http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=0DD383A1-12DE-4710-8BB4-A0A866C85708 But while this denial of reality might be shocking to some people who only recently started paying attention to Republican politics, itâs not, in fact, a new phenomenon. And itâs taking place wherever Republicans are asserting power. Elizabeth Warren, a leading legal expert who has been facing a fierce GOP onslaught against meager government attempts to protect consumers against predatory financial institutions, said dealing with the Republicans was like âliving in an alternate universe.â Indeed, thatâs what the GOP discourse sounds like now â a basic feature of modern conservatism is denying reality. For example, if you just listened to conservatives, you would think that Wall Street and the reckless actions of big banks had nothing to do with the financial crisis. According to the GOP, the economic collapse was the fault of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were government-sponsored entities. Though the majority of the really toxic subprime loans were made by banks and mortgage companies, and one big private firm, American International Group, sold the biggest bundle of credit default swaps, the financial industry was not a cause of the crisis, Republicans say. Nope, it was all Fannie and Freddie.
Thats absurd to the point that its comical, on the contrary, most conservatives will admit that everyone shared some blame for the melt down, fannie, freddie, wallstreet, banks, as well as the people taking out stupid mortgages. Where as democrats will say the entire thing was wallstreet, as well as bush's fault, and no one else should share any blame for it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AIG write the swaps on (bonds of mortgages) to many, many, many players. All this players (DO NOT) own the underlying. So they all bet on this same bonds. This is the derivatives they insure, but have not enough money to cover this bets if they default. And it happened. Defaults came on the bonds, and the AIG can not pay for the bet on the bet on the bet of SAME bond. Is really bullshit to blame the minorities. or the CRA, or the Fannie and Freddie.
It's the percentages, (kinda like the black crime thing, LOL) that you have to keep in mind. What share of the meltdown belongs to fannie and freddie? It is demonstrably small.
LOL This is all you need to know. Matt Stoller worked on the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and Federal Reserve transparency issues as a staffer for Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.). He is now a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute Talk about a f'ing loon.
Only if you consider a trillion dollars small change. FNM/FRE were set up to securitize mortgages. Period. A pretty low risk business, if you follow basic precautions. But that wasn't good enough for the pols who were installed to run them. FNM under a political hack named Jim Johnson expanded into owning a huge portfolio of mortgages, financed with debt that carried an implicit govenrment backing. Trillions of debt. Running a mortgage REIT, which is what FNM was doing, is deceptively simple. Lend long, borrow short, and in FNM's case, have an unfair advantage by a lower cost of funds than private competitors. The trick however is avoiding the shoals when the financial markets seize up. Private sector companies like Analy came through just fine. FNM and FRE went bankrupt, largely due to incompetent and/or corrupt management. I think conservatives would agree that there is plenty of blame to spread around for the financial crisis, eg NY Fed, headed by some guy named Geithner, which was asleep at the switch as banks took on insane leverage and risk, Wall Street, the ratings agencies ,et al. Where we part company is that most conservatives felt congress should let the market sort the mess out. If AIG sold CDS products that it couldn't pay off, tough. That will teach the investment banks and hedge funds who bought them to be more careful next time. Instead, the taxpayers got to bail out GS, MS big hedge funds, etc.
Face it. Money will fall in the hands of those who fight the hardest for it. Who are our CEOs and our Politicians? People who fight hard for their money. Are they going to part with it after they've fought so hard? Hell no!
The debt business is the source of a great deal of suffering in the United States. When somebody owes you money they are a slave until they repay. People being so stupid in this country will jump at a chance to spend money that they don't have. Only to realize their mistake when they finally have to pay.