Hi,
There was an article in our NEARBY follow-Obama-newspaper that caught this blogger's eye MAYBE entitled the "Economy is too complicated for the President or Government to control it" or some headline of the sort!
Ok. Yeah, the American economy is very complicated!!!!!!!! That's a given but CONTROLLING it and INFLUENCING IT are two words with different meanings. The article claimed that the home mortgage market debacle had it's roots elsewhere. THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE GOVERNMENT'S INVOLVEMENT AND INFLUENCE WASN'T A MAJOR PART OF THE MESS!!!!!!! GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE LED FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MACS TOTAL CULPABILITY for the subprime market's dmise.
ANOTHER ARTICLE caught my this blogger's eye in August. One that I saved because it is very quotable. It points out that FANNIE MAE--a Government CONTROLLED PROGRAM--bought a large volume of Countrywide Financial Corp.'s subprime mortgages (that company's subprime mortgages were held accountable in the snowball of debt that started the nation's foreclosure crisis).
Two points of interest were the takeover of Countrywide by Bank of America in January, 2008 relieving the financial services industry and regulators of having to clean up the bancruptcy of a company that "serviced 9 million U.S. home loans worth $1.5 Trillion at a time when the nation faced a widening credit cris, massive foreclosures and an economic downturn", according to The Associated Press. Plus they didn't have to prosecute and pay off millions of law suits. And we now know that Bank America received a major bail-out from the Government. NO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT????????
In Countrywide Financing's heyday they also made "hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, Congressional staff, top government officials, and executives of troubled mortgage giant, Fannie Mae, according to a house report" that the Associated Press got around to reporting in August. Among those many names that surfaced were top executive branch officials and three chief executive officers of FANNIE MAE. NO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT???????????
THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE COMMITTEE reported that a VIP loan program "was a tool used by Countrywide to build goodwill with lawmakers and other individuals positioned to benefit the company....in the years that led up to the 2007 housing maket decline
(CRISIS IS MORE LIKE IT), Countrywide VIPs were positioned to affect dozens of pieces of legislation that would have reformed FANNIE and its rival FREDDIE MAC. (BOTH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES--REMEMBER!!!!!!!) SURE, NO GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE!!!!!!!
OF COURSE, THE VIP TREATMENT COULD????????HAVE SWAYED THOSE VOTES BUT NOT ONE HAS BEEN CALLED TO TASK FOR THEIR WISDOM ON THE SUBPRIME VOTES!!!!!!!!!! The Associated Press named the following cited by the HOUSE REPORT: SENATE BUDGET CHAIRMAN, CHRISTOPHER DODD, DEMOCRAT-CONN; SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIR, KENT CONRAD, DEMOCRAT NORTH DEKOTA; AND MARY JANE COLLIPRIEST, COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF FOR THEN SEN. ROBERT BENNETT, REPUBLICAN, UTAH, ON THE BANKING COMMITTEE. All were cited in the report as HAVING RECEIVED VIP LOAN DISCOUNTS FROM COUNTRYWIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!There are many culpable that escaped criticism!!!!!!!!!!
THEN WHY HAVEN'T GOVERNMENT HEADS ROLLED. WHY HAVEN'T THE CULPRITS WHO COST OUR CITIZENS THEIR LIFE SAVINGS IN MANY CASES AND CERTAINLY THEIR CHANCE FOR A HOME IN MOST CASES been called to task. This blogger hears how MANY PROMISES are being made today by CANDIDATES and wonder if THEY ARE AS EMPTY AS THOSE HOMES FORECLOSED ON PROMISES OF PAYMENT THAT SIMPLY COULDN'T BE MADE??????????? ANY BANKER WORTH HIS SALT JUST A LITTLE OVER THIRTY YEARS AGO WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT YOU CANNOT LOAN MONEY TO FOLKS WHO CANNOT REPAY IT WITHOUT GOING BANKRUPT!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT IS SO DIFFICULT ABOUT THAT PREMISE THAT A WHOLE ARMY OF BANKERS TODAY AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOUND HARD TO UNDERSTAND?????? The culpability of the public???????? Greed in some cases. GULLABILITY IN OTHERS AND WELL, LET'S FACE IT--FINANCIAL STUPIDITY IN THE REST.
THIS BLOGGER MUST SAY UNEQUIVICALLY THAT THE GOVERNMENT DID CONTROL OUR FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND THE SUBPRIME MARKET BY THEIR INTERFERENCE WHICH INFLUENCED THOSE WHO WERE LENDING AND BORROWING. A frequent phrase I heard repeatedly from borrowers when questioned about their high payments and number of mortgages was "Well, the bank said if push came to shove, we could always refinance and probably at a lower rate!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!RIGHT AND PIGS WILL FLY WHEN THEY SPROUT WINGS!!!!!!! WHERE WAS THAT ABILITY TO REFINANCE WHEN THE SHIT HIT THE FAN!!!!!!!!! WHERE WERE THOSE JOLLY, GOOD NATURED MORTGAGE OFFICIALS, LOAN MAKERS AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS??????????
DID YOU HEAR OF ANY OF THOSE VIP LOAN TAKERS IN WASHINGTON OFFERING TO SHARE THEIR BONANZA WITH THE DEFAULTED LOAN TAKERS? THIS BLOGGER WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE WAS A GIVE-AWAY CONGRESSMAN THAT OFFERED TO SAVE EVEN ONE HOMEOWNER!!!!!!!!Evidently, not only do we not hold our elected officials accountable and to a higher standard than we poor voting fools but we do not even expect them to SHOW GOOD FAITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This blogger is sorry to say that the premise of the article in the newspaper was erroneous in leading people to BELIEVE THAT GOVERNMENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE AMERICAN MORTGAGE DEBACLE OR THE ECONOMY. IT HAS CONTROL THROUGH THE INFLUENCE WIELDED AND THE APPROVAL RECEIVED FROM THE PRESIDENT, CONGRESS AND THE VARIOUS PROGRAMS SET UP BY GOVERNMENT LIKE FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC.
YES, THERE ARE MANY FACTORS THAT PUT PRESSURE ON THE ECONOMY AND GOVERNMENT IS NOT ALONE IN INFLUENCING IT BUT IT CARRIES A LIONS SHARE OF CONTROL BY ITS SUPPOSED BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE. And Government like all walks of life has a FEW ROTTEN APPLES who can turn the whole bushell basket rotten!!!!!!!!!!!
CHANGE OUR CONGRESS AT THIS ELECTION--VOTE OUT THOSE WHO HAVE REPEATEDLY SHOWN THE ABILITY TO VOTE WITH THEIR PURSES INSTEAD OF THEIR ETHICS; WITH THEIR POLITICAL PHILOSPHY AND NOT THEIR LOGICAL SENSE OF VALUES; AND WITH THEIR LACK OF MORALS INSTEAD OF A GOD FELT FEAR OF ENDANGERING THEIR CONSTITUENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!
VOTE FOR CONGRESS AS IF YOU WERE ABOUT TO BE EVICTED FROM YOUR HOME BECAUSE OF THEIR ACTIONS BECAUSE THAT MIGHT WELL BE TRUE IF INFLATION CONTINUES TO RISE (oh, yes, it's there even when no one speaks of it) AND TAXES MAKE YOUR MORTGAGE PAYMENTS UNTENABLE.
VOTE ...........VOTE...............VOTE...................VOTE!!!!!!!!!!
AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. IT DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHEERS, CONNIE
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