It's all wall street's fault for being greedy and risking their entire firms by selling toxic waste!--so says 60 minutes. Where did that toxic waste come from? Oh, yes. It came as a gov't program pushed by democrats in the form of mandates and regulations. Democrats demanded that these loans be made, and now their lackies in the press sell the fairy tale that wall street was greedy and shameless for selling the very loans that the democrats themselves demanded be created! If wall street didn't sell these loans, what exactly was supposed to happen to them, mr scott pelley? Notice, too, if you watched, that they couldn't quite summon the outrage for fnm and fre for "betting the firm" and being "greedy" for it's downfall. They couldn't do that, mind you, because it might have led to you know who. The mindless masses that don't know the score probably ate that story up. "We need Obama to clean this stuff up!" Indeed.
Franklin Raines - He was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe regulates in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted," Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that "mistakes were made" and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company's books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four ye ars." Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion. Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ . The Government noted, "The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner." These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits. Tim Howard - He was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, "Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae," On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million! < BR> Jim Johnson - He was a former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor TIM HOWARD? Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama JIM JOHNSON? Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS, HIS ADVISORS HAVE THE EXPERTISE, THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I noticed we've got another thread going on about this story up in the so-called "respectable" portion of ET. They, of course, have honed in on the theme that it was the derivatives, the credit swaps, that did wall street in, just as they were told (or sold) on 60 Minutes. Well, could they explain why fnm and fre (which didn't sell this stuff) went bust First? Wall Street's great sin was that they relied on fnm and fre to be AAA credits. All their rocket science was based on this one simple fact. And, by the government's own admission, the gov't helped push the fact that fnm and fre were gov't backed. Now Wall Street is regarded as a den of morons for doing so. By the people that set it all up, no less. Beautiful.
Interesting how the Republicans on this board repeat ad nauseum purported relationships that have been denied and investigated and proven to be pretty much non-existent. With the Republicans here lying repeatedly and intentionally spreading disinformation that they should know by now is patently false while at the same time completely overlooking the even worse associations of their own favored candidate, what does it say about the partisan Republicans here? Seems as if they don't care about integrity. They don't care about accuracy. They don't care about truth. Should it be any wonder then that the Republican Party has become one to prop up a lying president. If you are willing to win at any cost be prepared to be the victims of your own tactics. One can only be oblivious to reality so long before it forces itself on you. The US is in decline. The rot is already evident. Clean it up or the nation truly isn't going to recover.
Obama says he will bring up "keating 5 scandal" ---------------------------------------------------- "McCain was "in the middle of" the Keating Five case in the sense that he was "exonerated." The lawyer for the Senate Ethics Committee wanted McCain removed from the investigation altogether, but, as The New York Times reported: "Sen. McCain was the only Republican embroiled in the affair, and Democrats on the panel would not release him."... The Senate Ethics Committee lawyer who investigated McCain already had explained that scandal away -- repeatedly.. "First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on (McCain's) side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five. ... And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him." http://townhall.com/columnists/AnnC...ve_your_mortgage_to_a_less_qualified_minority What do ya think about that, casablanca?
From obama campaign So at noon Eastern on Monday, October 6th, we're releasing a 13-minute documentary about the scandal called "Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis" -- it will be available at KeatingEconomics.com, along with background information that every voter should know.
Pretty desparate move by Obama, isn't it? He should be up 20+ pts., but he's only up 4. I hope this gets a lot of play in the evening news.
Yea it is. Mccain is really on the attack now, going after him in every way possible, even personally. but this video could prove to a powerful and slightly more appropriate reciprocation.