If Obama's For Real on the Sub-Prime Crisis, He'll Dump His Campaign Finance Chair
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama says he'll crack down on fraudulent sub-prime lenders. If he really means it he can start by firing his campaign finance chair, Penny Pritzker. Before taking over Obama's campaign finances, she headed up the borderline shady and failed Superior Bank. It collapsed in 2002. The bank's sordid story and its abominable role in fueling the sub-prime crisis are well known and documented. It engaged in deceptive and faulty lending, questionable accounting practices, and charged hidden fees. It did it with the sleepy-eyed see-no-evil oversight of federal. It made thousands of dubious loans to mostly poor, strapped homeowners. A disproportionate number of them were minority.
Obama's home state, Illinois, ranked near the top of thee states in the percentage of sub-prime mortgages. Nearly 15 percent of home loans were sub-prime according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But that only tells part of the tale. According to the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago non-profit that studies housing issues, the sub-prime fall-out was far higher in the predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods of South and Southwest Chicago.
The predictable happened when many of those lost their homes. When the bank collapsed Pritzker and bank officials skipped away with their profits and reputations intact. Aside from the financial and personal misery sub prime lenders caused the thousands of distressed homeowners, sub-prime lending has been a major cause of the housing crisis in many areas, and has dealt a sledgehammer blow to the economy. Obama has said nothing about Pritzker, Superior Bank, or their dubious practices.
Instead, there was a touching, even teary eyed photo op, moment during one of Obama's Texas campaign swings. There was Obama talking to a group of San Antonio residents and lambasting the CEO of a sub-prime lender for greedily snatching at a $100 million buy out package while thousands of home borrowers that his company snookered into loans at below market rates faced foreclosure or the threat of foreclosure.
The problem with the staged scene in Texas and Obama's words to the residents is that he left a couple of things out. One is Pritzker's name. He's also been mum on what the bank that she once headed up did.
Other than Obama's quip about the greedy sub-prime lender CEO to San Antonio residents, a Google search found no Obama statement on Superior Bank, no detailed statement on the sub-prime crisis, or what he did as Illinois legislator to deal with the crisis helped along by his finance chair's bank. There was a length list of topics on Obama's official campaign website that detailed the candidate's position on everything from the environment to the Iraq war. Yet there's not one sub-topic on housing, or the sub prime crisis on his campaign website.
Obama has not publicly called for a moratorium on lending, or tough civil and criminal penalties for lenders that engage in deceptive lending practices, or called for an interest rate freeze. Former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards and Clinton called for a moratorium, and providing generous aid to strapped homebuyers face with foreclosure. Obama's rescue plan has been roundly criticized as tepid, cautious and not much better than what Bush has called for to deal with the crisis.
Obama blew off questions about Pritzker and the Superior Bank fiasco with the terse (through a spokesperson) quip that he'd crack down on fraudulent lenders. So again, the two ways he can prove that he means business is to dump Pritzker as his finance chair and then retool his campaign pledge to support a full moratorium on sub-prime lending, tighter regulatory oversight over lending practices, and debt relief for the thousands of homeowners that have already gotten the boot from their homes. Obama boosters will try to muddy the water by fingering Pritzker's brother, Jay Robert Pritzker, who heads up a campaign committee for Hillary Clinton. That's irrelevant. Jay Robert did not head up Superior Bank when it ran roughshod over homeowners in Illinois and nationally. He does not head up Clinton's campaign finance committee. The campaign committee he started is one of dozens of Clinton campaign committees that operate in many states.
Obama's message is one of hope and especially change. He can prove it by changing his finance chair, and doing it now. And then telling the public what he will do to stop bank's like the one his financial point person headed from bleeding needy and desperate home buyers dry.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).
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See Stop Fraud Act.
Obama, Durbin Introduce Bill to Fight Mortgage Fraud and Abuse ...Obama, Durbin Introduce Bill to Fight Mortgage Fraud and Abuse ... The STOP FRAUD Act, which is aimed at stopping mortgage transactions that promote fraud, ...
obama.sena
Barack Obama on Welfare & PovertyI've got legislation called the STOP FRAUD Act that basically requires the .... Voice your opinions on Welfare & Poverty or about Barack Obama in The Forum. ...
www.onthei
And I don't follow anyone blindly, I'm astute enough to see thru everyone's bullshit.
Thank You Mr. Hutchinson.
And also back Universal SINGLE PAYER/not for PROFIT health care. Not that he needs to convince anyone else to win the Primary but he might gain more in credibility with some of us who know he did before he came to Washington.
And a few more things that went from more liberal/left to more centrist.
Some initial supporters I know became a bit disenchanted with Obama after doing research on the candidate.
Not to imply all Obama supporters do. He good. He may be the real deal and Lord Have Mercy I hope so.
Hmmmm, its going to be interesting to see how Hillary Haters will insert their malice into this.
Maybe they will say she placed the finance chair in his campaign just to derail him.
LOL
it really does get absurd from both sides of this hell.
I think I finally lost my idealism. At 59 years old I was seeing a dream come true: An African American, A Woman candidate at the same time? WOW!
The result of hard work was finally coming to fruition. We were seeing it happen. The commitment of of many dedicated Americans who paid with blood, sweat and tears and lives over the course of decades worked on the incremental changes that happen oh so slowly finally paid off.
People say oh, race and gender shouldn't matter, of course it shouldn't and eventually it won't but right now it does still matter because race and gender issues are not resolved. Racism and Sexism are still a part of our culture, racist and sexist language, jokes, profiling and more are still ingrained in our nation's psyche. If that wasn't the case we wouldn't have to keep repeating that race and gender shouldn't matter nor would we dismiss and demean anyone who mentions either of these things.
It was and is an historic moment. It was a meaningful moment, particularly from those who fought the fights of the past, the wars of the 60's that are now supposed to be over, let go of.
And then the supporters of both campaigns became so hateful, the media so bizarre in their coverage, almost like a pop event. I felt like I was watching "Entertainment Tonight: Politics version" covering Brittany Spears and Denzel in Washington
I'm very disappointed in this primary election.
I had really expected people to be excited, voters over amazing nature of what was happening in the Democratic party and the country, the media to cover this historic time.
I thought people would get behind both candidates even if voting for one over the other, liking one over the other, still supporting the brilliance of it all with some kind of joy or gratitude. I believed that no matter who won we could be proud and decent and good and believe that change does come.
Instead the hatred that has spilled out from both sides on the blogosphere, though I do have to say primarily hatred and malevolence toward Hillary with all the hyperbole and overblown accusations and overwrought malignancy that come with ideology. Both sides taking shots, belittling, demeaning, distorting, basically pissing all over what could have been a shining moment.
What an illusion breaker.
I guess its about time. I at least got to see it even if it was heartbreaking in a way... Age of Aquarius and all that! LOL
If the Democratic Party couldn't come together over this I don't really have hope of us ever letting go of eating our own.
I haven't even read the article yet but wanted to voice the thanks from the headline alone.
"I haven't even read the article yet..."
-accountability
Well, at the very least, you are accountable. Gotta give you that.
Thank you Earl, for laying the facts out.
Prepare yourself for a barrage of outraged denial (how DARE you question The Annointed!??!), scorn, and insults (Uncle Tom, traitor, etc). The complete refusal of Obama's supporters to deal with ANY of his negatives is truly unbelievable.
We've had this guy foisted upon us for the general, with absolutely no realistic look at his baggage. His supporters seem to think that the GOP will stand aside and doff their hats, letting Obama sweep into the White House. They're in for a nasty surprise.
The Democrats - amazingly! - could lose this election EXACTLY because of this.
Obamabots are the new Bushies! swept up in emotion, blindly following their leader.
The Corporate Owned Media and their corporate sponsors love it when Obamabots scream -
"no mandates!" - and Obama campaigns with "Harry and Louise" ads against Hillary and
universal health care.
No wonder the media is crowning Oblahma.
They KNOW Hillary will deliver on health care!!
The Iraq War will end when a majority of Dems AND Repubs want it to end.
Health care is different. And won't ever begin without a fighter in the White House.
Obama will cave to his Wall Street and K Street donors. That's why the media promotes him.
EVERYONE NEED PAY ATTENTION.
AMERIQUEST WORST OF THE WORST SUB PRIME CO FORMER OWNER IS OUR AMBASSADOR TO BELGIUM BEING PAID BY YOUR TAX DOLLARS.
BANK BAILOUT IS GOING ON NOW WITH FED CUTTING RATES AND THE BANKS NOT PASSING THEM ON --THEY ARE CUSHIONING THEIR COFFERS AGAIN AND GETTING HEALTHY.
93% OF AMERICANS PAY THEIR MORTGAGES. 4 % DEFAULT ALWAYS FACTORED IN . SO 3 % OF THE POPULATION IS CAUSING THIS CRISIS. CANT BE. THIS WAS PREVENTABLE AND PREDICTABLE.
BY THE TIME SOMEONE NEW IS ELECTED THE CRISIS WILL BE OVER BECAUSE THOSE HOMES IN FORECLOSURE WILL ALREADY HAVE BEEN FORECLOSED ON. THE COLLECTION PEOPLE
AT OCWEN AND HOMECOMINGS ARE NOT EVEN IN THE US ---
Please don't yell at us. If you have facts, lay them out in a reasoned manner. Using caps doesn't make it more true, just more rude.
The biggest losers in the current mortgage and real estate melt-down are not the homeowners, it's the investors who bought the bundled mortgage packages sold by U.S. banks. The homeowners are more visible, but most of their losses are psychological more than financial.
The feds held down interest rates to absurdly low levels so people could borrow lots of money for a relatively low monthly payment, even lower if it was interest-only for the first few years. When the loan payments increase to reflect a normal payment schedule and amortization for a 30-year loan, the home buyers cannot afford the payments. In other words, they've lived in a home for several years getting tax breaks and often paying less than they would have paid to rent. They have no equity, they can't make the payments, they can't afford to buy the home. And the home has often lost so much in value that it's worth less than the amount of the loan. These people need to deed the property back to the lender and get out, let the lender re-sell for the current value, less than the loan, and the lender will take the loss.
This whole drama about lenders taking advantage of home buyers is a bit exaggerated. Many of the borrowers lied about their incomes. Many homes are in foreclosure because people lost their jobs and could not make the payments. Many are in foreclosure because people just stopped paying when the value of the home dropped far below the loan, they could not sell because the market is flooded, so people just wait to be evicted and stop payments in the meantime. The biggest culprit is usually the mortgage loan brokers who lie to the borrowers and to the lenders, and the feds who completely abandoned any regulations of the institutional lenders.
Any tax-payer funded bailout, including the one promoted by Clinton, is simply a bailout of the lenders. Taxpayers will pay down the loans so the lenders don't have to take the loss, and real estate will remain grossly overpriced, certain to collapse in the future. It's a bad idea.
100% correct. And the real end story of this is that homeowners who are begging for ways to keep their homes are calling these lenders for modifications and after being on hold for 45 minutes , are told cant help them. Many of these companies have overseas branches collecting these debts and it is difficult to explain and understand them. Quite some time ago I learned that Bank of America actually has part of their banking system holding information on Americans in India and that is one of the call centers for them. They should have to change their name to Bank of America/India .
I'd be far more inclined to be wary of one who's loss is psychological, rather than one who has just lost money.
And if Hillary is serious about ending the Iraq War, she'll dump her cluster of pro-war advisers.
,
Exactly! That would be so nice to see that it's not going to happen. More likely Joe Lieberman will be running for VP again if have Hillary.
Obama may be biding his time-- after all. lending practices are one thing and debt collection practices are another, and nobody is even looking at that set of problems in general terms as yet.
More on the history of the Pritzker feud and their ties to both Hillary and Barack:
http://www
http://cbs
http://www
http://www
By the way, national campaign finance chair is the person whose job it is to raise money and pay the bills. It's not the future Fed Chairman.
So, let's face it, if you can be guilty by association, both Hillary and Barack are equally guilty.
Ides:
This is dead-on what I have been prattling about. Thank you for using your head, and the great info..fant
No quip about Superior Bank? Surprisingly a non-google search of your article lacks any information or links to articles on Superior Bank...suc
http://que
By the way, Hillary Clinton has a Pritzker working on her staff, too, which sort of makes it a double-edged sword. And considering the amount of fraud "against" the Pritzkers that may have constituted the failure of Superior Bank in the FDIC investigation, it's a little premature.
But then, that would require research into attacking someone for their name....
Interesting, but I can't imagine people being savvy as to particular personalities in this race to this extent.
I once worked for a CEO of a Savings and Loan back when that industry was tanking, and his big claim to fame was that he was head of a small bank that made loans to all the Republicans, and they made sure they bailed that bank out while pounding the Democrats for the same when they supported the Savings and Loan.
That CEO led our company into a 5-1 reverse stock split. For those not into money, this means, for every stock that real people like you and me had in that company, the Company made it into 1/5 of a stock.
The company was bought up, easily, by Euro-trash bond brokers.
We all lost our jobs, of course.
But......w
My point is that I don't think Obama has much of a clue, really, about what to do about this issue.
Bail them out? We're zooming back to the 80s.
Don't bail them out? We're headed into the biggest mortgage meltdown in our lifetimes except for the Great Depression.
Hopefully this will be over by next Wednesday and we won't be subjected to Earl's weekly "Take Down Obama" blog to demonstrate how he is such an independent thinking person of color. I am impressed Earl. Now go away.
OBAMA 08
How dare he tell the truth? What does his being a "person of color" have to do with it? Or do you only approve of black people who agree with you. You need to check yourself, GA. Then, go away.
Same issue as y'all have always made about 'person(s) of color. If you have to ask...
Do you have a problem with all the "Take Down Hillary" blods? You're simular to the republicans who blindly followed BUSH!!!
Amen!
You hit the nail on the head. Hopefully a year into Obama's presidency Earl will be reduced to being a sports columnist for some small local paper.
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