's a fight to persuade the public to take the time to inform themselves. After all, American Idol is on tonight - or the next night.

[Wondergirl]

American Idol is on tonight - or the next night.

Season 9 of AI has been over with since late May. The new season will begin in January.

[Athos]

Season 9 of AI has been over with since late May. The new season will begin in January.

How well you have zero-ed in on the completely non-essential. One hopes that you are attempting to be funny - but one wonders.

You may have proved my point.

[Wondergirl]

How well you have zero-ed in on the completely non-essential.

But THIS is essential --

...the current World Champions, the Giants, have a long, honored tradition of fielding terrific teams since 1880 or so. But their losing WS records reflect a lack of pitching, even with greats like Mathewson, McGinnity, Hubbell, Marichal, etc.

[Athos]

But THIS is essential --

Now you're cookin'.

You got me.

Too-shay.

[tomder55]

I'll give you the exposition essay that progressive publication 'Village Voice ' did on Governor Elect Andrew Cuomo while he was head of HUD as proof that in fact the manipulations of the CRA that caused the bubble did not happen at it's inception ;but in the Clintoon administration's determination to make every American a home owner ,regardless of their means .

But raising the affordable-housing goals was only half the Cuomo story.

The HUD secretary is also required to produce voluminous rules that govern how the GSEs meet those goals, and the 187-page rules Cuomo issued opened the door to abuse.

The rules explicitly rejected the idea of imposing any new reporting requirements on the GSEs. In other words, HUD wanted Fannie and Freddie to buy risky loans, but the department didn't want to hear just how risky they were.HUD conceded in the rules that many consumer groups had urged it to insist that the GSEs provide "loan-level data" revealing how many of their loans contained high interest rates, prepayment penalties, or other requirements that presaged bad loans.

Indeed, in March 2000, HUD had acknowledged that the new goal-driven pressure on the GSEs might "warrant increased monitoring and additional reporting." But when the final rules were adopted in October, that momentary caution had been abandoned: "HUD is not establishing any requirements for additional data to carry out this rule." The report explained that the GSEs "objected" to information mandates "related to their purchases of high-cost mortgages," so HUD decided against imposing "an undue additional burden." HUD would have no way of telling how abusive the low-income mortgages it was mandating might be.

Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice

I'm not saying it's totally the Democrat's fault . After all ;the Bush Adm. Adopted this social experiment also .

You will also note that of all the companies targeted in the Dodd -Frank reform law ,the only financial companies exempt are Fannie and Freddie .
Perhaps that is because becoming a board member of Fannie has been a cash cow windfall for Democrats for 2 decades... many of them alternating between the public financial industry and "government service" (and I use that term 'service' loosely ) .

That trend continues of course with the Obots. Peter Orszag, until recently the director of the Office of Management and Budget will join Citibank in a senior position ,continuing the revolving door.
But let me ask you... if there was criminal activity then why hasn't the Holder Justice Dept gone after those evil guys instead of the Democrats bailing them out ?

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

To insist the crisis was caused by government (Fannie and Freddie), with NO involvement from Wall Street, is asking for a repeat performance...

Buy gold.

excon