Bush Administration Proposed a New Agency to oversee Housing Industry in 2003-Truth!
Summary of the eRumor:
An eRumor quoting a New York Times article from 2003 that claims “the Bush administration had recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing industry” in a decade, A new agency would be created under the Department of the Treasury to assume supervision of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The concept was met with opposition by the Congressional Democrats because at the time the lending agencies were not facing any kind of financial crisis.
The Truth:
Stephen Labaton wrote this story for the New York Times and it was published September 11, 2003 and it is still archived at the newspaper.
According to the article, the Bush administration introduced the plan and it was well recieved by Fannie Mae and its leading rivals. It was criticized by the Democrats in Congress and National Association of Home Builders who feared “that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.”
Congressman Barney Frank stated that they two major lenders were not facing any financial crisis at the time.
CLICK for full story from New York Times … updated 09/25/08
Campaign Contributions From Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac for Senator Barack Obama-Truth!
Summary of the eRumor:
An eRumor called the “Barack Obama’s Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Connection” claiming that Senator Barack Obama ranked the number two spot in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Truth:
John Gibson of Fox News wrote an article by this title on September 16, 2008, quoting sources from the Center for Responsive Politics. In it, Gibson stated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had used “huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs.” According to the article, “The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were Democrats and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama.”
The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), according to their web site, is a “nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy.”
According to the report posted on the CRP web site Donations for the Illinois senator from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac report between 1989-2008 tabulated up to $126,349. The same report show John McCain contributions from the same group tabulated to $21,550.
A New York Times article dated September 9,2008 stated both candidates had ties with the lending giants but Senator Obama “is second among members of Congress in donations from the firms’ employees and political action committees.”
Click here for the article
Click here for the Center for Responsive Politics on Campaign Contributions Reports. This exposes members of both parties. updated … 10/04/08
From A Retired Banker:
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Lending money to people who probably won’t pay it back isn’t good business. If you wrap crummy loans in a clever package, they’re crummy loans.
Your typical Wal Mart shopper understands this. But the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street and in Washington evidently didn’t.
Ostensibly to aid the poor, the Clinton administration and
Congress encouraged lenders to give mortgages to poor credit risks. The combination of easy money and the expansion of the number of borrowers by extending loans to poor credit risks sent housing prices through the roof, creating the bubble whose bursting has led to this crisis
Congress in 1999 repealed the law (the Glass-Steagall Act) that established a bright line between commercial and investment banks. This meant bad investments by banks could jeopardize depositors.
Wall Street created ‘derivatives’ which multiplied profits in good times, but which also multiplied risk if there were defaults.
Most important was corruption and mismanagement at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), which together controlled 90 percent of the secondary mortgage market.
Once your bank has lent you money to buy a house, it can’t lend the money again until you pay it back. But if your bank sells your mortgage, it can make another loan right away. Without the secondary market, most of the funds for home mortgages would dry up.
Fannie and Freddie went broke because they had bought billions of dollars worth of sub prime mortgages, on which borrowers defaulted when the housing bubble popped. Fannie bought most of its bad mortgages from Countrywide Financial, whose CEO, Angelo Mozilo, gave sweetheart loans to senior executives of Fannie Mae.
Fannie and Freddie cooked their books so senior executives would be paid millions of dollars in bonuses to which they were not entitled. Inadequate regulation kept the book-cooking from being discovered until the crisis had become a catastrophe.
President Bush proposed regulatory reforms in 2003 but Congress took no action. In 2005, John McCain and three other GOP senators proposed a strong reform bill. It died when Democrats threatened a filibuster.
When the bill was reintroduced in this Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd, the new Democratic chairman of Banking Committee, refused even to hold a hearing on it. Democrats opposed reform in part because they feared it would mean fewer loans to poor people.
‘Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’ Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, told the New York Times when the Bush bill was introduced. ‘The more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.’ Democrats and some Republicans opposed reform because Fannie and Freddie were very good at greasing palms. Fannie spent $170 million on lobbying since 1998, and $19.3 million on political contributions since 1990.
The principal recipient of Fannie Mae’s largesse was Sen. Dodd. Number two was Barack Hussein Obama.
Sen. Dodd was also the second largest recipient in the Senate of contributions from Countrywide’s PAC and its employees. The number one senator on Countrywide’s list? Barack Hussein Obama
Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines was forced to resign in December, 2004, because of ‘accounting irregularities.’
The Washington Post reported July 16 the Obama campaign has called Mr. Raines ‘seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.’
Sen. Obama appointed Mr. Raines’ predecessor, James Johnson, as head of his vice presidential search committee, until he was also implicated in ‘accounting irregularities,’ and it was revealed he’d received cut rate loans from Countrywide.
Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, chairman of Sen. Obama’s finance committee, cooked the books to conceal losses from subprime mortgages at her now defunct Superior bank. The holding company her family owned collected $200 million in dividends on phony profits.
The trouble with crony capitalism isn’t capitalism. It’s the cronies.
Follow the Money!
This election has me very more than concerned. Now having said that, let me state, I did not write this article, but I do find much agreement with it.
So many things to consider. About a year ago I would have voted for Obama. I have changed my mind three times since than. I watch all the news channels, jumping from one to another. I must say this drives my husband crazy. But, I feel if you view MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with. About six months ago, I started thinking ‘where did the money come from for Obama’. I have four daughters who went to College, and we were middle class, and money was tight. We (including my girls) worked hard and there were lots of student loans.
I started looking into Obama’s life.
Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. ‘Barry’ (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan. During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a ’round the world’ trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate’s family, then off to Africa to visit his father’s family. (Hasn’t he made public statements recently that he hasn’t had contact with his Muslim father or his father’s side of his family since he was a very young boy?) My question – Where did he get the money for this trip? Nether I, nor any one of my children would have had money for a trip like this when they where in college. When he came back he started school at Columbia University in New York. It is at this time he wants everyone to call him Barack – not Barry. Do you know what the tuition is at Columbia? It’s not cheap! to say the least. Where did he get money for tuition? Student Loans? Maybe. After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000. a year. Why Chicago? Why not New York? He was already living in New York.
By ‘chance’ he met Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, born in Aleppo Syria, and a real estate developer in Chicago. Rezko has been convicted of fraud and bribery this year. Rezko, was named ‘Entrepreneur of the Decade’ by the Arab-American Business and Professional Association’. About two years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Do you have any idea what tuition
is for Harvard Law School? Where did he get the money for Law School? More student loans? After Law school, he went back to Chicago. Rezko offered him a job, which he turned down. But, he did take a job with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Guess what? They represented ‘Rezar’ which is Rezko’s firm. Rezko was one of Obama’s first major financial contributors when he ran for office in Chicago. In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama which Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendelland claims Rezko was instrumental in providing Obama with ‘seed money’ for his U.S. Senate race. In 2005, Obama purchased a new home in Kenwoood District of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than asking price). With ALL those Student Loans Where did he get the money for the property? On the same day Rezko’s wife, Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price. The London Times reported that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born Billionaire loaned Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before Obama’s new home was purchased. Obama met Nadhmi Auchi many times with Rezko.
Now, we have Obama running for President. Valerie Jarrett, was Michele Obama’s boss. She is now Obama’s chief advisor and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz, Iran! Do we see a pattern here? Or am I going crazy?
On May 10, 2008 The Times reported, Robert Malley advisor to Obama was ’sacked’ after the press found out he was having regular contacts with ’Hamas’, which controls Gaza and is connected with Iran. This past week, buried in the back part of the papers, Iraqi newspapers reported that during Obama’s visit to Iraq, he asked their leaders to do nothing about the war until after he is elected, and he will ‘Take care of things’.
Oh, and by the way, remember the college roommates that where born in Pakistan? They are in charge of all those ‘small’ Internet campaign contribution for Obama. Where is that money coming from? The poor and middle class in this country? Or could it be from the Middle East?
And the final bit of news. On September 7, 2008, The Washington Times posted a verbal slip that was made on ‘This Week’ with George Stephanapoulos. Obama on talking about his religion said, ‘My Muslim faith’. When questioned, ‘he made a mistake’. Some mistake!
All of the above information I got on line. If you would like to check it - Wikipedia, encyclopedia, Barack Obama; Tony Rezko; Valerie Jarrett: Daily Times – Obama visited Pakistan in 1981; The Washington Times – September 7, 2008; The Times May 10, 2008.
Now the BIG question – If I found out all this information on my own, Why haven’t all of our ‘intelligent’ members of the press been reporting this?
A phrase that keeps ringing in my ear – ‘Beware of the enemy from within’!!!
NOPE you are not going to find this information on the front page!!!!!!!!!!!
