Wednesday, December 15, 2010

On Blaming the Republicans Solely For the Financial Meltdown Part 4

Perhaps my colleague is referring to a piece of legislation that I'm unfamiliar with. If, however, he's strictly referring to Congressman Frank/the Congressman's relationship to Fannie and Freddie, then, yes, he is markedly rewriting history here. The truth, folks, is that Congressman Frank has never (well, except for maybe a few days in 2002) taken a responsible posture toward these institutions..............................................................................................For instance, it has been reported by the Boston Globe reported that Frank, as early as 1991, had pushed these agencies to loosen regulations on mortgages for two and three family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice to five times the rate of single family dwellings. They also reported that in 1994, President Clinton's Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose stiffer regulations on Fannie....and that they were thwarted by Mr. Frank. Yes, in 2002, Mr. Frank was seemingly coming to his senses on these types of loans but, alas, it didn't last. Get this quote, folks: "I do think I DO NOT (emphasis courtesy of me) want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OOC and OTS. I want to roll the dice a little more in this situation toward subsidized housing."....................................................................................................I think that we really need to face it here, folks. Barney Frank's name probably SHOULD have been on that Time magazine list, perhaps even more so than Mr. Clinton's.

9 comments:

Commander Zaius said...

...he is markedly rewriting history...

Slightly off subject but they ALL rewrite history to fit their image and we let them.

Rusty Shackleford said...

Like I said in the prior post.Frank is either a liar or clueless...I think he's just not real bright and the dem majority made him chairman of a major committee mainly because he is openly gay....stuff like that always makes liberals feel good about themselves.Barney was in deep water,way over his head...plus he was having an afair with one of the executives.He did'nt have a clue what he was doing.Barney Frank...dim bulb.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

You're right, double b. And the right does it just as much as the left; Cheney and his revisionist Iraq history and Mr. McCain saying that he never really considered himself a maverick. Jut to name a couple of examples.......A liar or clueless, Russ? I think that you may have forgotten a third possibility here; delusional.

Dervish Sanders said...

Clinton, following the advice of Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Lawrence Summers, signed Phil Gramm's 2 deregulatory bills in 1999 and 2000.

What Mr. Frank did "as early as 1991", or in 1994 when he "thwarted" attempts by the Clinton administration to "impose stiffer regulations on Fannie" had absolutely NOTHING to do with the financial meltdown.

I think you're rewriting history Will. Or listening to others who are...

What "colleague" are you referring to?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Allowing (no, make that advocating for) loans that were defaulting at 2-5 times the rate of regular loans and fighting regulations for Fannie and Freddie had nothing to do with the financial meltdown? You're nuts......Yes, Mr. Clinton, under the advice of 2 Democrats and 1 Republican, loosened up lending practices in 1999. I said that early on - REMEMBER; the loosened lending started under the Clinton administration, Mr. Clinton being one of Time Magazine's 25 people responsible for the meltdown, etc., etc.?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Mr. Frank and a lot of his fellow social engineers (er, I mean, Democrats) for a long time had this idiotic wet-dream about everybody being able to own their own home. It was egalitarianism run amok and a big part of the reason why we ended up in trouble.

Dervish Sanders said...

You're conflating what Mr. Frank did in his role as an advocate for Fannie and Freddie with what Mr. Clinton did in deregulating the mortgage market. Either you're being extremely dishonest or you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Mr. Frank didn't advocate for deregulating the market, that was Phil Gramm + Clinton and his advisors. In fact Mr. Frank WARNED about the dangers of deregulation. AND He co-authored legislation to address the problem. It was BLOCKED by the Republicans.

I've pointed this out to you TWICE. You didn't disagree with what I wrote, you IGNORED it. That being the case, I'm going to have to conclude that you know the truth and are simply being dishonest.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

The 2 are interrelated. Almost every nonpartisan analyst has concluded that the early-on reckless lending of Fannie and Freddie was an important precurser to the overall problem (that is WHY Time put Franklin Raines in their top 25). Yes, Mr. Clinton compounded the scenario with additional derugulation in 1999 (that is WHY Time put Bill Clinton in their top 25). This is a complicated issue and maybe if you started sending me something other than crap from Mr. Frank's congressional office and other far-left partisan sources we could have a productive conversation.....Oh, and, yeah, I could do without the impugning of my honesty, too.

Dervish Sanders said...

I don't know how we can have a "productive conversation" if I put forth my counter argument and you ignore it. Rep. Frank did co-sponsor legislation to reign in Fannie and Freddie and the Republicans did block it.

Is calling this fact "crap from Mr. Frank's congressional office" your way of denying that it happened?