The current economic crisis is on everyones minds right now. And that is rightly so. It has the potential to impact each and every American for generations. Because of this it is important to understand the root causes of the problem. The following video shows clearly with facts that can be verified that the problems with our economy were caused by failed Democratic economic policies and that many Republicans, including John McCain have tried to right the ship before it was too late. Please sit back and watch this video. I believe that this video will open up some eyes.
Filed under: Abregar, Politics | Tagged: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Chris Dodd, Community Reivestment Act, Economic crisis, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, John McCain, President Bush, Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Great video only if it were true.
gcedwards,
Would you care to enlighten us about what isn’t true about this video?
I patiently await your refutations.
GC, I agree with abregar. What is false about this video. I have searched for the information. It is as the video claims.
Personally I think that you are just an Obama supporter that cannot handle the truth when it jumps up and bites you on the ass.
Gee, Go figure. Observe that Obama supporters run when faced with facts.
Your information connects the current crisis to Clinton and the democrats only. That is retarded considering the last 8 years was run by Republicans. It was the your leader GW who said in 2004, “that now more than ever Americans are living the American Dream through the highest surge in home ownership”. He was ready to take credit for what looked good on paper, but was a ticking time bomb. The truth is GW exacerbated the crisis by not regulating the enormous greed on wall street, and refusing to protect the American consumer. The fact is, 50 US states tried to stop the scam, but their efforts were thwarted by Washington. THERE ARE A PLETHORA OF EXAMPLES IF YOU DO A GOOGLE SEARCH MTF.
Let’s face the music, this was a get rich scheme by a bunch of greedy MTF that took advantage of a lending policy that was designed to help lower income citizens buy a home because Clinton got rid of well-fare. The ignorance of these lower income folks lead them to sign deals that were ripping them off. CNN reported that 68% of these subprime loan borrowers qualified for a prime loan, but were not told this by their mortgage lenders. The fact is that this current economic crisis stems from many other factors, other than the mortgage scam. The loosening of credit regulations across the board was the modus operanti of the last 8 years to offset the decrease in wage income (loss of middle class income) and tax cuts (flooding the market with cash = lowering the value of the dollar which lead to higher prices (inflation). The fact of the matter is real GDP growth is non existent, although the 3.3% number deceives many. This mortgage shit is only scratching the surface of the imminant US economic collapse. The bad mortgages do not total $700 billion. That should have alerted you to the real problem that is right around the corner! Now if you think flooding the economy with more money (McCain/Bush Tax Cuts) is going to solve the problem, then you’re a typical uneducated retarded greedy American. If you think deregulating Wall St. and the credit market is the right way to go, then vote for McCain/Plain. I really don’t give a fuck, let the MTFR burn!
I could go on, but I am not going to do your homework for you.
I never run!
Very, very disturbing are the politicians like Chris Dodd, showing up on camera to continually blame Bush, McCain, and Republicans for the crisis America is enduring.
Dodd must never have heard of the concept that when he points his finger at other politicians, THREE fingers are pointing back at him.
Chris Dodd and others have huge responsibility in what they have failed to do on their watch in D.C.
Informed voters have the Democrats in their sight and will not be letting up on the fact that there is so much blame to go around.
More and more information will come to light about all the players in this sad game of blame for a job NOT done!
gcedwards – I don’t know who is handing you your talking points but I am not buying what you are peddling. Go bark up some other Democrat tree.
Mr. Edwards,
Do a little bit of research before you post anything. President Bush attempted to prevent the mortgage meltdown in 2003. His effort was thwarted by Democrats that claimed it would prevent low income Americans from purchasing homes. President Bush tried to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to issues loans to individuals that they wouldn’t have under normal circumstances.
I think that you need to do a little of your own homework. If you had just looked elsewhere on this site you would know that I am opposed to the bailouts. I say let these corporations fail, carve them up and sell them to the highest bidder. They didn’t speak up and let it be known what was going on, then I don’t pity them.
The fact of the matter is that Republicans warned us that this was going to happen, but Democrats acted like the obstructionists that they are.
Ok, I am not going to continue this argument with someone who wants to blame everything on the Democrats. That’s hilarious considering the Republicans controlled both the White House (8 years) and the Congress (5 years). So to say that the Democrats held up any efforts proposed by the Bush Administration is absurd.
Bush attempted to prevent the mortgage crisis? Was that before or after he bragged about the surge in home ownership under his administration?
The problem with the democrats has been that they have supported too many of Bush’s failed policies.
McCain warned about this too? Well so did Obama. Neither get any credit. You understand that they go on record warning about things to cover their asses for future political purposes, but do not bust a grape to solve anything.
I warned about this too in detail (January 2007) to my accounting Prof. Ron Kopco (Kopco and Associates).
What you heard from both GW and JM was, “The Fundamentals of Our Economy are Strong”.
What you hear now from both GW and JM is, “This is the worst economic crisis in our lifetime”.
No amount of collusion will erase the facts.
The problem is GREED plain and simple. It doesn’t matter how we got here. What matters is that the greedy be held accountable and that goes for everybody from greedy and ignorant home buyers to the greedy corporations that give them the money.
Mr. Edwards,
You misunderstand what I am saying. Both parties are responsible for this debacle. But you are simply fooling yourself if you think that it was because of Republicans that this disaster has happened.
It is a documented fact that George Bush in 2003 supported more regulation of the subprime market. Democrats in Congress opposed this regulation because it would limit poorer individuals opportunities to obtain mortgages to purchase homes.
Then in 2005 John McCain cosponsored a bill that would have done the same thing that was once again opposed by Congressional Democrats. McCain attempted to do something about the collapse that he predicted. What did Obama do?
The whole debacle originated from the expansion of the Community Reinvestment Act under the Clinton Administration. I am not saying that Clinton was responsible for this problem. In fact from some of the research that I have done, he opposed this expansion much like Bush tried to regulate the subprime mortgage industry.
I never placed sole responsibility on Bush and the republicans. What is the name of the bill Bush supported? Again was this before or after he bragged about the soar in home ownership?
I guess the democrats are responsible for the bailout bill not passing too. They stopped another one of Bush’s great ideas. No, they supported Bush once again. The republicans stopped it, and blamed the Speaker’s speech.This is McCain trying to steal some thunder and distance himself from Bush and blame the democrats at the same time.
Bush supported the expansion of the CRA. Don’t try it!
Newsflash: 3 out of 4 of the subprime mortgage loans that caused the current crisis were not CRA loans!
Do your homework!
I have done my homework Mr. Edwards and your claim does not hold water.
The astronomical rise in home prices coincides the expansion of the CRA during Clinton’s administration.
Do your homework Mr. Edwards. President Bush did attempt to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003/2004. They did not get it done because Democrats blocked it. President Bush couldn’t have supported the expansion of CRA. The expansion took place under the Clinton administration.
John McCain did cosponsor a bill in 2005 in an attempt to reduce the possibility of economic disaster. It never made it out of committee.
As for the rejection of the bailout. This isn’t McCain trying to steal anything. He attempted to mitigate the disaster. He wanted to forgo the debate in order to concentrate on actually doing his current job as a Senator and leader in our government. I did not agree with his position, but I recognize that he at least tried to do something other than give a speech.
Personally I am glad that the bailout failed. It was a rotten piece of legislation from the get go. We should not be using taxpayer money to bailout corporate entities. I would rather not have the government borrow or print $700 billion dollars for that purpose.
So, your argument is that the CRA (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) was the cause of this crisis. On that point alone you are wrong!
Again, maybe I should make this clearer for you, 1 out of 4 of the bad subprime loans was issued by the CRA! The CRA had nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Copy and Paste: http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinv.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_blogspotting
So you say Bush tried to enforce regulation on Fannie and Freddie.
Dude or Maam or whatever the fuck you are, Please stop making an ass of yourself.
http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinv.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_blogspotting
So you would rather the government borrow or print $700 billion dollars to bailout Wall St..
That is the most insane idea ever. First the Government does not have the credit to borrow $700 billion dollars.
NewsFlash: Your commander and chief has maxed out all available credit. NO NATION IS GOING TO LEND THE US MONEY! We have no credit. We have over a $10 Trillion deficit! Do you know the interest on that? The interest alone is $400 Billion a year!
Second, printing money would destroy the US currency in totality, especially printing $700 Billion. Do you understand monetary policy at all. The more money printed the lesser the value of the currency. That is why we have interest rates. That job belongs to the Fed. One of the most important duties of the Fed is to control the money supply which in turn stabilizes the value of the currency! They raise and lower interest rates (price of money) to control spending and prices (inflation). You can’t just print more money. That would send inflation through the fucking roof. Any Nation with capital would buy up all American assets at bargain basement prices (like they are doing now). This is what your King Bush has done for the past 8 years with all his tax cuts. No jobs, just print. No real GDP growth, just print. Thus the Bush Administration has out printed and out spent every other Presidential tenure in the History of the US combined. Notice his eagerness to solve the current crisis. You cannot just spent and spent and print and print your way out of idiocy! No There must be something of value backing it.
Now this bailout proposes that the taxpayer back it up. This is what John McCain later clarified in his statement about the fundamentals of our economy being strong. He later clarified that he meant the American workers were the fundamentals of our economy, and that is the foundation of our economy. However, he seems to forget or ignore that there has been a severe decline in jobs for those American Workers. He is ignoring the fact that unemployment is over 6% and rising. He is ignoring the fact that employment has dropped sharply during the Bush tenure. Many reports from the Dept. of Labor dating back to 2002 and forward attempt to conceal this fact by reclassifying good paying middle in class jobs (similar to that of an auto assembly line worker about $60-70k a year) with renaming fast food jobs as assembly jobs. Of course those jobs increased. However, the loss of tax revenue could not be concealed by the best of them.
Taxes must rise. The middle class must be restored and not heavily taxed. Rich Greedy MTF must get a significant tax increase, asap! Any person who is wealthy should be begging that there taxes be raised. It is the quintessence of supreme stupidity to think that having more money is having more money in this current crisis. Do these people only look at the numbers on their bank statements and are sufficed to see a lot of numbers but fail to understand that the value of those numbers is just .69 cents on a dollar and falling fast. What good is it to have a bank balance of $100 Million and it only be worth $69 Million. This is what excessive tax cuts do. They flood the economy with money to boost spending which looks good on paper at the end of each quarter. If the other factors of growth are ignored, what you get is what you have now, courtesy of Bush/McCain/Republicans!
THERE MUST BE BALANCE! TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING WILL DESTROY YOU!
I would rather people keep it funky. They prefer McCain and Plain over Obama because they feel threatened by a smart negro! They would rather the whole country burn before they let a negro take the BIG CHAIR.
-GCE
Mr. Edwards,
This is going to be your only warning. Please refrain from using any more profanity in your posts and they will not be approved. We are open to other points of view but profanity is not allowed.
Mr. Edwards,
Please read the posts more clearly. I OPPOSED the bailout. It would only delay the inevitable. Moreover taxpayer money should not be used to bail out corporations. And it should not be used to bail out individuals that made poor decisions. That would only lead to more of the same.
I do however disagree with you that taxes must rise. I think that our tax code needs to be simplified. Either implement the Fair Tax or the Flat Tax. Make the tax code FAIR. I don’t want one group paying a higher rate of tax than an other group.
As for your claim that people are only voting for McCain out of racism. I can assure you that is not the case. I won’t vote for Obama because I disagree with his proposals and I disagree with his stances on several issues. With that said I don’t agree with McCain on a lot of issues too, but his positions are a lot closer to mine than Obama is.
You make absolutely no sense. You are basing things on your gut. It would be wise for you to leave your feelings out of critical issues and gather the facts first. You are not alone though. There are millions of Americans like you who fall for the crap.
Don’t believe everything you see on YouTube. Learn the fundamentals of how things work and rely only on credible sources.
Racism is based in ignorance. I don’t think most are utter racist; however, I am convinced that most are ignorant.
My comment was based on conversations with my friends and associates. It was also based on several blogs and comments that I have read here on WordPress.
I did not intend to infer you as racist! My apologies…
Sorry for the expletives. My righteous indignation can get the best of me sometimes!
-GCE
Mr. Edwards,
Your apologies are accepted. Just in the future please remember the one thing that we require from people posting comments. You can disagree with us, but please don’t be disagreeable.
My biggest concern is that in both parties we have a Washington insider as the nominee for POTUS. We need someone who is not from Wall Street or DC, but instead from Main Street. Republicans had a candidate like this but they kicked him to the curb. I guess we reap what we sow.
[...] a firm grasp on how we got to this unhappy confluence of acronyms and euphemisms : FOMC, GSEs, Community Reinvestment Act, AMT Patch and now the unfortunately acronymed Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP,as in [...]
Mr Edwards,
The problem that you seem to have is that you ignore the fact that research is a valuable tool but if you read too much into certain articles written for political purposes then you begin to lose the ability to formulate your own opinion. That seems to be the case with your discussion. However, I am here to give you a little insight and history lesson based on my own opinion.
Back in 1995, during the go-go 90’s Bill and Hillary were in the White House. A decision was made to revise an obscure law called the “CRA” (Community Reinvestment Act). The CRA was established to require that banks invest (loan) money to blacks and other minorities. Previously, banks had been accused of ‘red-lining’ or refusing to lend in what were viewed as Black or other minority areas. The CRA was established to force lending in those areas as a requirement for getting a bank charter from the Federal Government. It was a stick used to force investment in neglected areas assuming that banks could handle a few losses and would help fix the racism of red-lining spurring investment in communities that had been ignored.
The 1995 version of the CRA was pushed equally by ‘business’ Republicans and Democrats who had their own reasons. The Democrats saw it as a way to push what they called ’social justice’ and access to capital that would allow Blacks and other minorities to buy houses, start businesses and have the American dream. ‘Business’ Republicans saw it as a way to make money. A merger of greed and social theory that politicians of both parties thought would ‘help’ the disenfranchised to achieve the American dream.
So, with the adoption of the CRA amendments in the mid 1990’s banks and mortgage companies started ‘relaxing’ lending standards that allowed folks to borrow more than their house was worth, to ignore past bad credit decisions and to offer mortgage payments at a rate that was below the stated rate of the mortgage and didn’t even pay back the interest accruing on the loan. Folks sat while their mortgage balance increased. The largest of these offenders was Countrywide.
The theory was that the poor that would be helped into homeownership would get themselves established, have a burst of energy and pride, increase their earning potential and make more money so that they could handle the increased mortgage payments that were to come once the loan reset. Housing prices would increase exponentially to cover the initial lack of equity and minorities would finally join the middle class having homeownership in large numbers. All would be right with the world.
The banks and mortgage companies took these sub-prime mortgages and spread them around with the help of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Company) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Company). Fannie and Freddie ‘packaged’ these loans into securities and sold them on the open market. As long as the loans kept paying the securities remained valued and the emperor’s lack of clothing was ignored. With the cash they got from the sale of loans to ‘investors’, more bad loans were made.
Between the mid 90’s and the mid 00’s these poor quality loans were restructured time and time again and every time someone went out and got a new mortgage to replace the one coming due more fees and expenses were heaped upon the unsuspecting family with little education who knew nothing of mortgage rules. They knew they couldn’t afford the adjusted mortgage payment so they readily agreed to refinance to a new mortgage knowing that their payment would not go up. The mortgage companies got a ‘new’ mortgage, a ‘new’ mortgage security and evidence of payment of the ‘old’ mortgage. On paper things looked fine. In reality, churning mortgages or real estate is evidence of an economic crash to come.
Builders built at a feverish pace constructing ‘plastic’ houses with vinyl siding and questionable real value eagerly complicit in the entire process. These questionable sub-prime loans with their ‘buy now pay later’ financing scheme is very much akin to a used car salesman’s pitch. Plastic houses were snapped up by folks of all races, genders because they allowed individuals to buy homes without actually making a real mortgage payment. Folks were paying ‘negative’ interest (less interest than what the loan was accruing) or an artificial low ‘teaser’ rate. Developers eager to build, build, build – did so and sold these plastic houses to the unsuspecting using mortgage products designed to give folks a taste of the American dream without any real likelihood of success.
This cycle of deception continued for about 8 years until 2003 when Presidents Bush’s folks mentioned to Congress that perhaps we should change the CRA to stop this free access to sub-prime loans – a not so polite name for those loans given mostly to poor minorities that would never have qualified for home ownership. Democrats and Republicans in Congress refused stating that the American dream of ‘homeownership’ was for EVERYONE (even those that could not afford it).
The net result of this refusal to act in 2003 was that when the bubble burst starting in 2006 and housing prices were no longer increasing there was no way to justify the refinancing of sub-prime mortgages that had churned the market and kept it going. Folks in these houses and with those loans were now expected to pay the real cost but after churning their mortgages for years layering on fees as much as the original loan, they were hopelessly underwater, their homes worth less than they paid for them leaving the only solution to walk away from the first homeownership experience of their lives. Vast plastic subdivisions and fake McMansions were left vacant rotting in the sun and rain. Some became havens for criminals; suburban ghetto’s transplanted from inner-city locales.
The mortgage securities which represent thousands of these sub-prime mortgages were bought by IRA’s, 401K’s and foreign investors. They were ‘backed’ by Fannie and Freddie (a private company allowed to provide a US ‘guarantee’). Fannie and Freddie’s guarantee was worthless because the folks running Fannie and Freddie had no real ‘capital’ (stock value) to back up the guarantee. They had no ’skin’ in the game to borrow a phrase my grandfather, a banker, used to say. The management of these institutions like all good con men headed for the hills. To paraphrase the crook in the movie Die Hard “by the time they sort this out we will be on the beach earning 20%”.
Now, President Bush wants a bail out. The Democrats want a bailout. None of them are even talking about changing the laws that caused of it all.
President Bush just wants it fixed so we can avoid a ‘panic’. The Democrats in Congress, for the first time in 8 years are on the same side as Bush (that ought to tell folks a lot). Both know that if they complete the bailout without changing the law they can go on issuing sub-prime loans and wait for the next bailout in another 10 years. In the meantime, the liberals in Congress appear intent on offering a bailout or direct subsidy for those sub-prime homeowners. That would turn a $700 billion problem into a $1.4 trillion one. Those that get checks equal to 30% of the value of their mortgage would be the ‘winners’ and the rest of America’s homeowners the losers.
If you pay your bills and do the right thing you are not rewarded. If you buy a house you can’t afford with a mortgage you didn’t understand you get bailed out. Poor homeowners with sub-prime mortgages receiving the net wealth of middle class Americans transferred by the US Government.
Greed and Social Engineering are killing the United States of America. RIP. We are now a debtor nation in league with 1970’s Argentina. To keep up appearances we ‘need’ to bail out the rich so they can keep making bad loans to the poor who can’t afford to pay them? Does that make sense to you?
Without changes to this ‘bailout’ we will receive hyper-inflation and the US Dollar will become worthless.
To my knowledge, not one member of the media has asked either Senator McCain or Senator Obama if they support repeal of these bad laws.
Male Repub,
You are still ignoring the facts that 80% of the subprime loans responsible for this current crisis were not issued by the CRA. It is true that under Clinton this behavior was made possible but there were strict regulations in place to curb abuse. Those regulations were undone by the current administration.
You are ignoring the fact that Bush (without Congress) allowed for these subprime loans that had been defaulted on by non-CRA borrowers to receive protection under the FHA and were given the opportunity to refinance. Bush also allowed these borrowers who would never qualify for FHA because of high income and high home value, to be covered under FHA. These were homes with values in excess of $450,000. These were borrowers with so called “good credit/work history” but somehow (lost their job perhaps) defaulted.
When you say social engineering, what are you talking about? Do you mean Fed programs that assist Black and Brown people? If your talking about the CRA, well I strongly disagree. Any Federal program that is not managed and regulated is susceptible to abuse. The fact is the CRA had strict regulatory standards and criteria that were dismantled by the current administration. To blame this program for the current crisis is not owning up to the executive responsibilities of oversight and management of which there has been a deficiency in virtually every government agency of late.
I agree with you on the greed point. That is the root of the problem (i.e., the love of money). Capitalism is the system by which competition and innovation should be rewarded. Unfortunately that is not how our system works.
What a great time to be rich. While you and I are arguing about who is to blame and how the whole thing went down, the rich who have only gotten richer the last 8 years, are buying up all the foreclosed homes and stock for bargain basement prices.
Only in the U.S.A.!