I'm amazed how, 6 years later, to full truth of what occurred has not been determined, or at the very least has not been honestly disclosed.
Despite Republican attempts to create stricter lending standards, and reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...
...Democrats and the liberal media have successfully heaped total blame on Republicans for the crisis. Despite that even a few of the more respected liberal journalists, such as Naomi Klein on C-Span in 2009, have called it "intellectually dishonest" to dump sole or even primary blame on the Republicans. That both have partial blame, and if one party were honestly given primary blame, it would be the Democrats.
This Democrat/media lie is largely what allowed Obama to win the 2008 election, and there has been no correction of the record after-the-fact.
If George W. Bush is primarily responsible, why were there so many warnings and attempts by the Bush administration and GOP to avert the crisis? Why is it not reported that attempts by the GOP to reign in dangerous lending practices, that would have vastly limited or fully prevented the financial meltdown, were obstructed by the Democrats in congress along party lines?
And that some of the key players, such as Andrew Cuomo and Franklin Raines, were closely aligned and even advanced by Democrats, even despite their proven failures? Franklin Raines was on Obama's vice-presidential selection committee! Cuomo is still a major star in the Democrat party, with presidential ambitions.
Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd went on to pass the Dodd/Frank bill under Obama's presidency, that is doing further damage to our financial structure, and stalling economic recovery. And by even the GAO and OMB's account, is "unsustainable" and setting us up for an even more devastating collapse.
Liberals who bemoan discrimination, intolerance, restraint of Constitutional freedoms, and promotion of hatred toward various abberant minorities, have absolutely no problem with discriminating against, being intolerant of, restricting Constitutional freedoms of, and directing hate-filled scapegoat rhetoric against conservatives.
EXACTLY what they accuse Republicans/conservatives of doing, is EXACTLY what liberals/Democrats do themselves, to those who oppose their beliefs.
This is all information that was available before the Nov 2008 election:
And incredibly, Barack Obama was still elected. Despite his enormous contributions to Fannie/Freddie, despite many of his economic advisors being key players in the mortgage crisis and point men who advocated and lobbied the sub-prime industry. Despite that Obama was a lawyer who pushed for groups that wanted easy lending standards that caused the crisis. Despite that Obama, during just three years in the Senate, racked up larger contributions than anyone else in congress.
And the same advocacy of easy lending is still expanding the mortgage bubble under Obama's presidency, setting us up for an even larger collapse!
Also, the subsidies to create "affordable housing" actually made it unaffordable, spiking real estate prices far above what previously only rose roughly equal to interest rates.
Similar to how government subsidies of universities are now making "affordable" college education unaffordable.
A clip from April 1998 of then-Assistant Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, talking about the Clinton administration's expansion of "affordable lending":
I couldn't believe this clip from Cuomo (at 3:00 into the video), talking about pressuring lenders to give loans to unqualified applicants, where he clearly said they knew in advance these mortgage loans would result in "a higher risk and higher default rate" of foreclosures for unqualified buyers!
How does this jerk still have a political career? I can't believe he's governor of New York and a potential presidential candidate.
I see the republican dominated House slipped in a last minute give away to banks in the latest budget bill. Once again they're rolling back regulations that were meant to protect taxpayers.
The Dodd-Frank bill has made it difficult for skilled and honest business owners to get loans, that they were able to get and stay in business with for decades, up until Dodd-Frank was implemented.
You again ignore that it is Democrats who have pushed for banks giving loans to unqualified borrowers, who they knew in advance would inevitably have far higher default rates. That's the crisis summarized, not "greedy evil Republicans". There was a schism in yesterday's budget vote among the Democrat Central Committee, but even so, a large percentage recognize the crippling effect of Dodd-Frank on honest capitalism, and voted to weaken Dodd-Frank.
It was slipped in as a last minute gimme to wealthy campaign contributors. As I understand it, it will make those risky derivatives federally protected again so when things go bad the government will be legally bound to bail them out again leaving tax payers on the hook. There's a reason it was slipped in last minute and on this bill. Note you don't see GOP House members defending it either. Many dems are willing to pass this because they know it will only get worse when a republican majority gets settled in. Lesser of two evils. I don't agree. Letting republicans push them around now will just increase the amount the GOP thinks it can do when they get the senate.
It is Democrats who have further expanded lending to unqualified buyers in the Obama years, Democrats who obstructed all attempts at reigning in easy lending to those who should never have qualified, as "racist", or "hating the poor", or just ridiculously paranoid of danger to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Right up until the day those government lenders collapsed!
And yet folks like Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Maxene Waters, John Kerry and Barack Cloward&Piven/ACORN Obama went right on expanding policy that has set us up for an even greater financial collapse! All of these were among the largest recipients of campaign donations from Fannie/Freddie. And Franklin Raines and other Fannie executives were appointed to Obama's Vice Presidential selection committee. How much evidence of Democrat corruption and responsibility do you need? I recall on C-SPAN in 2009, liberal journalist Naomi Klein said that based on the evidence, it is "intellectually dishonest" for Democrat leadership and the liberal media to heap all the blame on Republicans, or even primary blame. There's plenty of blame to go around, but if primary blame were to be given for the crisis, it would be on the Democrats.
It was not the Republicans who raised annual deficits from an average 400 billion under W.Bush's presidency, up to an average 1.1 trillion a year under Barack Obama. It is not Republicans who are engaged in reckless spending, that even the CBO and GAO call "unsustainable", not the Republicans who have tripled the money supply fromm 800 billion to at least 3 trillion due to "quantitative easing", printing money to buy our own debt because China and Japan will no longer do so. And you blame Republicans?!?
Liberals who bemoan discrimination, intolerance, restraint of Constitutional freedoms, and promotion of hatred toward various abberant minorities, have absolutely no problem with discriminating against, being intolerant of, restricting Constitutional freedoms of, and directing hate-filled scapegoat rhetoric against conservatives.
EXACTLY what they accuse Republicans/conservatives of doing, is EXACTLY what liberals/Democrats do themselves, to those who oppose their beliefs.
