The Wanna-Be Vice Dictators
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:12 PM

They both want more regulation, more totalitarian “oversight,” more national socialism. So far, the only debate is centered around a lie perpetuated by both sides: That the Republicans are for smaller government.

McCain Is a Socialist, Too!
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:15 PM

Palin argues that McCain is anything but laissez-faire. After all, he’s for campaign finance censorship and tobacco nanny statism.

She’s Getting Away With It
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:19 PM

The key for McCain is to somehow run against the status quo, to run against his own party’s recent legacy. Palin says that we shouldn’t trust national health care, unless we have been happy with the way the feds have been handling things lately. Of course, she is right. Those who hate the Bush legacy — meaning, total statism — should logically oppose socialism too. But the McCain/Palin administration would be more of the same, more Bushism, more socialism. This severe ideological confusion helps both parties, and creates the illusion that there is a difference between the two.

Biden is getting away with it too, blaming the Republicans for shrinking the state. I can’t stand either one.

The Elephant in the Room
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:23 PM

They both support the fascist bailout. They both support a trillion-dollar foreign policy and a multi-trillion dollar corporate/entitlement state. They are debating over millions when the state they wish to run spends trillions. Even assuming the greatness of mass democracy, this is a grave injustice. They should be debating big, real issues. Not this trivia.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign continues to campaign on the fact that for a few days they nominally stopped campaiging.

The GOP’s Embrace of Autarky
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:30 PM

When, by the way, did the Republicans and almost all conservatives come to champion the frightening and economically ludicrous concept of “energy independence”? What they mean, of course, is autarky and socialism: All energy produced within America, and every single form of energy — solar, coal, oil, nuclear, wind, etc. — subsidized massively by the federal government. Even the Alaska drilling issue isn’t conceived of with anything approaching market reasoning. “We,” as in the federal government, should drill.

(Although the Republicans are more skeptical of the global warming zeitgist, they seem willing to champion big government programs such as carbon emissions limits to address climate change. Hey, environmentalists, with all the Republican leaders and corporate state adopting this line, you know it’s wrong.)

Biden Just Admitted It
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:39 PM

Obama’s Iraq withdrawal plan is the same as Bush’s. Biden does say, however, that the Dems will end the war, eventually. Palin doesn’t even make this much of a promise. On foreign policy, the Dems still seem slightly better than the Repubs.

On the other hand, “Pakistan already has nuclear weapons,” Biden points out, and so, I guess, we should be at war with them.

A Relief
Posted by Anthony Gregory at 08:54 PM

Well, at least both say Israel must be protected at all costs, that nothing is more important, and that Iran is the greatest threat ever. Indeed, they both accuse the other of being insufficiently determined to keep the Persians in line.

They also agreed on gay marriage, just as Bush and Kerry did: More equality under the law but no marriage for homosexuals. Same exact position. Different emphasis.

http://query.nytimes.com/…

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES

Published: September 30, 1999

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.

…

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.”

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.

It was obvious to just about everyone… yet Democrats in particular… the likes of Dodd, Clinton, Schumer, Reid, Obama, etc. endorsed and in several cases explicitly benefited from the Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The CRA was not the only or even the most important aspect which lead to the current crisis. Bad lending couldn’t have been sustained or would have been possible if not for the Federal Reserves incredibly low interest rates and market manipulation. The CRA was the vehicle which the rode the low interest wave to creating the boom.

Not surprising given his support previous of Service Nation and general expansion of national service. I bet he still refers to much of that as voluntarism. Offering young adults money for education for performing an act is not voluntarism.

• One page summary of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
• Section by section summary
• H.R. 3997: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Read and weep.

There are some other documents linked on the House Financial Service Committee site but at the time of posting they were dead

• On Housing Finance, the Difference between Democrats and Republicans Has Been Night and Day
• The Truth about the Community Reinvestment Act
• The Truth versus the Republicans on the Regulation of Subprime Mortgages and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

I imagine the Truth about the Community Reinvestment Act in particular is full of bullshit.

The Democrats want to distance themselves from the CRA as much as possible or spin it to look like it wasn’t a major contributor to the housing bubble. They are also looking to divert attention from the fact Fannie Mae was a major contributor to Obama as well as he chose former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson, who was found to have cooked the books, to head his search for a vice president.

http://www.bloomberg.com/…

U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama each deserve credit for a breakthrough in talks on a $700 billion plan to revive the credit markets, their advisers said today.

Republican McCain worked with party members in the House to achieve plan changes such as government insurance of mortgage- backed securities and a phase-in of federal aid, Senator Lindsey Graham said on the “Fox News Sunday” television program.

“The fact is the House Republicans were not in the mix at all” until McCain arrived at the talks, said Graham, a South Carolina Republican. McCain “was decisive in regards to the House being involved.”

Senator John Kerry, an Obama adviser, disagreed. McCain said “he was going to interrupt his campaign to come down and save the negotiations,” according to the Massachusetts Democrat. “What he did was interrupt the negotiations to come down and save his campaign.”

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said in a CNN interview today that McCain’s trip was “a political stunt” that “delayed and slowed down this process.”

Obama was supportive of negotiations in a “mild” and constructive” way by calling in over eight or nine days of talks, said Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.

If they want to take credit I’m happy to give it to them. When the depression comes I just hope whichever clown is in office will take the blaim.

http://www.bloomberg.com/…

U.S. lawmakers said they made a breakthrough in talks on a $700 billion plan to revive the credit markets and expect to announce an agreement on legislation later today. Negotiators resolved “our differences so we can go forward with a package to stabilize the market,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters when talks at the Capitol ended after midnight Washington time.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the proposed deal “will work and be effective” in the marketplace. More work needs to be done, “but I think we’re there,” he said.

Bush spokesman Tony Fratto said early this morning that administration officials are “pleased with the progress tonight and appreciate the bipartisan effort to stabilize our financial markets and protect our economy.”

Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who chairs the Budget Committee, said $250 billion would be immediately available and another $100 billion could be used when requested by the president for debt purchases. Congress could bar the expenditure of the remaining $350 billion only by passing a resolution to block it from being spent.

The package includes a provision aimed at “preventing golden parachutes” for executives of companies who leave firms that have sold troubled assets to the government, Conrad said.

Companies that sell debt to the government will issue stock warrants to the government so that taxpayers “can gain as companies recover” from economic difficulties, Conrad said.

A proposal that would allow judges to modify mortgage terms for struggling borrowers in bankruptcy proceedings wasn’t included, said Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. “We pushed very hard” for the bankruptcy provision, “but we feel we got good foreclosure mitigation language in there,” Dodd said.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said the plan “appears to embrace” his principles that the legislation include oversight by an independent board; protections for taxpayers to ensure they receive any profits; measures to help homeowners stay in their homes; and rules to make sure “CEOs are not being rewarded at taxpayers’ expense.”

“There were a series of breakthroughs here in the end” and the agreement on executive compensation “was certainly the most important,” Conrad said. He declined to give further details because the language being drafted by lawyers is “quite complicated.”

Taxpayers will not see a dime of any possible profits… the GOVERNMENT will. What Mr. Obama means is he will be less likely to tax the shit out of us if the happen to make a few pennies from this ‘deal.’ Which is highly unlikely. It really hits home I hope, especially after reading below, that these politicians are not representatives of the people. They represent big business and the elite. It has always been like that and always will. The potential the government has due to its assumed role is a incredible draw on those who would like to use that power for their own interests. It is an inherently flawed system and no ammount of wishful thinking or “getting in the right guy” will fix it.

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