Actually I bought two mortgage companies. And so did you -- Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. The federal government's unprecedented bailout of the mortgage giants could cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion (that's with a "b").To be fair, the U.S. Treasury didn't have a lot of choices. Failure of these organizations is not an option. Combined, they hold over $5 trillion (that's with a "t") in mortgages. At the same time, it is extremely frustrating to know that risky behavior by Fannie & Freddie during the boom times is what led us, in part, to the crisis at hand.
If you are like me, you have followed the mortgage crisis and subsequent credit crunch in the news over the last year or so. I got the gist of the situation -- but I only vaguely understood exactly how we got in this mess. Then a few months ago This American Life broadcast an amazing hour of radio that completely explains who did what, when and where and how these actions built up to the largest government bailout in U.S. history. They've got a transcript of the show, but if you have about an hour, you should really listen to it. It's easy to digest, entertaining and you can download it to your iPod. It will make you mad, but you'll be glad you listened.
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And the folks around KCMO [via the disreputable Hickman Mills School Board] have bought an artsy fartsy QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLAR Ruskin High School ART FENCE.
The current barrier is completely serviceble, and can be fancied up in a number of PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR ways. Pure insanity just waiting for Leno or Letterman to get the word!
DonLake@localnet.com
619.420.0209
John McCain and others warned of this situation in the 1st half of 2006. See the letter...
http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/docs/gse_reform_060505.pdf
The McCain campaign is helpless if that can't get this in the headlines. Of course the media wouldn't care to share the facts.
Two weeks ago This American Life did an updated episode on the economic crisis. A "Part Two" to the original broadcast. It is titled "Another Frightening Show About the Economy" and can be purchased on iTunes (or listened to on their website). That Ira Glass, he might be part of the liberal media, but he sure is a good man.
I am glad someone else liked the program that Ira put out there...Amazing. And I of course have been getting mixed results trying to get all office co-workers to listen to - gulp - public radio!?!??!
Anonymous's assertion that the "media wouldn't care to share the facts" simply isn't true. John McCain probably only jumped on the bandwagon of warnings when the problem was already out of control.
There was wide-spread corruption (more accurately "fraud") in the mortgage industry at all levels of the loan-approval process, including, but not limited to falsification of applicants' income figures, assets versus liabilities, and allowing borrowers to use credit cards to make down-payments.
It wasn't just Chris Dodd, Fannie, Freddie, and Wall Street who got us into this mess. Even the ratings agencies were lying about the solvency of the underlying mortgages that went into making up so many kinds of bond investments.
There are many culpable parties along the chain. The current Administration in Washington was warned back as early as 2003 that things were getting out of hand. What was their answer? STAY THE COURSE, because it's good for the economy. Our real estate market has kept our economy afloat for at least 5 years while the current Administration has spent every last dime in our Treasury -and then some! They needed the housing boom to hide the fact that they had ransacked our future. And they say Democrats spend, spend, spend?
Put things in perspective, and remember the market is a beast unlike any other. It has no brain, and certainly no soul.
It takes a good memory to piece events together. Washington KNEW in August/2007 that we were headed for disaster, but did nothing while investors & especially margin traders pulled their money and went looking for fresh meat (no pun intended). They found it in the commodities markets, specifically oil. Yes, folks, that's why the price per barrel went so high. Speculators, and margin traders who buy investments on credit, borrow money to invest with, and hope when they sell it's at a profit. What if they mis-time their sell orders and don't make money on the spread? Then they owe somebody.
The current Administration waited until the 11th hour to ram their "bailout" down the throats of the American people via our elected officials. When it became clear that Congress didn't want to act too hastily, Bush recalled an entire Army Division and threatened them with martial law. How's that for extortion?
Thankfully the American people had their say on November 4th, and turned out into the streets those who've ridden roughshod over us for the last eight years.
We shouldn't bailout white-collar crooks, and it's too late to ask for an opportunity to review Paulsen's plan. Only problem is there are too many criminals in this ponzy scheme and we don't have enough cells to house them all.
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