The Wall Street Bailout and how we got to this point

[Charles L. Cotton]

I posted an article on http://www.TexasCHLblog.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; on the bailout issue. While not directly related to guns or gun issues, the Democrats are trying to hang this around McCain's neck.

Chas.

[John]

Very well written, thank you for sharing that...

Even after the vote, they blamed the Republicans for it failing to pass. Here are the numbers:

Voting yes were 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans.
Voting no were 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans.

Link to the roll call: http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/washingt ... washington

They control the house and 95 of their own voted no, yet it is evil republicans who caused the bail out vote failure. I'm not particularly for the bail out, but it seems it has to be done. I can only hope that the democratic leadership is made to eat their partisan lies.

[The Annoyed Man]

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4[/youtube]

[CHL/LEO]

In stead of trying to hang it on McCain they need to blame Bill Clinton who started it all

September 30, 1999

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Click here to verify article.

[DMG]

Charles: An excellent article!!! David G.

[srothstein]

In stead of trying to hang it on McCain they need to blame Bill Clinton who started it all

You know, we all have been blaming Clinton for starting it all, though some have gone all the way back to Carter. Personally, I want to point out that the concept of the government insuring banks against their bad decisions is what even gave anyone the idea of interfering with the lending practices (the Community Reinvestment Act). Thus, I blame FDR for starting it all. He put us so firmly on a socialistic trend that I sometimes have doubts we will recover before the economy does collapse. FDIC, TVA, SSA, and NRA were all the wrong thing to do, and still are. LBJ made them worse, as has each Democratic president since.

[RiverRat]

My son just sent this. Did anyone know Speaker invoked Marshall law in the US to ramrod this bill through?

What is the effectto us as CHL holders? Do we lose all rights?

Has anyone seen anything in the media?

Please excuse the editing on the end.....not mine or my view.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/congresswom ... -bill.html

God Bless America.

[srothstein]

Riverrat,

You cannot invoke martial law to pass a bill. It simply doesn't work that way. Martial law is a declaration that the standard civil laws do not apply and we are under the rule of the military.

[RiverRat]

srothstein,
I had never heard of such, the reason for the post. Please find a link to an explaination of legislative martial law;
http://burgess.house.gov/News/DocumentS ... tID=103976

It was not what I thought it was when I posted the other link.....still find political games beyond my comprehension.

Please find the link I found last night to a draft of the bail out bill:
http://www.speaker.gov/pdf/AYO08C04_xml515pm.pdf

Appears they have the foxes guarding the henhouse, again.....the same ones responsible for the mess to start with are "overseeing" all of the new committees and yet to be developed departments. (the Dept of Bad Banks, the Dept of Flopping Funds, the Dept of Secret Securities, and Dept of Exchange to Foriegn Bankers). I wish my vote meant something. Looks like if voters are 100-1 against passage of this bill, then you would almost have a majority, even in the Senate.

Cotton

[srothstein]

Thanks for the link to Burgess' explanation. I have never heard of the term martial law used that way before. Sounds like a heack of a way toforce through bills you don't want people to understand. Even one day between filing and voting is not enough for most bills these days.

[SCone]

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement on human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves". --Paul Revere, House of Commons

Can "We the People" file suit against the Congress?

[The Annoyed Man]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=exxVZTKq1vA[/youtube]

[nitrogen]

Oh come on. The Republicans are just as much to blame; There is PLENTY of blame to go around.

Sure, Clinton laid the hammer down on mortgage companies.

You can also blame the Fed, keeping interest rates artifically low since 2000, making credit cheap after the dot com bust.

Mortgage firms were more than happy to make the loans that Clinton asked for, because they weren't required to hold the paper.

Securities firms were perfectly happy to buy those mortgages, wrap them up in a new type of security, and fraudulently rate and insure them with ratings agencies.

Those rating agencies were perfectly happy to let themselves get duped.

The bush administration had plenty of warning that a problem was coming, yet they did nothing.

You can also blame Greenspan; who told people ARM's were okay.

Most of all, though it's OUR fault. Many Americans no longer live within their means; depending on credit more and more. We were more than happy to take ahold of cheap credit to artifically keep our depressed economy going.

After not keeping the engine of our economy healthy, of course it finally blew a head gasket.

This kind of thing is EXACTLY why I'm not a member of either political party. Partisian politics kept the problem going. Instead of fixing it, all we want to do is blame somebody. We are ALL to blame; so if you want to blame someone, every American should look in the mirror first and foremost.

And remember, OUR government passed this bailout. Democrats AND republicans. OUR government is telling Wall Street, "Oh, it's okay! You made really bad decisions, and bad risks, and you blew it. We'll make it all better!"

When the government does that for individuals, most people I know despise that as wasteful spending. Remember; WE let the government do this. We did not stop them.
I'm sure most of us will vote for all of these criminals again, just because they allow us to keep our guns.

(Rant off.)

[Charles L. Cotton]

It started with Democrats, it grew with Democrats, Democrats blocked attempts to regulate Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae because they were getting huge donations from their executives.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=RYz1rbB5V1s[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=4n5dKztd96k[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3p1Wc2NFa3w[/youtube]

In spite of the clear and convincing evidence, Nancy Polosi stood on the floor of the House and blamed the Republicans.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=VMLo7i38D58[/youtube]

[John]

Then why... Someone please explain why both McCain and Palin let their respective competitors trounce all over Bush and the Republican at the beginning of both debates?