White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire: New York Times

New York Times:

The global financial system was teetering on the edge of collapse when President Bush and his economics team huddled in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a briefing that, in the words of one participant, "scared the hell out of everybody."

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[smit9187]

New thread: Rahm exonerated



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/21/obama-report-on-blagojevi_n_152664.html

[Pronto]

Good. Then, no problem releasing the tapes. I hope Rahm didn't have them destroyed.

[Episcopagan]

Those tapes have not been released because of orders from the U. S. Attorney.

Of course you knew that, but chose to overlook.

[FreedomAgain]

Republicans pushing Free Trade with a huge trade deficit cost America millions of jobs and trillions in tax money as well. Although Clinton started it, Bush took it to a whole new level.

[Stud99]

Not a problem. The dollar will fall off a cliff soon and we will have to stop importing. The market solves all problems.

[Midnightrain]

Dollar falls off the cliff, so do we all. Game's over. We start learning Chinese.

[rowzeer]

Alot of it started with Reagan....Clinton continued the scam with NAFTA.

[ErnestineBass]

Two names on page one of that article stand out.

1) John Snow, former Bush Treasury Secretary who now "works" for Ceberus, majority owner of Chrysler...that just got a nice, fat bailout.

2) Lawrence Lindsay, the economic advisor Bush fired for daring to speak the truth about what the "War On Iraq" would REALLY cost. (Ultimately, Lindsay's figure proved to be WAAAAY too low...)

[ElPerro]

I am in strong support of Death Penalty punishments for all those involved from both government and industry.

That would be a REAL DETERRENT to prevent future shenanigans.

[rich misty]

The GOP has secret prison se.x fantasies, so you are correct it is no deterrent to them

[FreedomAgain]

Thats a great idea, but unfortunately they can still use pardons to condone corruption.

[Stud99]

Typical Marxist.

[SupremeIdiot]

As opposed to conservatives who would much rather execute all poor people and let the real problems make things worse.

[Episcopagan]

Bush signed more death warrants than any governor in history.

Are you calling Bush a Marxist?

[Babysnake]

...and he sends his wife out to tell the world what a great man he is.

[BillMelater]

oh, and his childrren.

[learnsomething]

Of course they will come out lying, saying what a great man that psycho is, he has made them much much much much much richer.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

It's clear from this article that Bush policies engineered this. He deregulated and hired cronies to head any agenies that might regulate, and get in the way of his overall plan, which was to keep america spending, keep funding the war machine, and line the pockets of his rich friends. It's also clear that far from being the "decider" he turned over the reigns of the economy to Paulson, who said he wouldn't take the position unless he had more power.

It was clear to me years ago, after the stock market crashed and the dot com bubble burst and all that, that rich people needed a place to invest, and make a killing. Where do you invest if the stock market is down? In real estate. But instead of the steady, safe gains real estate affords, rich investors and investment banks wanted to make a killing. So THAT's why the market had to be inflated so much, and the regulations eased so that the mortgages could be repackaged and resold for a fortune.

And why wasn't the press on to this? This line in the article is troubling: "His warnings were buried in the next day’s news coverage." How? How is anything buried? It's the media's job to report this stuff, not spend all day creating colorful computer graphics for stories about missing teenagers, hollywood divorces, and washington sex scandels.

[rowzeer]

Because the media is owned by the huge conglomerates. It is in their best interests to keep the people misinformed.

[Episcopagan]

Bottom line?

In 2001, the Bush administration had the Office of Comptroller of the Currency issue rules prohibiting states from regulating mortgage banks.

A rule change opposed by ALL 50 states attorneys general and all state banking regulators.

The 2001 rule change is the cause of the problem.

"The regulation issued by the comptroller of the currency in 2001 asserted that state laws could apply to national bank subsidiaries only to the extent that they could apply to the parent banks themselves, thus stripping states of authority they had been exercising for 35 years."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/18/news/banks.php

[Chillinout]

That was first ruled on in 1819 in MuCulloch v Maryland. Maryland tried to impose a tax on a national bank. So there is a precedent.

Berman, Larry Bruce and Bruce Allen Murphy. Approaching Democracy. p 89. Pearson Prentiss Hall. 2005.

[scandals-n-skeletons]

August 10th 2007 GWB says "the fundamentals of our economy are strong"

Sept. 15th 2008 John McCain says "The fundamentals of our economy are sound"

Nuff said

[rich misty]

Prop.a.ganda for Ponzinomics

[Medius]

I wonder if we will all need deprogramming after 8 years of bush.

[learnsomething]

Speaking for myself, I have been traumatized, after 8 years under that disastrous criminal Adm.

[SupremeIdiot]

I'm still waiting for an apology from every frickin' conservative in the US for forcing this walking disaster on the entire country.

ps. make it in person and on bended knee.

[MNmommy]

I'll accept the leaders being frogmarched to jail.

[SupremeIdiot]

I wish I could believe that that will ever happen. Some rumblings on the Cheney admission to OKing waterboarding isn't enough.

[MichiganJFrog]

And for calling me a "traltor" for questioning the wisdom of the walking, talking DISASTER that is George W. Bush.

[SupremeIdiot]

You mean questioning the government isn't treasonous?

I wonder what we should call conservatives when they start in on BO and his administration, which they obviously will, for any little thing?

[RobertaInCT]

Forget that, they are pointing the finger at Carter and Clinton...........Nothing is ever their fault.

[kellygrrrl]

"Blind Faith" is the sole reason America has become a TwistedPervertedCorrupted version of its own foundation

[borderorder]

And here I thought it was one of the better albums to come out in '69.

[scandals-n-skeletons]

Clapton, Baker........awesome

[scandals-n-skeletons]

Brings to mind "Dear Mr' Fantasy"

[hardybear]

:)

[kellygrrrl]

well, at least now we know what they were talking about

[horsey]

Blind faith, blind pigs, blind conservatives, all one in the same folks.

[Pandu-]

This line on page one is the telling line for me;

“The Bush administration took a lot of pride that homeownership had reached historic highs,” Mr. Snow said in an interview. “But what we forgot in the process was that it has to be done in the context of people being able to afford their house. We now realize there was a high cost.”

As this bubble grew and grew it was obvious that it could only price most people out of home ownership in the future.

A man like Obama looks at that and knows instinctively that it's going in the wrong direction. His sense of caring about every person makes him see things like this.

Bush doesn't think about those who might not be able to afford one in the future. McCain was this way too. Disconnected.

Thank God and to all of You that this country voted the way it did. I have never been more proud of us all. We are so going to need this man.

[Freedomscap]

And over at the Warren thread they are talking about Obama like a dog -- go figure. I guess they just need to get it out of their system. It's understandable, their frustration.

[Stud99]

Well, when congress forces you to loan money to deadbeats and illegal aliens this is the kind of mess you end up with.

[MichiganJFrog]

L i e s

[rowzeer]

What a crock of sh*t. That's not what caused it. It was the repeal of Glass Steagal. Companies could sell any mortgages as investments so they never cared if the person could make the strokes or not.

[ebanks84]

AMEN.

DID EVERYBODY HEAR THAT!

And that's because the Bush administration never cared about REGULATIONS. All he cared about was let the MONEY PEOPLE MAKE ALL THE MONEY THEY CAN, regardless of how they make it.

[rowzeer]

That's their ideology...."private wealth, public squalor"

[learnsomething]

Most of the people who lost their homes was because they lost their job. For some reason the Bush Adm don't want to admit. that the loss of tens of millions of jobs in this terms have cost most people their homes.

If you lose you job, you can't pay your mortgage.

[rowzeer]

Wrong....My husband and I kept getting letters (one a week) from our mortgage company stating they could get us a better rate if we moved from our 30 year fixed to an adjustable. Had we done that our payment would have adjusted up and out of our price range.

Even when we were looking for our house we had plenty of builders trying to sell us on adjustable rate mortgages. They kept saying in a couple of years you'll be making more money and you can easily pay any increase. What they don't tell you is that EVERYTHING goes up not just your mortgage. Food prices, gas prices, everything increases so there goes any of your so called raise (if your employer could even afford to give you one.)

So it's not just the unemployed who lost their houses.

[Freedomscap]

Good thing: gas has come dramatically down in price.

[kellygrrrl]

gas prices are a perfect example of how perverted&corrupted Free Market has become.
a 76% drop in a matter of months is NOT supply and demand
that is pure manipulation with political undertones

[Midnightrain]

Now that W is making his exit.

[hardybear]

recurring nightmare: Bush, in @ssless chaps, barricades himself in with Barney
and refuses to exit.

[Stud99]

Its great, I can fill up my SUVs for like $25. Bush is a great president.

[MichiganJFrog]

Hmmmmmm...

Drives a big honkin' SUV, feels the need to call himself "Stud", and thinks Bush is a great president.

Sounds like genital deficiency to me.

[rowzeer]

Tell that to those who have lost family and friends in his war of convenience. Only those who have no brain would think that this maroon is even remotely a good president. Waterboarding, wiretapping, deregulation, unnecessary wars, etc, etc, he his the worst ever!!!

[Pronto]

Good ol' Supply and Demand at work, Freedom. Works every time.

[horsey]

always does right before an election, get it while you can it won't last long.

[norwouldi]

I only had to read one quote from Bush: "How did we get here?" Reminds me of that song by the Talking Heads..."Same as it ever was.." which is quite an appropriate background atmospheric for the movie: "W". Gad. Why does this not surprise me? And when the hand points down from the sky, it will wave from side to side...say, "Nahhhh" and go back up into the clouds. Looks like we better start at the beginning. Again. Here is to 2009. May it be a year to reflect and and slowly recover from the last torment of intentional ignorance. If I may quote Einstein: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

[Midnightrain]

Precisely. In order to solve the problem, you must first be able to clearly articulate what caused it. Otherwise, garbage in garbage out.

[ebanks84]

Ain't that the truth!

[MNmommy]

Awe, Erik Cantor says Americans are tired of finger pointing.

Tear, tear, cry, cry.

[kellygrrrl]

amazing how the rhetoric changes when the tables are turned, huh?

[MNmommy]

I don't think he gets that we are just getting started.

[aznurse]

not me. I have my finger all ready for them and its pointed up.

[rich misty]

As long as they are pointing at Democrats, the GOP cheers

[Babysnake]

But he didn't compromise his ideals.

Most people just call it being stubborn.

[Mahi Joe]

He had no ideals to begin with. It was all about rewarding his inner circle of rich friends. Bush simply let his rich friends do what they will and he turned his back or supported legislation which furthered their beholdings. Bush really was befuddled about what happened because he is totally incompetent and had no idea what was happening right in front of his nose.

[rowzeer]

his ideals were greed, corruption, destruction, war, hate, etc. How quaint that he didn't compromise his ideals. Had he we would have all been better off.