The Folly of Financial Reform
by Andrew MellonI come bearing bad news. Reform of our financial services industry is going to be a failure. Leave aside the preconceived notions that politicians will come up with faulty or halfhearted regulations, that they are writing bills in cahoots with the big banks or conversely ACORN & Co. or that the Obama administration in general is anti-business.
While these ideas may all have merit, the reason that financial reform will be disastrous is that all legislation points towards dealing with symptoms rather than addressing the root causes of our financial collapse. While of course the narrative in the MSM centers on greedy “fat cat” bankers taking big risks and predatory lenders taking advantage of hapless borrowers, the fact of the matter is that in every aspect of this crisis government was the major enabler. Ironically all financial reform centers around giving government more power.
Consider housing. As we know, under the CRA and due to the “activities” of ACORN and subsidization from our taxpayer-owned siblings Fannie and Freddie, banks granted mortgages to borrowers far riskier than they would have in an uninhibited mortgage market. That one of the innovations to meet the demand for mortgages was, for example, the adjustable-rate mortgage which reset to sky-high rates after a specified amount of time was not predatory but rather the natural way for banks to compensate for the massive incremental risk being taken by lending to uncreditworthy borrowers.
To castigate and regulate lenders for charging interest rates deemed “unfair” or “punitive” as our politicians have spoken to in their reasoning behind creating a Consumer Finance Protection Agency (a moral hazard-enabling bureaucracy, if ever there was one) is not only reckless but also ignorant. Absent fraud, the lender and borrower are both responsible for voluntarily signing the contract.
When large financial institutions bought up pools of mortgages and created what were essentially bonds that paid interest from the cash flows of the mortgages, this would not have been an inherently flawed enterprise if the pools of mortgages had been rated properly. But remember, it was the government-stamped oligopoly of ratings agencies that gave the banks their blessing to rate junk as if it was gold.
Granted, there is an inherent conflict of interest in that the banks pay the ratings agencies to rate their financial products, but absent government cartelization with regards to credit rating, there would be far greater competition in ratings for investors, including perhaps a proliferation of investor-funded agencies. Further, investors might be more apt to do their own homework instead of relying on an oligopoly in the first place. In an unencumbered economy, just as those who took out mortgages would take responsibility for their decisions, so too would investors. It is not the job of the state to “protect” them, and the state makes the economic system inherently more dangerous by absolving people from performing their due diligence.
Besides these issues, mistakes were amplified by the moral hazard inherent in having an SEC purportedly created to protect investors, an FDIC which effectively removes all responsibility from commercial banks in the loans they make and the past bailouts of large US businesses including those in finance.
I would argue that most importantly, fueling the bubbles that occurred in housing, stocks, commercial bonds, consumer credit and numerous other assets was the Federal Reserve, which set interest rates artificially low, leading to excessive and imprudent lending and concomitant excessive and imprudent investment and spending. Jefferson was prescient when he said,
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
It is important to understand that shrouded behind its mystique, the Federal Reserve is merely a handful of bankers that centrally plan the price of credit, the interest rate. For them to ever pick the Federal Funds rate, of which almost all interest rates are based, is a fool’s errand. The monopoly control over money supply by the “quasi-private” bank suffers from the same defects as the central planning of the supply of any good in a socialized economy. The true or real interest rate would reflect the intersection of the supply of and demand for loanable funds, which would come from the savings of people. By driving interest rates down and printing money, the Fed distorts the rate and causes unsustainable and unjustifiable bubbles.
Given the aforementioned conditions, is it any wonder that banks levered themselves up to obscene levels, took reckless risks and grew supposedly too-big-to-fail? The “heads I win, tails you lose” attitude engendered by institutionalized moral hazard, history and the distortion of the economy by the cartelized banking system under the Federal Reserve is only natural. Excluding the Madoff’s of the world (whose schemes may incidentally be loosely based on our Social Security system), government enabled this crisis, and government has failed to acknowledge its endemic role in it. Yet despite its essential role in the crash, government is now asking for an unprecedented even greater amount of control over finance.
Financial services was already the most heavily regulated before this crisis. Even if regulators were angels, their efficacy would still never match that of market participants. Individuals who put their money at risk in an environment in which regulators merely seek out and punish outright fraud are going to hold businesses accountable for decisions on leverage, compensation, size and business model better than even the most well intentioned public servants.
Curtailing risk-taking, limiting firm size, implementing compensation standards, breaking up prop trading from traditional banks and almost all of the other changes being proposed are not only whimsical and detrimental to market discipline but merely deal with symptoms rather than root causes. Onerous regulations will lead to capital flight and likely deter competition and innovation as it becomes increasingly less attractive to enter the financial services industry. There will likely be other more insidious consequences to any major legislation as well.
In sum, I submit that an honest conversation on financial reform must deal with causes rather than symptoms. Word out of Washington in my view fails to address these causes, but focuses on controlling business rather than the culprit enabler of the state. Contrary to the arguments of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and friends and foes alike, the antidote to our problems in finance and our economy in general will not come from Big Government but from Big Individual.
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81 Comments
One of the best descriptions of how this whole debacle started.
Andrew Mellen, eh?
If you are the real deal, from the Mellon Family, than that brings some credability to bear.
"In sum, I submit that an honest conversation on financial reform must deal with causes rather than symptoms. Word out of Washington in my view fails to address these causes, but focuses on controlling business rather than the culprit enabler of the state. Contrary to the arguments of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and friends and foes alike, the antidote to our problems in finance and our economy in general will not come from Big Government but from Big Individual."
You just summed it up quite succinctly. WE, have problems. Big Problems. It is going to take someone way above my pay grade, and even higher up than the Dynamic Dou's; Timmy Geitner and Benny Bernanke to figure a way out of this quicksand……….
And so, we continue our march toward statism. We must hit the reset button now and have a public debate about the real cause of the destructive path we are on; more goverment will never be the answer to any problem; creating a climate that allows all the opportunity to take part in the American experiment is the best path! Let's not trade that in for the nanny state mentality. Those who have "done it right" must get serious about mentoring those who want to; and educating those who don't even have a glimpse of "it" yet!
It always comes down to the little people having to save the day. (no, not leprechauns!)
Obama isn't stupid, he knows exactly what he's doing. And he's doing it on purpose.
" We must hit the reset button now and have a public debate about the real cause of the destructive path we are on"
I am not educated.
I never graduated even high school.
Yet if I can see the problem, then why can't "they"?
They ARE the problem. Government.
Government is never the solution, Government is the problem.
They need to get thier act together, or get gone……….
If either party popped up and committed themselves to reducing the size of the Federal Government by 50% in two years they would win elections for the next 100 years at this point.
The time has come for the parties to put up or shut up and realize that the American people want them to manage our checkbook responsibly or be thrown out of office.
Government does not improve wealth or increase your "quality of life" or "create" jobs, they enslave you to their schemes and handouts.
Nobody is "entitled to prosperity" or "guaranteed an equal outcome" of happiness, those can only come from hard work and sacrifice and it is high time the American people re-learned that lesson of economics 101..
Time to change the dichotomy!
"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" ( Who shall watch the watchmen ? )
~~ Juvenal : Roman satiric poet, 1st cent. A.D. – 2nd cent. A.D.
Here's a link to a video all must watch, but I warn you now…it will piss you off righteously.
The IndyMac Slap In Our Face.
The FDIC sold failed IndyMac to One West Bank, owned by a Goldman Sachs VP and George Soros. All mortgages and HELOCs were sold at 70% and 58% par value respectively. Insult to injury, FDIC guaranteed the losses of…THE ORIGINAL VALUE of the mortgages (not the discounted value One West Bank bought them at). This is a reason why banks aren't renegotiating mortgages going into foreclosure. They're guaranteed to make money hand over fist.
Watch the video, get mad, get your address books out and git to forwardin' this link to all.
http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tb...
Word out of washington will not be: "We, the feds are the root cause of your financial system failures and shortcomings… in fact we are the cause of most all economic enslavement, diminished liberty, and the destruction of poor families through dependency-based policies."
No, I don't think that will be the word out of d.c.
Rumor has it that the 'brain trust' in Washington is looking to enact 'usury laws' to protect whom? Credit 'bustouts'. This is more progressive socialism re-distribution at work. The answer is, if you don't pay your bills and won't pay your bills, you're out. No income, bad credit, is your own fault and you are entitled to nothing. It is grossly unfair to spread guaranteed losses to those who are responsible. I applaud the new 79.9% credit cards for 'toads'. Meanwhile, get ready everyone with scores of 700+. We, the responsible ones, are going to get stuck with the tab for the dead beats thanks to the progressives.
He is NOT America's friend or savior and I agree, he IS doing this deliberately to force us into his Marxist Dystopia!
People like to paint conservatives as "evil" but one thing is for sure in that lousy argument, we don't "admire" Castro, Chavez, Che or Mao and that says something important.
We don't look to "dictators" for "inspiration" or "wisdom"!
Well said Missy! Would you like a donation for your Senate campaign?
So, basically, what you are saying is: we're screwed. Great.
Nah, I can blow more holes in Marxist ideology in my private life, besides why would I want to rely on the Federal Government for a "paycheck"?
We can insist that candidates commit themselves to these principles or we can dispose of them for ignoring history and enslaving us to THEM.
It's time to send the bad "money managers" home forever!
Cowboy, I think the way out is simply to stop digging. Then a lot of stuff will crash around us… it won't be pretty. It's gonna crash anyway when we are officially recognized as bankrupt. People keep talking about the reset button, but there is 100 years of crap to undo. I don't see how we could manage a "workout" plan at this point.
Hey folks.
Here is a new little twist to the article above, that nobody is discussing, yet. Wait until our friendly A-hab the A-rab bankers enact Sharia Law, and enforce that. Now you talk about a brouhaha!
http://www.arabbankers.org/shared/custompage/cust...
If you view the link, the name David Leuscian will not be familiar to many, if any of you. This man has done more to harm America, and US, than any behind the scenes person alive. He ran the Energy Desk at Goldman Sachs, he was instrumental, in on the ground floor, with the Global Warming scam, and Cap and Trade. He is a ghost…….
The problem at the fed was they shirked their oversight responsibility in the name of a long ago discredited laissez faire ideology that has more to do with politics than economics. That is what created the moral hazard that allowed the banks to gamble with tax payer money without going to jail. When Alan Greenspan was asked how the fed allowed the financial collapse he replied that he overestimated the market's ability to punish and weed out the bad players.
So now the answer on the right is the same one they've always had… abolish government regulation. If this is allowed to stand it won't ever take 10 more years before the next meltdown, but one thing you can count on is when it happens, the right will blame it on too much government regulation.
Government is NOT your friend, they ARE your adversary and its time they realized THEY WORK FOR US…
Not the other way around…
I don't know if ObowMao is stupid or not. Perhaps he's only of average intelligence. The only thing we really know is he reads very well off a teleprompter. I believe he's only a pawn and there are men behind the curtain with their hands up his butt.
Many governmental bureaucrats plan on 2nd careers with the very firms they are chartered to oversee after they put in their 20 years with the government. Makes it difficult-if not damn near impossible-to enforce regulations, press forward with investigations and prosecutions when you view your wards as future employers.
Mao is murder!
I have had enough of "hype and Che"!!!
Harry Handupme! lol
lately i've been thinking of the folly of tax cuts because the govt. can cut taxes and then just borrow more money instead. its the spending thats the problem and spending is all that the LSD(Liberal Socialist Democrats)party have to offer. They get the money from somewhere and our free civil society will slowly crumble
Truer words have never been spoken on this list. There is no way to regulate the banks until we get out of bed with them. I predict it is going to take one more financial meltdown with baby boomers too old to recover and facing a difficult retirement to generate the political will to overcome the avalanche of money from the financial industry that controls the congress.
Maybe it will wake up some teapartiers too, but sadly, I doubt it.
That the government knows exactly how every business should be run, and can impose rules to make every business run correctly is ludicrous on its face.
the govt.'s great entreprenurial idea is "rationing"
CL, my friend. I thought I'd Google the Carlyle Group, do a little quick study and then respond to you. But this is going to take some time. Stand by.
P.S. I'm getting a lot of "Server Error", "Access Denied" or "Message Not Found" on a number of links…hmmmmm.
Excellent summary of events. It runs counter to the political narrative which now demands retribution. I can recall the "affordable housing" mantra from the Left back in the late-80's and early 90's. Banning 'redlining,' which was basically reflecting the fact that poor people lived near one another in homes they could afford to buy, the government punished banks at that time for not making what amounted to bad loans. The WSJ at that time foresaw the problem with the progressive, giveaway logic: the metric should be foreclosure rates, not skin color or geography. The system sloshed with money and home prices went skyward. Money attracted speculators and fraud. Another accurate account of the meltdown: http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/06/the-true...
Excellent summary of events. It runs counter to the political narrative which now demands retribution. I can recall the "affordable housing" mantra from the Left back in the late-80's and early 90's. Banning 'redlining,' which was basically reflecting the fact that poor people lived near one another in homes they could afford to buy, the government punished banks at that time for not making what amounted to bad loans. The WSJ at that time foresaw the problem with the progressive, giveaway logic: the metric should be foreclosure rates, not skin color or geography. The system sloshed with money and home prices went skyward. Money attracted speculators and fraud. Another accurate account of the meltdown: http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/06/the-true...
Agreed. He's starting a new phase it would appear…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/13/obama-...
Yup. Plenty of blame to go around, including the average joes. But root causes are government tinkering, esp. the Fed and GSEs, the latter courtesy of Frank, Dodd and friends. Sorry to say the same clowns are now in charge of plotting a rescue.
I'm afraid we're not headed towards the edge. We've already gone over it. Any momentary perception of weightlessness is NOT "flying", and will end abruptly with a whopping thud. What happens after our Greek moment will probably be tough. Among the challenges will be a crew in the WH who never let a good crisis go to waste.
Here ya go:
http://www.carlyle.com/Company/item1678.html
Pay attention to 2010 candidates, folks as elections have consequences.
There are recourses to Executive Orders, we need to make sure our candidates know that we are giving them a mandate to contol ObowMao.
EOs can be overturned by a 2/3 majority or a court challenge the grounds that the Order deviates from "congressional intent" or exceeds the President's constitutional powers. The Constitution was written specifically so that no one person could have power to act unilaterally.
Liberty, we have this discussion at our kitchen table a lot these days. We already pay dearly in taxes and I rail at our taxes being raised. My husband argues that the deficit has got to come down and it's risk to our national security. He's an Intel guy so I give weight to his side of the argument.
"When Alan Greenspan was asked how the fed allowed the financial collapse he replied that he overestimated the market's ability to punish and weed out the bad players."
Not exactly: from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27335454/
"Greenspan was asked to defend a variety of actions he took as Federal Reserve chairman — resisting recommendations to use the Fed’s powers to crack down on subprime mortgages, for one. And opposing efforts to impose regulations on derivatives, the complex financial instruments that include credit default swaps, which have also figured prominently in the current crisis.
He said that outside of credit default swaps, the bulk of financial derivatives had not caused major problems. He said the boom in subprime lending occurred because of the huge demand for investment opportunities in a global economy, and he blamed the crash on a failure by investors to properly assess the risks from such mortgages, which went to borrowers with weak credit."
My take on that is that the bad mortgages (initially forced upon banks, which banks later embraced when they could bundle and dump them) were difficult if not impossible to assess regarding risk. The market lacked information here. Once information was accurate the market melted. No one would buy the bundled product. The bundled product was then marked down drastically, catastrophically reducing banks' balance sheets and thus, due to the 'mark to market' rule, reducing the availability of all credit.
I disagree with your narrative, but if your idea of regulation is assuring that banks and mortgage companies make loans to only qualified buyers with well-assessed risks, we may have some common ground.
No video there…?
I don't know of anyone who wants to give unqualified buyers mortgage loans. The banks would never have gotten into it if they had to live with the paper. But the loans were quickly repackaged and sold as "mortgage back securities" so there was little incentive to be frugal.
We could have ridden out the $12 trillion in bad debt created by the bursting of the housing bubble. What created the meltdown was the $60 trillion in un-collateralize CDRs that were not regulated by anyone. My problem with the fiasco was the rush to deregulate and the push to non-regulate the new financial instruments that left the economy so vulnerable. There is plenty of blame to go around and no political party can claim clean hands. After all, it was Bill Clinton who signed the legislation that repealed the Glass Steagall protections that had served us well since the great depression.
NEWS FLASH:
Just out — Obama was a committed marxist in college. John Drew PhD, knew him then and is now talking.
NEWS FLASH:
Just out this week — Obama was a committed marxist in college. John Drew PhD, knew him then and is talking. Check it out.
Say cheese: Obama also to start monitoring blogs, and website comments "for next several weeks, for the Olympics" . This is just creepy.
.
Wow, sorry about that. Don't know what happened but that is the 2nd time I've posted a link and have it redirected elsewhere.
I did find the video I wanted to post on youtube. Try this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sL-zMsRU8Y&fe...
This post was long on blaming the government and very short on detail about what to do about it. It ignores that there is even a structural problem and offers nothing but "Big Individual"… whatever that is.
In the mean time, we are just as vulnerable to another financial meltdown as we were in 2007 when the wheels began coming off the cart. We won't notice the problem again until the economy heats up and investors again start looking for "risk free" places to put all their money with high returns. The brokerage firm that provides it will make billions before the system collapses, and then the taxpayer will be expected to bail them out or they will threaten to take all of our 401ks down with them. Too big to fail is a reality that has not been addressed, and will never be if the banks have their way. And right now it is looking good for them.
"Word out of Washington in my view fails"
Ya think. Unicorns Mermaids consume consume consume. Did I say that we need to consume?
Borrow consume. Borrow consume. Borrow consume. Actually that's two words out of DC.
today is paramount to Treasury fraud deadlines see-http://www.globalanalysis.net/news/270_they_may_b...
Our fraudulent finance is from the top down, has been for a longggggg time. Most people don't even know the FED is not a government entity but a private banking enterprise to financially rape and pillage the taxpayers.
I often wonder how people can miss the obvious. How can 46% still approve of little o?
I think that I glimpsed a tiny window into the why. In lunch-time discussions with co-workers this week I mentioned Climategate, and three of the six people at the table said, "What's Climategate"?
Either they are totally not paying attention, or are only watching the MSM. Without hearing any truth, how can we expect them to make informed choices?
It's up to us to inform them. We cannot allow ourselves to be quiet any longer.
But don't run from them, ridicule or despise them – feel sorry for them. Help them learn, but be patient and kind. Remember what it was like to learn there was no Santa Clause or Easter Bunny. Be gentle.
Yes. Shamless.
Alexander Hamilton: "Without exceptions, wherever politicians have posses the power to print money, they have abused it, at a great cost to the economic health of the country in question.”
Folds are becoming aware that Fed money printing is a hidden form of taxation. They print it up out of nothing , backed by nothing, then spend it as they please. The cost is borne by the public as any dollars they hold or earn are now worth less.
Greenspan and Bernanke spent the last several decades doing this to bail a succession of big money players, in the process stoking the tech bubble, the home finance bubble, and now the government finance bubble that dwarfs them all. And since the meltdown last year, the Fed went into overdirve, at the same time, closing more of its books from public view…what a coincidence.
So here we are drowning in debt and with the dollar having lost 97% of its value since the Fed started.
Here's a book by Ron Paul on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/dp/0446549...
"I don't know of anyone who wants to give unqualified buyers mortgage loans."
There's plenty of C-Span footage from the 2005 Congressional hearings on Fannie Mae where Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, and the whole Congressional Black Caucus seem to be saying that that is just what they wanted.
Totally agree.
Exactly right and well stated.
Even if that were true, it doesn't account for the meltdown of the financial sector. Freddie and Fannie would not have been able to make those loans if it were not for the willing buyers of the paper. And you are giving a lot of credit to a couple of congressmen who were in the minority at the time. It doesn't wash.
The Ludwig Von Mises Institute has been discussing this issue for over 100 years. The long and the short of it is to follow our Constitution and bring back "specie" backed money with no central bank, but rather individual banks where responsibility backed by a 100% Gold reserve will keep the politicians, the bankers, and inflation and deflation in check. No more "Bubbles" which only line the pockets of the bankers!
Reform would work.
Make it so any congressman who votes to give taxpayer money to a private corporation, is immediately disemboweled and fed to some zoo animals.
And any corporate head who begs for, or tries to borrow or steal the taxpayers money to bail out his mistakes should be thrown into a wood chipper.
Then, shut down the Ivies and banish them from the continent, and burn down Goldman Sachs with everyone in it. Be sure to toss all the G.S. graduates in the government into the flames.
You know who you are, scum. So do we.
Obama is the puppet of the international bankers, among others…must be a lot of hands stuffed into that puppet.No wonder none of his polocies are working.
"Every American family MUST have a home…"….But that's just the most recent event.I consider this morgage flap to just be the extension of the S&L Scandal, but that's just me.It's just sick that our economy is based on a bunch of "dirty rags"(paper money is made of what?),and even more useless junk bonds, and stocks.Unfortunately the only "reform" I see on the horizon is the government completely bankrupting the USA and spliting it into 5 or 6 countries that are 'magically' debt free, to the distaste of the international bankers…
I wish it could be written off to stupidity or incompetence. But he clearly is not a stupid man. Yet, everything he's doing is 180 degrees opposite of what's in the common sense best interest of the country. Aims to spike taxes in a bad recession. Burying us in debt. Wants to prosecute SEALs and CIA, but protects Abdumatallub with Miranda rights so he doesn't have tell us anything about the next planned attack. Then consider BHO's background, and look at the unelected, unscrutinized czars he is surrounding himself with, and their backgrounds.
Sometimes you connect the dots, and you'd rather not believe what it tells you, but it is what it is. People took leave of their sense electing this guy.
Mr. Mellon this is an excellent piece, it does a good job of pointing out the Problem. The 'progressive' element in this country's government has been at the root of ALL OF THE CHRONIC FINANCIA TROUBLE, that has plauged this country since 1913. We need to taper down and eventually end the FED, and government , get the HELL out out Business. The last depression we had that ended quickly and fairly well was in 1920, the one you don't hear much about.
'Even though it was worse than 1930 we don’t remember the 1920 depression because the President didn’t tinker with the economy and built the groundwork to allow quick recovery without wide spread damage.
That President? That was Warren G Harding. Harding "embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did."
Under Harding, GNP rebounded to $74.1 billion in 1922. The number of unemployed fell to 2.8 million, s reported 6.7 percent in 1922. Then fell again in 1923. So, just a year and a half after Harding became president, the Roaring Twenties were underway.
The Secretary of Commerce? That was Herbert Hoover who wanted government intervention in the economy … which as president he was to pursue a decade later when he transformed the second Great Depression into the beginning of a disaster.'
Andrew you modest guy you, lot listing your bona fides like that.
LOL
So, basically, what you are saying is: we're screwed. Great.
Mr. Mellon this is an excellent piece, it does a good job of pointing out the Problem. The 'progressive' element in this country's government has been at the root of ALL OF THE CHRONIC FINANCIA TROUBLE, that has plauged this country since 1913. We need to taper down and eventually end the FED, and government , get the HELL out of our Business. The last depression we had that ended quickly and fairly well was in 1920, the one you don't hear much about.
I beg to differ Cowboy, it is only 'because' you were not exposed to the Academy, that you can see clearly.
You are quite well educated.
OMG, once again with the TP's. The Progressive Facists are just as immersed, if not moreso, in political 'donations' from the financial sector than anybody. How in the hell do you think BHO raised so much money in campaign donations?From common folk. Cripes, you are so wrong on this issue, as you are on every other issue.Do you think the TPM is looking forward to soliciting donations from the financial sector? You are truly making yourself look foolish. Tying the TPM into this issue is so patently absurd that I do believe TPDS has taken over your thought process every waking moment in your life.
Do you wake up in a cold sweat, fearing the TPM has taken over the world? You approach the deranged ravings of olbernut, madcow and matthews.Whew! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Hanzo
love your approach
It does wash, RESEARCH. Bawney Fwank was a MAJOR player in the Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae push to grant insane loans to 'first time buyers'. When did this legislation start and where did the impetus come from? I'll give you a hint, it started before Bush was elected.That's not to absolve Bush completely, even though Paulson was the 'power that be'(sic) to push this headlong.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Hanzo
You would be giving Obama to much credit if you really thought he was behind the financial mess.
The People that caused this mess are the owners of the federal reserve and owners of them which own all the central banks around the world.
The global elitists have the power and influence to put key people in positions and to buy others off.
They put Obama in office just like they put Bush in before that and so on.
The true fix would be to nationalize the federal reserve and not abolish it.
Yup. I saw that too and thought the same thing. He'l do whatever it takes because for Marxists the end justifies the means.
Like Midas in the fable, who from his insatiable wish had everything he touched turned into gold. For which reason others endeavour to procure other riches and other property, and rightly, for there are other riches and property in nature; and these are the proper objects of economy: while trade only procures money, not by all means, but by the exchange of it, and for that purpose it is this which it is chiefly employed about, for money is the first principle and the end of trade; nor are there any bounds to be set to what is thereby acquired.
http://www.politik-web.de/2010/02/hands-off-polit...
woodchipper???……..damn, has Saddam come back as Gumby?
How our governme4nt REALLY works!!
Thomas Jefferson was adamantly opposed to the idea of a privately owned federal bank and said " I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies".
However, in 1836 President Jackson, overriding Congress, closed it commenting, "The bold effort the present bank had made to control the government are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it."(we now have another one like it)
Andrew Jackson also said, when speaking to the bankers: "You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God I will rout you out."
The year is now 1913, the year after Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States. Prior to his election he needed financial support to pay for his campaign, so he reluctantly agreed, that if elected, he would sign the Federal Reserve Act, in return for that financial support.
In December 1913 while many members of Congress were home for Christmas, the Federal Reserve Act was rammed through Congress and was later signed by President Wilson. At a later date, Wilson admitted with remorse, when referring to the Fed."I have unwittingly ruined my country".
No sprechen se deutch…
If you were addressing me; the answer is yes and it's a life sentence.
Sadly, there is no reason for weak politicians or banksters to behave. Why should they? No one is tearing them limb from limb. Their houses are not burnt to the ground. Their corrupt offices have not been shunned.
Feeding guilty parties into wood chippers would, I think, modify behavior rather quickly.
Excellent post, wldbil.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Hanzo
i look at it this way, the 800+billion "stimulous" was nothing more than a gigantic stealth tax increase.
the 800+billion stimulous was nothin more than a gigantic stealth tax increase, they should have called it what it was…the 800billion dollar tax increase!
And who created a secondary-market dumping ground for subprimes? Fannie and Freddie. And when responsible banks refused to make garbage loans, ACORN sued to force them to.
Give it up, Mickey. All the water in De Nial can't wash away the responsibility of liberal lunacy for the subprime disaster.
Mjdzfun, unfortunately I didn't need to watch that to get upset. I am going through the whole ordeal now with OneWest. They are pushing for a foreclosure and have already sent my file to their attorney's without even so much as an attempt to help modify and the interest only mortgage they forced down my throat after construction was completed by putting a PITI mortgage out of reach and holding me at the balls. The FDIC is nothing but corrupt and as we are seeing now, the who financial industry extending into the govt arms. This country is gone to hell.
As I said in other posts, I believe that before we were even a "United States of America" there was a major disagreement between the founding fathers about having a king of just an elected leader of these "United States" which were about to create a Federal Government! This rift has always been about power and control and over individual rights verses group control(slavery, anyone)! Unfortunately, everybody likes to acknowledge a divine spiritual leader and along with a divine savior of man, but not a fallen "Lucifer," who is real, if ever one is real! Lucifer is still "running" this world until the "one" comes found worthy to replace him according to the bible! What is going on NOW in this world "economically" will never be resolved in any long-lasting, satisfying, and/or workable solution by "man," especially with what has happened through our educational system and the progressive(Marxist) anti-intellectual movement permeating not only the world, but especially own nation! Yes, there are "unacknowledged forces" at work behind every failure of man at this time! "Unless those days are shortened, no flesh will survive." "But for the elect sake, those days will be shortened, WATCH!
Here is an interesting note.Canadian banks did not change their banking standards and allow these stupid loans to occur.There was an effort in Canada as well,by leftist groups to get people into housing,by forcing the banks to be irresponsible.Canadian banks and the Canadian government,did not cave into their pressure.End result: No mortgage meltdown in Canada.The Canadian real estate markets on fire with home values going higher.Of course there just might be a few rich Americans investing too, because of Obama and his demonize the rich approach to things.Democrats and acorn should be tarred and feathered for stopping fred and fran from being regulated to stop the nonsense.As well as any republican who joined in those votes.When you have no skin in the game and your monthly payment doubles,why stay in that home?
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Obama is making his efforts to make things better for us. For sure, the foreclosures are really hitting hard and making damage, people aren't resisting, but he will make it, I believe!
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