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Footloose
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Posted: Mon Oct 6th, 2008 06:37 pm |
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Has everyone forgotten about Jamie Gorelick's ties to Fannie Mae and What She's Doing Now-? She was another influential Democrat involved in the banking crisis.Read below:
"In reading this article about Crony Capitalism at Fannie Mae, I noticed that Jamie Gorelick was one of the Fannie executives who benefited from inflated bonuses based on Enron-style accounting. She was Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae from 1997 to 2003 (Fannie’s fraudulent accounting scheme was made public in 2004)."
Last edited on Mon Oct 6th, 2008 06:37 pm by Footloose
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Kirk
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Posted: Mon Oct 6th, 2008 06:34 pm |
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I agree with Ben on this one (and look, it is still not snowing in Hades). I would expand the remark to include the notion that when times were going reasonably well, our society took on too much debt (at all levels of governance, business, and households) on the basis of too much optimism. Now the opposite is starting to happen - people are behaving exceedingly cautiously - yet another tendancy during a business cycle. We have a societal preference to overweight the possible positive outcomes relative to the costs (i.e. look at the millions of low income people who buy lottery tickets), and underweight the costs of negative outcomes (millions of baby-boomers who knew that once over the age of 55, their retirement funds should have been moved away from REITs and Stocks but they did not, thousands of Enron employees who left their entire nest-eggs in that one basket, millions of SUV drivers who chose to ignore the price patterns of oil and gasoline....).
A cynic might suggest that the bailout was engineered to tie-the-hands of successive administrations. By pushing the government to the brink of bankruptcy, the next decade of taxes are going to be devoted to trying to balance the budget and restore confidence in the long-term financial credibility of the U.S. This has effectively restricted nearly all policy-making into the minimization of government spending in an attempt to pay-down debt. This movement took place in the early 90s (with tax payers having read Bush 41's lips they elected Clinton), and once the budget surpluses started the optimists over-stated their case and drove us further into debt (but really, the Laffer Curve will work this time). Now the hole-to-fill is several Trillion bigger, and the upcoming hole in Social Security has less time to be prepared for. I must confess, for the long-run I am an optimist. I think we will be able to pay these bills, but in the next few years I think there will be many millions that won't. I just hope they do not lose sight of the lesson to be learned, 'debt is financial enslavement'. If too many people believe it is the system that failed them, instead of being introspective about their own choices, they may vote for some really bad alternatives. To borrow and twist a phrase from Churchill - Capitalism is the worst possible economic system, except for every other system.
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Ben Franklin
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Posted: Mon Oct 6th, 2008 05:33 pm |
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The bottom line is the President controll the 3 letter agencies they are all executive so if he wanted to do something he darn well could have.
this is a guy who tells his agencies not to enforce sections or entire laws congress has passed.
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Bixby
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Posted: Mon Oct 6th, 2008 01:29 am |
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Habanero wrote: Bixby, those are not the only lies and the lies go back much further than 2007.
What bothers the crap out of me is the lies from 3, 5, or who knows how long ago that are being covered by more lies now. You are right, Hab. I can dig up a White House Memo from 2001 where Bush warned that there was trouble ahead but no one paid attention. When Obama blames Bush and the Republicans for the financial crisis, I don't understand why the McCain campaign does not bring these points up. There is proof that the Democrats were the major contributor by a wide margin. That's why I feel that he doesn't really want to win this.Here is more:
The Lies on Inflation
"Core inflation has been relatively low in recent months and longer-term inflation expectations remain contained".- Fed 11/1/05
"FOMC participants project that the growth in economic activity should moderate to a pace close to that of the growth of potential both this year and next. Should that moderation occur as anticipated, it should help to limit inflation pressures over time...the economy should continue to expand at a solid and sustainable pace and core inflation should decline from its recent level over the medium term...our baseline forecast is for moderating inflation". – Ben Bernanke, 7/19/06.
"Core inflation is expected to slow gradually from its recent level" – Ben Bernanke, 11/28/06
"Core inflation, which is a better measure of the underlying inflation trend than overall inflation, seems likely to moderate gradually over time". – Ben Bernanke, 3/28/07
"With long-term inflation expectations contained, futures prices suggesting that investors expect energy and other commodity prices to flatten out, and pressures in both labor and product markets likely to ease modestly, core inflation should edge a bit lower, on net, over the remainder of this year and next year". – Ben Bernanke, 7/18/07
"The Committee expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters"- Fed 1/22/08 and 1/30/08
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Fred
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Posted: Mon Oct 6th, 2008 01:27 am |
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Why not? While you can legitmately make the argument that tax cuts for the rich are better than the tax cuts for the middle class, you've got nothing to base a charge that either candidate won't get their legislation passed. Unless, of course, you think the candidates are going to grow up and decide to actually pay the piper and the amount of money we've spent over the past 8 years.
What would you rather have them do? I'd rather pay for Iraq, pay for the bailout, and pay down the debt then ANY tax cuts, but I know I am in the minority for pulling for this level of responsibility.
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Rightwinger
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Posted: Sun Oct 5th, 2008 05:39 pm |
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I don't believe this bail out was in the best interest of the average American.
I don't believe Obama is going to give a tax break to the middle class, either!
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Habanero
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Posted: Sun Oct 5th, 2008 04:44 am |
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Bixby, those are not the only lies and the lies go back much further than 2007.
What bothers the crap out of me is the lies from 3, 5, or who knows how long ago that are being covered by more lies now.
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Fred
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Posted: Sat Oct 4th, 2008 12:25 pm |
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Is it relevant to ask "what did they know, and when did they know it?"
IF government intervention was inevitable, would it have been better for Paulson to bring a smaller plan to Congress a bit before this? I think we all accept that bad things to our economy were beginning to happen and would have really started to spread, but if we had started some process back in January, whatever that would be....could it have been better or cheaper? I think it came too late, but would the insurance-based plans been more efficient, and cheaper to the taxpayer?
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Bixby
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Posted: Sat Oct 4th, 2008 05:41 am |
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Paulson lied:
Speech 3/13/07 “The fallout in subprime mortgages is going to be painful to some lenders but it is largely contained…”.
Mr. Paulson on Bloomberg, July 26th, 2007, just days before two Bear Stearns Hedge Funds imploded: "I don't think it [the subprime mess] poses any threat to the overall economy."
Mr. Paulson's Press Roundtable in Beijing, August 2nd, 2007, likewise, just days before the hedge fund explosion and Ben Bernanke’s unprecedented “emergency” discount rate action: "I also said I thought in an economy as diverse and healthy as this that losses may occur in a number of institutions, but that overall this is contained and we have a healthy economy."
Bernanke lied:
Chairman Bernanke before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on March 28th 2007, just a few days later: "Although the turmoil in the subprime mortgage market has created severe financial problems for many individuals and families, the implications of these developments for the housing market as a whole are less clear. The ongoing tightening of lending standards, although an appropriate market response, will reduce somewhat the effective demand for housing, and foreclosed properties will add to the inventories of unsold homes. At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained. In particular, mortgages to prime borrowers and fixed-rate mortgages to all classes of borrowers continue to perform well, with low rates of delinquency."
Chairman Bernanke at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s 43rd Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, May 17th, 2007: "We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system."
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke speech to the 2007 International Monetary Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, June 5th: "The troubles in the subprime sector seem unlikely to seriously spill over to the broader economy or the financial system."
Chairman Bernanke to Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, April 3rd, 2008: "Clearly, the U.S. economy is going through a very difficult period. But among the great strengths of our economy is its ability to adapt and to respond to diverse challenges. Much necessary economic and financial adjustment has already taken place, and monetary and fiscal policies are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year."
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