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Congress considers creating auto dealer watchdog | detnews.com | The Detroit News
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- A coalition of consumer groups wants a proposed federal watchdog agency to scrutinize the nation's 20,000 auto dealers.
The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are working to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system in light of the collapse of major banks last year.
ACORN - The Big Picture: Find it @ www.justsaynodeal.com/acorn
okay, the reason no one focuses on Obama's "community organizing" is because few understand how it fits into the
big picture. focus, trace, read [click acorn] - revisit if necessary - but do understand why a) Obama has gotten to
where he is and why he threatens to continue that meteoric rise - with your tax money - straight to the white house
and b) how Obama, his advisors & the dems are linked to the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression.
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okay, the reason no one focuses on Obama's "community organizing" is because few understand how it fits into the
big picture. focus, trace, read [click acorn] - revisit if necessary - but do understand why a) Obama has gotten to
where he is and why he threatens to continue that meteoric rise - with your tax money - straight to the white house
and b) how Obama, his advisors & the dems are linked to the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression
The financial crisis explained in simple terms
We don’t know the source of this simple, yet brilliant explanation of the world’s financial crisis. It’s one of those things floating around the internet. Sit back, have a beer, and be enlightened:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar.
Taking advantage of her customers’ freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
The Audacity and The Depression - Political Machine - Politics Blog, Opinion and Analysis - AOL News
Barack Obama as president has a lot of audacity -- but what happened to the hope?
During last night's press conference, Obama simultaneously managed to scaremonger, depress us, talk down the economy, remind everyone (once again) that he "won," and mock those of us who believe in free market economics vs. Keynesianism.
Change? / ISN
Nor is he alone. Robert Rubin and Laurence Summers, also in line for high influence on the Obama administration, are yesterday's men, or rather the men of the day before yesterday.
Rubin is universally admired for his brains and his charm. He was also part of the coterie of deregulators who laid the foundations for the sub prime and toxic securities catastrophe.
The Black Sphere: Bizarro World
First, the truth is that it is the Democrats are chiefly responsible for the financial crisis, and they have created our Bizarro World. I won't take you through my normal history lesson, as most of you have been deluged by the facts. However I will outline a few relevant facts:
* Fact – Jimmy Carter signed into law the Community Reinvestment Act (1977), authorizing loans be made available to low-income households
* Fact – Clinton repeals Glass-Stegall and reduces reserve requirements with Fed bank
* Fact – Obama the lawyer threatens lawsuits against institutions for not making suspect loans
* Fact – Obama (Dem) receives 2nd most PAC money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
* Fact – Dodd (Dem) receives the most PAC money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
* Fact – The Democrats thwarted any and all legislation to put controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though Republicans were initiating it
* Fact – Barney Frank (Dem) was the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee during this time and has been on the committee for ten years...oh, and Frank received the 3rd most money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Laigle’s Forum
Those who buy into the so politically-convenient disinformation that blames Wall Street greed for our economic woes are likely to overlook the real culprits in the economic plunge story that has taken place from Wall Street to Main Street, coast to coast, and far beyond. That’s because the real culprits are in the United States Congress, not on Wall Street. And to be sure, it may be a matter of greed, but it would be of political greed and or myopia.
For example, take a look at the devolution in the Freddie Fannie debacle. It all began with a reasonable idea that was enacted into law under President Carter in 1977. Known as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), it caused little harm and surely did some good, until it was morphed into something quite different, quite insidious and pernicious during the Clinton years.
In 1995 under the version of the act revised by the Clinton administration, lenders were told that proof of income, source of down payment and credit history of a loan applicant would no longer be required as qualifying criteria. In addition to this revision of the CRA, the lending community was threatened by Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno, who promised to prosecute to the full extent of the law those who violated the 1995 lowered standards for lending. The die had been cast under Clinton and the situation was such a mess that in 1999, then Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned that reform of Freddie and Fannie was essential. His warnings fell on the deaf ears of those at Fannie and Freddie and over in congress who should have pushed for reform following Secretary
The Biggest Obama Lie « Porcupine Rim
There is one lie that transcends the rest and makes them pale in comparison. That is Obama’s lie about the cause of the ruination of the world’s economies.
Per Il Duce Obama, capitalism, and the economic policies of George Bush and John McCain, caused the recent financial implosion of the world. The lie is the mantra of socialists everywhere, including our Fourth Estate. The Big Lie is chanted relentlessly by Obama and his retainers to distract attention utterly from the true cause of the financial cataclysm; and this strategy has worked famously to the complete advantage of the chanters - the ones who caused the disaster in the first place.
What does it mean to cause something? Does gravity cause the glass to crash to the floor; or is it the pushing it from the table that constitutes the cause? People, humans, pick the cause to suit their preference in how to respond in the future. Obama and his minions have chosen the wrong cause, because they intend to go on, to continue, forcing banks to write bad mortgages to home buyers without the ability to pay them back. Obama won’t mention the subprime mortgages in the same speech, or in the same decade, when he lectures us about the economy from his vast experience.
Free Internet Press :: Smaller U.S. Banks Resist Federal Cash Infusion, But May Be Forced To Take It
Community banking executives around the country responded with anger Tuesday to the Bush administration's strategy of investing $250 billion in financial firms, saying they don't need the money, resent the intrusion and feel it's unfair to rescue companies from their own mistakes.
Yet regulators said some banks will be pressed to take the taxpayer dollars anyway. Others banks judged too sick to save will be allowed to fail.
The government also said Tuesday that it will guarantee up to $1.4 trillion of private investment in banks. The combination of public and private investment is intended to refill coffers emptied by losses on real estate lending. With the additional money, the government expects, banks would be able to start making additional loans, boosting the economy.
President Bush, in introducing the plan, described the interventions as "limited and temporary."
"These measures are not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it," said Bush.
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: Subprime loans “affirmative action” - Andrew Cuomo
Another lengthy video attempts to highlight the beginnings of the subprime loan disaster, and it’s well worth watching. Andrew Cuomo, then Bill Clinton’s HUD Secretary, held a press conference on April 6, 1998, explaining a settlement reached with a major bank on a lending discrimination case based presumably on the CRA. Cuomo brags about how “this administration will enforce the law”, but he also makes a very telling admission about the $2.1 billion in subprime loans that the bank would offer as a result of the settlement:
KFYI - "The Valley's Talk Station"
The Department of Housing and Urban Development won't discuss whether 5 million illegal immigrants held mortgages.
Earlier this week, we posted a story that said figures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development showed that home mortgages were held by 5 million illegal immigrants and that this may have contributed, in part, to the housing crisis that has led to the recent failure in the financial markets.
Our source for that story, a retired agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stands by those numbers.
A person from Housing and Urban Development contacted KFYI to tell us the number was inaccurate, that there were only 2.3 million mortgages held by immigrants, so there was no way that 5 million illegals could have mortgages.
When asked what HUD says the correct number is, the person (who identified himself only as 'Brian' and who refused to give his last name), either would not or could not say how many illegal immigrants hold mortgages. He also said there was "no way" HUD would grant an interview on the subject.
'RESCUE' REWARDS HOUSING HUSTLERS - New York Post
IF you thought the trillion- dollar-plus "financial-rescue plan" signed into law Friday had been stripped of the radical group ACORN, think again: The Chicago-based Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's fingerprints are still all over the law.
ACORN's participation in "fixing" a crisis it helped create is flabbergasting.
For decades, the left-wing activist group pressured lenders to give loans to lower-income borrowers who couldn't otherwise afford homes. The grateful homeowners then become political recruits, serving as foot soldiers for ACORN's radical agenda.
Problem is, such mortgages are now going bad all across America. ACORN's answer: Pressuring the banks not to foreclose on bad risks. And now, with the "rescue" bill, they're getting ready to simply rewrite mortgages to make them affordable.
House Republicans removed one pro-ACORN measure from the rescue bill - torpedoeing a provision devoting 20 percent of all profits from the bailout to a housing slush fund - which would've funneled money to ACORN and similar groups.
In its place, however, ACORN's favorite lawmakers - led by Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) - got ACORN-championed "foreclosure-mitigation" provisions into the rescue.
This will radically expand the federal role in meddling with mortgage loans. The key sections mandate that the Treasury "consent" to rewriting loans to prevent foreclosures - not only by reducing interest, but also by cutting loan principal.
Stuck with a $300,000 mortgage you can't pay? Get the government to wave its magic wand and cut your debt to $150,000.
The deal is only for those who have fallen behind on their mortgages, of course - not for all you chumps who've been paying on time.
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House Republicans removed one pro-ACORN measure from the rescue bill - torpedoeing a provision devoting 20 percent of all profits from the bailout to a housing slush fund - which would've funneled money to ACORN and similar groups.
In its place, however, ACORN's favorite lawmakers - led by Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) - got ACORN-championed "foreclosure-mitigation" provisions into the rescue.
This will radically expand the federal role in meddling with mortgage loans. The key sections mandate that the Treasury "consent" to rewriting loans to prevent foreclosures - not only by reducing interest, but also by cutting loan principal.
Stuck with a $300,000 mortgage you can't pay? Get the government to wave its magic wand and cut your debt to $150,000.
The deal is only for those who have fallen behind on their mortgages, of course - not for all you chumps who've been paying on time.
And it's a good bet that ACORN mortgage counselors will "help" decide which distressed borrowers benefit, and how.
The group's housing arm, the Acorn Housing Corp., is already funded with millions of taxpayer dollars to renegotiate loans for low-income people who should have never received them in the first place. Loan modification is ACORN's bread and butter.
One World Government is just around the corner: « Unidentifiedavenger’s Weblog
Do you think that this crisis just happened? People, this was planned many, many years ago and set into motion on December 23, 1913 when a hand full of members of Congress unconstitutionally (illegally) enacted the federal Reserve System along with the Federal Income Tax. It was at that point that our government sold out the American people because they stopped acting as a Constitutional Republic and began to function as a Democracy. In effect, they put the foxes in charge of the hen house, and those greedy bastards, who came from a long line of greedy bastards, kept dipping their hands into the pockets of the tax payers, building up their own bank accounts. Justice John Marshall stated: “The power to tax, is the power to destroy.”
But this wasn’t enough for them. They wanted more and the only way that they could control all of the wealth in the world, was to bring about a One World Government, where only a select few would be among the rich, while the rest of humanity is enslaved. The groundwork for doing this was laid in 1913, and the greedy bastards on Wall St., with help and blessing of one corrupt elected official and politician after another, built upon that foundation one statute and one “Free Trade” agreement after another, until our jobs and wealth were siphoned off to other countries, while at the same time they were pushing credit cards on to everybody, knowing that sooner or later, due to human nature, people would spend beyond their means, making us a nation of indebted servants, owing our souls to the greedy and treasonous bastards.
Today, there are powerful people in Europe, Asia and the Middleeast who are now urging the United States to go along with them on developing a one world cashless economic system. Our government under both the Clinton and Bush administration has already laid the groundwork for uniting Canada, the U.S., and Mexico into one, which will eventually include all of the Western Hemisphere. This will mean a definite loss of our national sovereignty, our Constitution and our fr
Pat Dollard | Young Americans | Blog Archive » Something Very Strange Is Happening
Something very strange is happening in the financial markets. And I can show you what it is and what it means…
If September didn’t give you enough to worry about, consider what will happen to real estate prices as unemployment grows steadily over the next several months. As bad as things are now, they’ll get much worse.
They’ll get worse for the obvious reason: because more people will default on their mortgages. But they’ll also remain depressed for far longer than anyone expects, for a reason most people will never understand.
What follows is one of the real secrets to September’s stock market collapse. Once you understand what really happened last month, the events to come will be much clearer to you…
Every great bull market has similar characteristics. The speculation must – at the beginning – start with a reasonably good idea. Using long-term mortgages to pay for homes is a good idea, with a few important caveats.
Some of these limitations are obvious to any intelligent observer… like the need for a substantial down payment, the verification of income, an independent appraisal, etc. But human nature dictates that, given enough time and the right incentives, any endeavor will be corrupted. This is one of the two critical elements of a bubble. What was once a good idea becomes a farce. You already know all the stories of how this happened in the housing market, where loans were eventually given without fixed rates, without income verification, without down payments, and without legitimate appraisals.
The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid
WHAT CRISIS? VOLUME 2 Here's a follow-up from economist John Seater on the so-called "credit crisis":
I have spent some time looking at interest rate data for the last year. Here is a summary of what I have found.
We Know Who Built This Bomb
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.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
Yep, you read it right. And there is more. They knew….
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.
The new, "improved" bailout: God help us! (ONGOING UPDATES, AND A CLOSING URGENT APPEAL)
The original administration-backed "rescue package" bill was three pages.
The failed House version had ballooned to 110 pages.
Now, the Senate has expanded it to a 450+ page behemoth, laden with new pork -- including provisions completely unrelated to the "financial crisis," such as help for rural schools, disaster aid, and a provision "demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses." This will include treatment for various "addictions" (drugs? alcohol? gambling? sex? the Internet? cell phones? conservative talk radio? pork-barrel spending?).
The initial five-year estimate of costs for just the mental-health provisions is $3.8 billion, but as we know about all government programs, that's just a chump-change opener. Traditional medical care has been tied, however tenuously, to actual, demonstrable physical maladies. But given the politicized and ever-expanding "mental illness" racket -- in which the psychiatric industry discovers, concocts, and arbitrarily defines new "mental diseases" almost daily -- this provision alone is absolutely destined to fund an explosive government-underwritten growth industry that will gobble up countless more billions of taxpayer dollars every year. But hell, why not? Now that the employees of banks, investment houses, insurance companies, and Detroit automakers are to be collecting their paychecks (directly or indirectly) from the taxpayers, I suppose it's only fitting to include shrinks. Perhaps they can help all the other groveling beggars restore their battered self-images.
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