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RedStapler -> RE: The 5% Rule (IQ test) (7/22/2010 2:00:42 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: joether
quote:
ORIGINAL: Sanity
Bush wasn't the only one in Washington during the "Bush fiasco".
Here is an excerpt from the New York Times regarding legislation that President Bush was pushing for sensible regulation in the affordable housing industry:
''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.
''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.
So it wasn't Bush that caused these problems, it was the Democrats.
quote:
ORIGINAL: EbonyWood
During the Bush fiasco.
Remember those wacky conservatives.
When are those three links dated? Go ahead, try to lie. Tell me, were you aware there were no WMDs in Iraq before 2004 as well? Barney Frank couldn't have known the exact situation of either companies years later.
I think the point was that to blame the housing bubble solely on the policies of the Bush administration is disingenuous. What Fannie's and Freddie's balance sheets looked like at that time are not really relevant. What IS relevant is that both companies were mandated to help finance home loans for lower-income families, many of whom should never have been given loans in the first place.
However, I honestly don't think that a new regulatory agency to oversee Frannie and Freddie would have done anything, except to ensure that they were complying with said mandates, which were part of the problem. And with Bush's doctrine of an "Ownership Society" being thrown around back then, I highly doubt those mandates would have changed.
Basically, both parties were complicit in helping to create the conditions that led to the bubble. But it wasn't just government.
So who caused the housing bubble? Government mandates to make money available for stupid loans? Banks making the stupid loans? Brokers and realtors who profited from stupid loans? Investment bankers who created the complex derivatives of stupid loans? A culture that said you "need" a huge house and, hence, a stupid loan? Borrowers who took out the stupid loans they had no realistic hope of every paying back?
Try all of the above (and feel free to throw in some more if you think of any). The result was that the cost of real estate far exceeded what it ever should have been. Requiring even larger and stupider loans. Until it all came crashing down.
"Blame Democrats" or "Blame Republicans" is a tiresome game. One that I refuse to play. There's plenty of blame to go around.
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