Historical Tracking of Fannie, et al...and Congress
In September 2003 the Bush Administration "recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago." The President's call came after "a Freddie Mac accounting scandal" in July.
A Republican administration and Republican controlled Congress KNEW of the problem in 2003
The plan was an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- was broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae did not adequately hedge against rising interest rates...
After congressional hearings, Representative Michael G. Oxley, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, and Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, announced their intention to draft legislation based on the administration's proposal. Industry executives said Congress could complete action on legislation before leaving for recess in the fall. But it never came.
In 2003, Republicans controlled both branches of Congress (108th) and the White House. What happened to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulatory reform under Republican leadership? Nothing.
108th Congress (2003-2004): eight bills, but only six appear to relate to this topic, per their title. Of those six, only one was introduced after the White House weighed in (at least rhetorically) in September ... and the prime sponsor of that bill was a Democrat. The other bills seem to have resulted from the July scandal. No bill moved out of committee.
1. H.R.2022 introduced on 7 May 2003 by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT,4).
Title: To extend the registration and reporting requirements of the Federal securities laws to certain housing-related Government-sponsored enterprises, and for other purposes.
Latest Major Action: 5/23/2003 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
2. H.R.2117 introduced 23 May 2003 by Rep. Pete Fortney (D-CA,13).
Title: To amend the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation Act to remove certain competitive advantages granted to the housing-related government-sponsored enterprises relative to other secondary mortgage market enterprises, and for other purposes.
Latest Major Action: 5/23/2003 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
3. H.R.2575 introduced on 24 June 2003 by Rep. Richard H Baker (R-LA,6).
Title: To reform the regulation of certain housing-related Government-sponsored enterprises, and for other purposes.
Latest Major Action: 9/25/2003 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee Hearings Held.
4. H.R.2803 introduced on 21 July 2003 by Rep. Edward R Royce (R-CA,40).
Title: To establish the Office of Housing Finance Oversight in the Department of the Treasury to ensure the financial safety and soundness of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal home loan banks.
Latest Major Action: 8/4/2003 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
5. H.R.2897 introduced on 25 July 2003 by Rep. Julia Carson (D-IN,7)
Title: To end homelessness in the United States.
Latest Major Action: 8/25/2003 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.
6. S.1508, introduced 31 July 2003 by Sen Chuck Hagel (R-NE).
Title: A bill to address regulation of secondary mortgage market enterprises, and for other purposes.
Latest Major Action: 4/1/2004 Senate committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
7. S.1656, introduced 23 September 2003 by Sen Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ).
Title: A bill to address regulation of secondary mortgage market enterprises, and for other purposes.
Latest Major Action: 9/25/2003 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
8. H.R.3507 introduced 18 November 2003 by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA,27).
Title: To expand homeownership opportunities in States having high housing costs.
Latest Major Action: 1/2/2004 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
Clearly, in 2003 and 2004 the issue of finance reform was not a priority of the White House or Congressional Republicans.
109th Congress...Republican Majority
In the 109th Congress (2005-2006), the House overwhelmingly approved (331 to 90) HR 1461, The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, designed "to create a stronger regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." The Senate, still controlled by Republicans lagged the House in taking action. It is not clear if this was a lack of Republican leadership or blockage by Democratic leadership (filibuster threats).
HR 1461 remained stalled in the Senate: last action, 31 October 2005, referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
The Bush Administration opposed the bill.
Now let's talk about the Senate. In 2005 - Republican Majority
S. 190 [109th]: Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
Sponsor Sen. Charles Hagel [R-NE]
Cosponsors
Sen. Elizabeth Dole [R-NC]
Sen. John McCain [R-AZ]
Sen. John Sununu [R-NH]
1/26/2005--Introduced.
Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 - Amends the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 to establish: (1) in lieu of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an independent Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Agency which shall have authority over the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac); and (2) the Federal Housing Enterprise Board.
Sets forth operating, administrative, and regulatory provisions of the Agency, including provisions respecting: (1) assessment authority; (2) authority to limit nonmission-related assets; (3) minimum and critical capital levels; (4) risk-based capital test; (5) capital classifications and undercapitalized enterprises; (6) enforcement actions and penalties; (7) golden parachutes; and (8 reporting.
Amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to establish the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation. Transfers the functions of the Office of Finance of the Federal Home Loan Banks to such Corporation.
Excludes the Federal Home Loan Banks from certain securities reporting requirements.
Abolishes the Federal Housing Finance Board.
Yes, McCain was a co-sponsor along with two other Senators, but not the sponsor.
This distraction (a perceived slight to John McCain) changes nothing about the lack of will on the part of the Republican Party to make financial reform an issue.
2007 - Dems get control of congress.
On 31 July 2007, after the Democrats obtained control of the Congress in the November 2006 election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced HR 3221, a "bill to provide needed housing reform and for other purposes." Among other things, the bill granted the newly formed Federal Housing Finance Agency "supervisory and regulatory authority over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the federal home loan banks (enterprises)" (per CRS analysis).
Pelosi's bill became Public Law 110-140 on 19 December 2007.
So the law was there, apparently too late...and no one was enforcing it.
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
billybobPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:48 am
McCain’s attempt to fix Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac in 2005; Update: Obama can’t get AIG rightposted at 11:45 am on September 17, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
With the financial sector in turmoil today, the media and the politicians have started throwing around blame with the same recklessness as lenders threw around credit to create the problem. Politically, the pertinent question is this: Which candidate foresaw the credit crisis and tried to do something about it? As it turns out, John McCain did — and partnered with three other Senate Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending three years ago, after an attempt by the Bush administration died in Congress two years earlier. McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise
Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 (via Beltway Snark):
Quote:
Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.
In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.
What was this bill? The act would have done the following:
Quote:
(1) in lieu of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an independent Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Agency which shall have authority over the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac); and (2) the Federal Housing Enterprise Board.
Sets forth operating, administrative, and regulatory provisions of the Agency, including provisions respecting: (1) assessment authority; (2) authority to limit nonmission-related assets; (3) minimum and critical capital levels; (4) risk-based capital test; (5) capital classifications and undercapitalized enterprises; (6) enforcement actions and penalties; (7) golden parachutes; and ( reporting.
It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money:
Quote:
HEATHER NAUERT: Barack Obama attacking John McCain once again on the economy and the market turmoil today. Our John Gibson has new information on the Democratic presidential nominee and the mortgage mess for us now. What have you got John?
JOHN GIBSON: Alright Heather. Lehman Brothers’ collapse is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago. Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs. A group called the center for responsive politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. Senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were democrats and number two is Senator Barack Obama.
Now, remember, he has only been in the Senate four years but still managed to grab the number two spot ahead of John Kerry, decades in the senate, and Chris Dodd who is chairman of the senate banking committee. Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional democrats and the Clinton white house, designed to make mortgages available to more people, and as it turned out, some people who couldn’t afford them. Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket millions. The Clinton administration’s white house budget director Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected 50 million dollars. Jamie Gurilli, Clinton Justice Apartment Official, worked for Fannie and took home 26 million dollars. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama’s VP search committee has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae C.E.O. job.
Now remember, Obama’s ads and stump speeches attack McCain and republican policies for the current financial turmoil. It is demonstrably not Republican policy and worse, it appears the man attacking McCain, Senator Obama, was at the head of the line when the piggy’s lined up at the Fannie and Freddie trough for campaign bucks. Senator Barack Obama, number two on the Fannie/Freddie list of favored politicians after just four short years in the senate. Next time you see that ad, you might notice he fails to mention that part of the Fannie and Freddie problem. Heather.
NAUERT: Wow, that’s quite a report, begs the question — where is John McCain on this?
GIBSON: John McCain is a measly $20,000 after over 20 years so he really doesn’t even come close in the political contribution department.
Open Secrets has the list of Congressmen who have benefited from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac largesse since 1989 (inclusive). Remarkably, after only serving less than four of those 20 years, Barack Obama has vaulted to the #2 position on Capitol Hill. Only Dodd outstripped him. He took more than six times the amount that McCain received in a 20-year period.
Watch this Video - YOU Decide - the big O Lies in his ads.
The record shows that McCain saw the problem coming and tried to get Congress to act. In 2005, both McCain and Obama served together in the Senate. Did Obama attempt to pass this reform, sign on as a co-sponsor, or even speak out in its favor? The record is tellingly blank
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 2855
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:52 am
Overview of Policy Debate Regarding Reform of Regulation of Government-Sponsored Enterprises
February 9, 2006
A still more famous commentator, Warren Buffett, has argued that derivatives are "financial weapons of mass destruction," and that the stocks of companies that use derivatives to a significant degree are impossible to understand and therefore should be avoided by investors. He followed his own advice by selling his stake in Fannie/Freddie, which he had once endorsed with his characteristic enthusiasm.
Warren was right on the money...pun intended.
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:57 am
billybob wrote:
McCain’s attempt to fix Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac in 2005; Update: Obama can’t get AIG rightposted at 11:45 am on September 17, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
You missed the point. A Republican administration and Republican controlled Congress KNEW of the problem in 2003 and McCain gave a floor speech in 2005 for a bill Hagel sponsored...McCain CO-SPONSORED...but apparently he didn't have enough influence to 'reach across the aisle' and get anything done even with a Republican controlled congress.
The bill was introduced in Jan 05...when it had the most action. By July 28, 2005: it was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. It died in commitee.
McCain gave a floor speech in May 2006, trying to revive some action on the bill.
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
billybobPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:05 am
The only point is this - the big O is the second biggest receiver in campaign contributions by Fannie and Freddie - the Dems wanted to keep this in place to bleed it dry and left the tax payers with the burden.
Now even when the administration is trying to correct the problem they are wanting to dump more and more self serving provisions into the biil.
This whole Fannie and Freddie issues smells of liberal damn Dems and their corrupt ways - of wheeling and dealing and getting rich - look at all the list of the big deal Dems involved.
McCain tried - even GWBush Tried - Congress just did not want to clean it up!
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 2855
GeorgiaMomPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:24 am
Most intelligent people in the United States know better than to think one single administration is to blame for what's happening with Wall Street . The corruptness has been going on for 30 years or so and not one Administration has made it a priority to step in and straighten things out.
You guys can sit and play the blame game all day, but if you listen to "impartial" financial experts they are letting the public know that it's been going on to long for one administration to be at fault and it's not going to be an overnight fix.
Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 4163
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:30 am
billybob wrote:
The only point is this - the big O is the second biggest receiver in campaign contributions by Fannie and Freddie - the Dems wanted to keep this in place to bleed it dry and left the tax payers with the burden.
Now even when the administration is trying to correct the problem they are wanting to dump more and more self serving provisions into the biil.
This whole Fannie and Freddie issues smells of liberal damn Dems and their corrupt ways - of wheeling and dealing and getting rich - look at all the list of the big deal Dems involved.
McCain tried - even GWBush Tried - Congress just did not want to clean it up!
The FACT is...S 190 died a quiet death in the Republican Controlled Senate Banking Committee because the National Association of Home Builder's lobbied against it, claiming it had some serious flaws: “In contrast, (to the House version) the Senate bill, S. 190, contained many restrictive provisions that could harm the nation’s housing finance system, including: restrictions on asset holdings, discretion to raise minimum capital, burdensome program approval process, and a regulatory structure tilted away from housing. In addition, S. 190 did not require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to set aside monies to fund affordable housing initiatives, as provided in the House-passed bill.
A more pertinent question for McCain is why he would make much of his co-sponsorship of S. 190 in the 109th Congress, but when Senator Hagel introduced the current version of the bill, S. 1100, Senator McCain's name does not appear on the current list of co-sponsors.
S. 1100: Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2007
Senators Dole and Sununu continued their support from S. 190, but not Senator McCain to date. The bill was introduced on April 12, 2007 and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
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Posts: 4095
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:48 am
Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.
And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.
For years McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was head of the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, real estate agents, homebuilders, and non-profits. According to Politico, the organization opposed congressional attempts at regulation of Fannie and Freddie, along the lines of what John McCain is currently proposing. In his capacity of president of the group, Davis went on record in 2003 and insisted that no further reform of the lenders was necessary, in contradiction to his current boss's sentiments. "[Fannie and Freddie] are subject to an innovative and stringent risk-based capital stress test," Davis wrote. "The toughest in the financial services industry."
At a campaign rally Wednesday morning in Fairfax, Virginia, John McCain said that the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ought to give back the millions of dollars they've earned. What about the lobbyists who helped Fannie and Freddie game the system? Maybe McCain can ask them — at the next campaign strategy meeting.
McCain's list of Wall Street friends includes at least 69 individuals who, according to his campaign, have raised a total of at least $11.4 million for his campaign. That makes the struggling investment industry his top source of bundlers. (Bundlers are those wealthy individuals who hit up their coworkers, family and friends to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, in addition to any contributions from their own pockets.) In the second spot is the real estate industry, where at least 55 individuals have delivered a total of $9.5 million or more to McCain. Overall, bundlers in the finance, insurance and real estate sector have hauled in at l[b]east $30 million for the Republican candidate -- far more than any other sector.
[/b]
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dithersPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:14 am
But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.
That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the Democrats was obscene even then. Wallison wrote at the time: ``It is a classic case of socializing the risk while privatizing the profit. The Democrats and the few Republicans who oppose portfolio limitations could not possibly do so if their constituents understood what they were doing.''
Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda convincing.
But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.
Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.
Clinton, the 12th-ranked recipient of Fannie and Freddie PAC and employee contributions, has received more than $75,000 from the two enterprises and their employees. The private profit found its way back to the senators who killed the fix.
There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.
Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that's worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0
Pretty in Blonde
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K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:55 am
McCain- No Regrets.
McCain: I’m glad I deregulated Wall Street.
In the wake of last week’s financial meltdown, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been calling for more regulation and criticizing lax oversight of Wall Street, despite the fact that he and former senator Phil Gramm passed much of the deregulatory reforms that led to the current crisis. Interviewed on CBS today, however, McCain said he does not “regret” championing the deregulation of Wall Street:
Q: In 1999, you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?
McCAIN: No. I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.
$1,800,000: Amount Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign manager Rick Davis was paid as president of a lobbying company founded to defend Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from stricter regulations, over five years. “The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” a former Fannie spokesman said.
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Posts: 4095
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:32 pm
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis took a staggering $30,000 a month for five years as the head of a group set up by Fannie and Freddie to defend them against stricter government regulations.
McCain's Campaign Manager Pushed For Boost In Minority Homeownership
By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - September 22, 2008, 5:08PM
An emerging meme on the right, one that's being championed by the likes of Neil Cavuto and others, is that the mortgage crisis happened not because of deregulation, but because brokers were pressured into making loans to "minorities and risky folks," as Cavuto tastefully put it.
But guess who actively sought to boost minority homeownership? John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis.
As The New York Times reported today, Davis was president for several years of the Homeownership Alliance, an industry advocacy organization formed mainly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Alliance's core mission is to boost the number of mortgages granted.
But take a look at this picture from the alliance's annual report in 2004, unearthed by a reader, showing Davis at a Congressional reception praising minority homeownership
"We have an opportunity in the next decade to increase minority homeownership and significantly reduce the minority homeownership gap," Davis is quoted saying here. "The future of the housing market rests heavily on the economic success of minorities. Homeownership is likely to grow faster among minority Americans in the next decade if all the stakeholders in the housing industry work together to make it happen. The Homeownership Alliance is working toward this goal."
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K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:33 pm
Here's the money quote from Davis:
“You can say what you want about free-market distortions, but people like the system because it gets them into houses cheap,” Mr. Davis said to Institutional Investor magazine in 2000, adding that he would run the advocacy group out of his Alexandria, Va., lobbying firm.
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Posts: 4095
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:39 pm
This is just Enron on an international scale!
Hank Paulson's bid to get $700 billion of our money to bail out Wall Street is not getting the quick weekend approval he so desperately craved. One reason for that might be that Paulson is determined to use our money to bail out not just Wall Street banks, but also those in other countries -- like Switzerland, according to the New York Times. In particular, he wants our tax money to go to UBS AG (NYSE: UBS). Some might think that UBS is not deserving of U.S. taxpayer's money.
Here are three reasons:
* It is accused of helping clients dodge U.S. taxes: BusinessWeek reports that UBS is accused of helping taxpayers dodge $200 million in U.S. taxes. It could lose its license to operate in the U.S. depending on how these charges are resolved.
* It dumped its toxic Auction Rate Securities (ARS) on its clients just before they became worthless: As I posted, Massachusetts secretary William Galvin uncovered UBS e-mails that demonstrated it decided to force its brokers to sell the worthless ARS to its individual brokerage clients right before the ARS auctions seized up. The purpose was to shift the losses from UBS to its customers.
* John McCain's chief economic advisor and UBS vice chair, Phil "Americans are Whiners" Gramm, deregulated the market that's shoved Wall Street into the abyss: As I posted, in 2000 Gramm snuck a little 262 page amendment into a government re-authorization bill that freed the Credit Default Swap (CDS) market from regulatory scrutiny. It rapidly grew to $62 trillion and contributed to the stunningly swift decline in the stock prices of former Wall Street titans.
In short, UBS does not look like a financial organization we should be rewarding with our hard-earned tax dollars.
If you agree that rewarding UBS with our taxpayer dollars is the right thing to do, there is an easy way for you to help continue those policies for at least four more years. Just vote John McCain on November 4 if you think he is up to the task. In the meantime, here's hoping that Congress can put a stop to Paulson's runaway train before it's too late.
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Posts: 4095
billybobPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:07 pm
Yes this has been going on for decades no argument there. But the bigger point is that the main leaders and those involved in the most recent corruption are all part of the Big O - Economic Team - that is the scary part and hopefully the corrupt left wing media will let the message get out there.
In 3 Years O took the most amount of money for his precious campaign - another very scary part of this!!!
Dont be fooled corruption surrounds this man and Biden for more years!
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 2855
K HemingwayPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:26 pm
billybob wrote:
Yes this has been going on for decades no argument there. But the bigger point is that the main leaders and those involved in the most recent corruption are all part of the Big O - Economic Team - that is the scary part and hopefully the corrupt left wing media will let the message get out there.
In 3 Years O took the most amount of money for his precious campaign - another very scary part of this!!!
Dont be fooled corruption surrounds this man and Biden for more years!
Who are The corrupt Big O - Economic Team? By name, please.
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
billybobPosted:
Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:46 pm
"Obama has no background in economics. Who advises him?
The Post says it's Franklin Raines, for "advice on mortgage and housing policy." Shocking. Under Raines, Fannie Mae committed "extensive financial fraud." Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers? Stuck with the bill."
Also Jim Johnson, who not only served as an economic adviser to Obama but also originally ran his running-mate search committee.
And another big O pal - what a swell guy he is!
So who is Daniel Mudd? I think it will come as no surprise that he lives in a Mudd hut. A 22-room Mudd hut. Evidently ripping off the taxpayers pays very well. Very well indeed.
There are so many corruption links to the big O that it would take forever to list them all - and I just dont have that much time - and you crazy Liberals would never believe me anyhow because you love this sort of people - strange though because they are the ones that O claims he is trying to save us from - Ya right - he is a damn liar and more corrupt than maybe even LBJ was and that says a lot.
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 2855
K HemingwayPosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:40 am
billybob wrote:
"Obama has no background in economics. Who advises him?
The Post says it's Franklin Raines, for "advice on mortgage and housing policy." Shocking. Under Raines, Fannie Mae committed "extensive financial fraud." Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers? Stuck with the bill."
Also Jim Johnson, who not only served as an economic adviser to Obama but also originally ran his running-mate search committee.
And another big O pal - what a swell guy he is!
So who is Daniel Mudd? I think it will come as no surprise that he lives in a Mudd hut. A 22-room Mudd hut. Evidently ripping off the taxpayers pays very well. Very well indeed.
There are so many corruption links to the big O that it would take forever to list them all - and I just dont have that much time - and you crazy Liberals would never believe me anyhow because you love this sort of people - strange though because they are the ones that O claims he is trying to save us from - Ya right - he is a damn liar and more corrupt than maybe even LBJ was and that says a lot.
LOL - Sorry, but neither Raines nor Mudd are Obama 'economic advisors.'
If it's contest about corrupt friends and contributors...there's enough to go round for McCain. Like Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who had his visa revoked by the U.S.government because of his "suspected links to anti-democratic and organized-crime figures." McCain's now campaign manager Rick Davis assisted in putting the two men together in 2006. Shades of the same certain coziness with a high-roller named Charles Keating. And then there's Donald R. Diamond. And McCain covered-up the crimes of his Republican Party in the Abramoff Scandal. And his penchant for influence peddling shows up in the Paxson communications case as well.
And I could go on...but they aren't 'economic advisors either.
So if you just want to sling mud....we could certainly have a tit-for-tat and trust me, McCain would win 'the more corrupt' of the 2 contest. LOL
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
K HemingwayPosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:35 am
McCain Transition Head Lobbied for Freddie Mac Before Takeover
By Jonathan D. Salant and Timothy J. Burger
Enlarge Image/Details
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The lobbying firm of the man Republicans say John McCain has chosen to begin planning a presidential transition earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac, one of the companies McCain blames for the nation's financial crisis.
Timmons & Co., whose founder and chairman emeritus is William Timmons Sr., was registered to lobby for Freddie Mac from 2000 through this month, when the federal government took over both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Newly available congressional records show Timmons's firm received $260,000 this year before its lobbying activities were barred under terms of the government rescue of the failed mortgage giant. Timmons, 77, is listed as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac on the company's midyear financial-disclosure form.
While Republicans say Timmons is making plans for the transition if McCain wins in November, the campaign wouldn't confirm his role. Timmons didn't return a phone call seeking comment.
McCain has labeled Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as prime culprits in creating the financial storm that has roiled Wall Street and Washington.
``At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,'' he said last week in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
``Using money and influence, they prevented reforms that would have curbed their power and limited their ability to damage our economy,'' he said. ``And now, as ever, the American taxpayers are left to pay the price for Washington's failure.''
`Cooked the Books'
McCain has criticized Democratic nominee Barack Obama in both television advertising and speeches for his ties to former Fannie Mae chief James Johnson.
``Fannie cooked the books and Johnson made millions,'' said a McCain ad, released Sept. 19. ``Then Obama asked him to pick his VP and raise thousands for his campaign.''
Johnson is listed on Obama's Web site as having raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for the campaign. He left Obama's vice presidential search committee June 11 after just a week, following reports that he received preferential mortgage rates from Countrywide Financial Corp., which suffered losses due to the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market and was bought by Bank of America Corp.
McCain's campaign also ran an advertisement that said Obama had received advice on housing issues from a more recent Fannie Mae chief executive officer, Franklin Raines.
Under Fire
Raines said he had only met Obama once, before Obama was sworn in as a senator in January 2005. ``I am not an adviser to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters,'' Raines said in a statement released last week by the campaign.
Campaign-finance reports show that Raines hasn't contributed money to the Obama presidential campaign either.
Timmons is a longtime power in the Washington lobbying industry whose clients include the American Petroleum Institute and Chrysler LLC. Visitors to the company's Web site are told that ``Timmons and Company pioneered the concept and the industry standard for Washington representation.''
He founded the company in 1975 after leaving the administration of President Gerald Ford, and has worked to elect every Republican presidential nominee since.
When asked about his role in the McCain campaign, spokesman Brian Rogers said: ``We're not discussing any aspect of the transition.'' An aide to Timmons who didn't give her name while taking a message at his lobbying firm said that only Timmons himself could discuss ``his work for Senator McCain.''
Times Flap
The McCain camp was also dealing with reports about the lobbying work of campaign manager Rick Davis.
The New York Times reported yesterday that Davis was paid almost $2 million in fees over five years by a group primarily funded by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that was intended to help stave off more stringent federal regulation of the housing companies.
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said other members of the Homeownership Alliance included Habitat For Humanity and the National Council of La Raza, saying the group ``was focused strictly on promoting homeownership.''
McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt accused the Times of being biased toward Obama. ``Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization,'' Schmidt said on a conference call with reporters. ``It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization.''
On the Freddie and Fannie question, it is as McCain said: Obama is No. 2 on the list, with $126,349, right after Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who had $165,400.
But the list requires a few notes of explanation.
Corporations cannot give to candidates, so the center's list adds up contributions from Fannie and Freddie employees and their families. Obama has received a lot of money during his presidential campaign, though, and Fannie and Freddie don't make his list of top 20 companies. (The top three companies with employees donating to Obama are Goldman Sachs, University of California, and Citigroup, according to the center.)
The New York Times looked at contributions from Fannie and Freddie's boards of directors and lobbyists, who are technically not employees. That analysis found Fannie and Freddie-related contributors gave $116,000 to John McCain and his related committees, compared with $16,000 to Obama and his related committees.
Politifact
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
K HemingwayPosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:07 am
Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, the person McCain would likely be his Treasury Secretary, was co-sponsor of the 1999 law that allowed commercial banks to get into investment banking. And it's fact that Gramm was a prime architect of a 2000 bill that kept regulators' hands off of "credit default swaps," an exotic financial tool which helped enable the bundling and selling of crappy subprime mortgages to investors.
Appearing on CNN’s American Morning on Sept. 16, 2008, McCain sought to blame much of the crisis on Wall Street greed and inept or corrupt government regulators. “Ask any American citizen who has been the victim of a bureaucrat or a bureaucracy,” McCain said. “I said two years ago that the Fannie and Freddie thing was a very serious problem and we had to work on it. And I have always opposed greed of Wall Street and I know how we can fix this.”
McCain echoed his remarks later in the day during a speech in Tampa, saying, “Two years ago, I warned the administration and the Congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed to be fixed. It turns out, the problem was even bigger. They waited too long, and now we have a housing crisis, three bailouts with taxpayers’ money, and a financial crisis.”
In both appearances, McCain was referring to his 2006 decision to sign on to a Republican-led regulatory overhaul of the mortgage-financing firms, which both went through multibillion-dollar accounting scandals earlier in the decade. The occasion that prompted McCain’s involvement was the release of a 340-page report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight that concluded that Fannie Mae had manipulated earnings and violated basic accounting principles. It describes an “arrogant and unethical corporate culture” in which executives were more concerned about their bonuses than meeting the company’s housing mission.
The findings, based on a 27-month investigation and resulting in a $400-million fine paid to the government, prompted McCain to join other critics and call for more scrutiny of Fannie and its sibling, Freddie Mac. “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole,” McCain declared in a May 26, 2006, news release.
So it’s true that McCain spoke out — after a widely read report drew attention to chicanery at the firms.
In his appearances, McCain tries to connect the accounting scandals with the broader meltdown in the mortgage markets. But the current crisis arose because banks and mortgage companies made risky “subprime” loans to people with poor credit histories that were then packaged into securities and sold to institutional investors. As interest rates rose and home prices began to fall, homeowners unable to refinance the loans or sell their properties began to default, unleashing a cascade effect through financial markets. That phenomenon had nothing to do with Fannie and Freddie’s internal problems; in fact, both firms were praised for cushioning the financial free fall and keeping the market afloat by spending billions of dollars to purchase subprime loans.
Even if the 2006 effort to strengthen oversight had succeeded, it’s debatable whether it would have averted the subprime crisis. The extent of the problems was not yet fully known, and it’s a leap of faith to suggest that regulators granted expanded power would have noticed a deterioration in Fannie and Freddie’s loan portfolios soon enough, and would have sounded an alarm. Shaken by the extent of the subprime crisis, Congress and the Bush administration earlier this year completed a regulatory overhaul by combining OFHEO and the Federal Housing Finance Board into a new regulatory body, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Last weekend, the government took the additional step of placing the two firms into conservatorship — essentially a government takeover in which Treasury will extend up to $200-billion of support to the companies.
I give McCain some credit for weighing in on problems surrounding Fannie Mae, even though he got involved after a comprehensive government report issued a loud alarm to anyone watching. And didn't co-sponsor the subsequent bill by Hagel
However, his attempts to depict those efforts as some sort of early warning that could have [b]lessened the current credit crisis just don't wash. All McCain was talking about then was the potential fallout of accounting troubles in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.[/b] He didn't say anything about a freewheeling climate among creditors that had major financial institutions becoming badly leveraged on bad loans.
We can thank Phil Gramm for the current crisis.
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
yankee-in-francePosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:11 am
Thank you, K, for your efforts and the results of your research. Your posts are always informative.
YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6999
Location: France
GeorgiaMomPosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:17 am
yankee-in-france wrote:
Thank you, K, for your efforts and the results of your research. Your posts are always informative.
Yes, they're so informative and biased that I'll be early voting for McCain
Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 4163
K HemingwayPosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:26 am
GeorgiaMom wrote:
Yes, they're so informative and biased that I'll be early voting for McCain
Facts aren't biased. If you have any FACTS to rebutt what I posted...please post them.
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 4095
yankee-in-francePosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:29 am
GeorgiaMom wrote:
Yes, they're so informative and biased that I'll be early voting for McCain
Don't you think that the many, many articles posted by the McCain supporters are biased and are more opinion-related than K's fact articles?
YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6999
Location: France
GeorgiaMomPosted:
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:34 am
K Hemingway wrote:
Facts aren't biased. If you have any FACTS to rebutt what I posted...please post them.
The FACTS to rebutt have already been posted several times. It's fact that Obama is up to his eyeballs with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac handouts, but you chose to ignore and continue posting how bad the Republicans are. You'll never admit that your precious party is just as guilty for what's happening with our economy.
reporting.
