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Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are responsible for everything, including Dallas losing last night.
Wingnutts are quick dismiss Bush from taking responsibility for the shithole the Republicans have dug.
Anything to sweep this decade long disaster under the rug or deflect blame from the executive branch of government.
I’d say the Republicans did a pretty good job sweeping the Democrat disaster away last Tuesday.
Too bad the head guy in the executive branch wasn’t up for re-election. He’ll have a rough time over the next two years and then he’ll get his comeuppance.
Rebooting: How do we make our government, regardless of its size or tax rate, more effective in combating FRAUD?
I suggest a complete BAR for people who have worked in government at designated high level positions ((all of them the open question being how far down into the GSA to go)) to go into private business, or maybe that if they do, they get taxed on all income above pick a number=$400K per year?
Then put regulators on an incentive/reward plan of 10% of all money collected by way of fraud detection and recovery.
Then outlaw earmarks.
Then make gov as transparent and on the internet as much as possible.
Then do away with 99% of national secrets.
Then do away with TSA at airports-airlines are as interested in safety/security more than the gov. Just lock the G_D cockpit doors.
This would result in “smaller” government, more effective government, and the reduced expense of government could be spent per the will of the people.
JB==yes, focus on the dithering shit that isn’t even true. Good Puke.
Repukes HATE REGULATIONS – IT GET’S IN THE WAY OF THE STEALING THAT THEIR OVERLORDS SO LOVE !!! Wall Street and the Banks make Millionaires and Billionaires the old fashion way – BY THEFT !!! So the bought and paid for Repukes will ALWAYS OPPOSE ALL REGULATIONS !!! Too bad the Sheeple got the wool pulled over their eyes last election !!!
Increased government regulation of the financial sector sounds OK until you remember what a great job Representative Barney Frank as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee did “regulating” Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. Apparently he “intensely regulated” at least one of Fannie Mae’s executives so well that he was recently re-elected to another term in the 4th Congressional District. Perhaps our poor economy is better than we truly deserve.
The right-wing media’s demonization of Barney seems nearly complete.
But you guys forget the reality that he was a minority rep, didn’t have authority to do anything other than advise. He didn’t make the rules. Repubs signed off on all his suggestions, making them just as culpable…if such culpability is even relevant in the first place, which it isn’t….
But that historic reality doesn’t play well into the propaganda narrative of the right-wing media. Goebbels would be proud of Roger Ailes.
The Pukes are good at the Big Lie, proving only that there are too many like JB who eat that shit like it was ice cream.
Googling for the responsibility of F Mae and Mac for the financial meltdown. I have read they played a small part initially and that is was only AFTER the crisis was in full bloom and they took over a big chunk of the bad loans AS PART OF THE BAILOUT that they actually got involved in the crime in chief which was securitization of the mortgages and demand for more product.
Still googling, but just to refresh the memory, the related charge that the Community Reinvestment Act also had nothing to do with subprime crisis:
http://businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinvestment_act_had_nothing_to_do_with_subprime_crisis.html
OTOH==documenting Puke Lies and JB’s slavish consumption of such lies is an endless process. Perhaps more efficient to just form sides and do battle?==at the voting booth. Let the majority rule.
#39 – omg! I actually agree with bobbo for a change. How about adding: execute anyone who has ever worked for Goldman Sachs (salary >$100K).
No doubt there are better sources out there but it looks like the “basic” problem with the Freddies is once again that Corporate Welfare system we have: the gain is given to the Super Rich while the losses are passed on to the taxpayers. More wealth transfered from the poor to the Rich!
See Para 2 for a good discussion of the interplay of the Freddies with the Securities Market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae
Seems the Freddies wind up costing us ((ie–not the stockholders)) about 360 Billion. A large hit to be sure, but not the meltdown.
bobbo, it’s not an endless process, rather it’s a hopeless process. Those brainwashed by the right-wing media don’t care about facts: they have beliefs. In their world, beliefs are absolute and facts subject to liberal/conservative slant. We can apply logic, reasoning, and irrefutable proof to any subject, make the argument airtight, yet their beliefs will still trump.
This, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with the USA right now. The dittohead world is living in inside a self-contained right-wing media universe.
#3
Not true. Obama has spent more than both Reagan and Bush in the equivalent amount of time.
#10
In total, Bush added 4.2 trillion to the national debt over eight years (ending with the debt at 10 trillion). Obama has added 3.7 trillion to the national debt in two years and the current debt is at 13.7 trillion. Thus, Obama is on pace to double Bush in half the time.
#34
The only benefit that smaller government gives us is that there is less to steal.
I disagree. You said yourself that if the business is small enough you (or your own people) check the books done by an outside firm. There are many benefits to smaller, or to be more specific, less centralized, government than to one single behemoth.
Olo–let’s be expansive and inclusive: endless and hopeless.
I was thinking just as you post this weekend watching Jonah Goldberg on In Depth. Very seductive in his humor and his half admissions. Very telling I thought they way he “admires” Rush Limbaugh and Hannity for their “leadership” while slamming Olbermann, Madow, etc for being just “talking heads.”===HAR!!!!
There is great evil in equating two different things just because they have 90% overlap: the 10% can be all the difference in the world. Wrap the lie within a truth and many will gulp it down without examination.
Taxes are bad. Thats the truth, none of us like paying it: therefore lets lower taxes on every opportunity: the lie within.
Even intelligent people like Thomas eat this shit then regurgitate in on command.
Silly Hooman.s
#43
Lie indeed. The author of your article completely ignores the 1993 revisions made to the CRA (which took effect in 1995). Read through the comments on the article you posted. The revisions to the CRA created the subprime market boom. The ability of banks to write off subprime loans eliminated any risk to creating them. The revised CRA was clearly one of the catalysts for the meltdown.
#43 Bobbo, just throwing back one of your favorite phrases with a minor twist.
proving there is a web link supporting any bumper sticker slogan/smear attack the Dumbocrat’s vomit forth
Bernie Madoff had gobs of regulations to prevent his scam. The lack of oversight allowed him to continue his enourmous fraud.
#51..
WRONG.
Bernie was incharge of the Stock exchange, and KNEW the regulators. FRIENDS.
He had FRIENDS, watching him make money..
Bernie Never show’d them the WHOLE THING.
He cooked the books.
#2. TThor “I don’t the logic behind this strip. Probably me…?” –
01101001 01110010 01101111 01101110 01111001
#21 The BP leak disaster wasn’t a disaster? We have hundreds of miles of coastline oiled, and re-oiled again and again, the coral that forms the bedrock of the Gulf ecosystem is dead or dying, important food stocks are dead, and being replaced by deep sea crustaceans that are more oil resistant (too bad they taste bad), we’ve had a series of the most ugly fish kills we have ever seen, some so bad that it looks like gravel roads rather than rivers, Corexit is being sprayed all over the place willy nilly (cause the real leak hasn’t been plugged yet) and the government is trying to pawn off responsibility for people getting sick onto the fisherman with gun-to-the-head contracts!
Not a disaster? Are you bought out, lazy, or just insane?!
Well, at least we are tending towards arguing about the “facts?”
Thomas–everything is more complicated than a short article/comment can consume. when you post near opposing arguments as your analysis what is anyone to think?
1. “The revisions to the CRA created the subprime market boom.” /// Too simple on its face, to be immediately contradicted by:
2. “The revised CRA was clearly one of the catalysts for the meltdown.” /// Not really a catalyst, but yes I agree one of the many causes.
Fannies were regulated and had oversight. Sub Prime Securitization had no regulation and no oversight. I’ll let you apply your fine mind to that fact.
JB–heh, heh. Keep trying. One day.
thomas…is Obama planning a $1T stimulus again? Seems not, therefore his “pace” will be significantly lower. Further, how much of the debt “Obama adds” is the direct result of a Bush-era policy?
#47 We have an actual emergency now that requires spending, that would be distinction between Bush and Obama on expenditures.
After 9/11 we lacked a way to televise, and gain political capital, from a mostly secret net-war against Muslim terrorists. The response was to create a big army style war to make good media art.
Obama is, at least, pointed in the right direction. He should have made a national work program to improve the electrical grid/mass transit/highway infrastructure. The second priority should have been outright nationalization or hostile marginalization of the private health insurance industry.
If you are honestly worried about uncontrolled growth in an organization/debt you ought to look at the private sector. Would you rather put Blockbuster or Starbucks executives in control of the government budget? Government grinds to a halt more than runs out of control.
Please define big government? Big government is big city, county and state government as well as the federal monster with all its bureaucracies. The Tea Party really wants to cut local regulations for the small business person. The cartoon pokes fun at the tea party movement as if they support corporate welfare. I think the movement wants a stop to big corporate favoritism. Wallstreet bankers and BP are global entities. Enron had aspirations to be one too. This all started with the bailouts. The Tea party is about placing America first and the globalists last.
Tea Party People are a little ahead of the curve more so than the Republicrats party faithfuls. Republicans and Democrats should be equally hated, but since the dialectic is such a powerful tool for the House of Rothschild, the media manipulators will posit the phony left right paradigm. It makes it easier to point out who the suckers are, for those of us in the real world.
Tea Partiers don’t like neocon chicken hawk republicans either.
dailybail.com/home/you-gotta-see-this-tarp-republican-gresham-barrett-booed-off.html
I think some people, including the tea party people, see government, wall-street and big corporations (BP, Enron) as all part of the same vast entity.
From that perspective, the cartoon make sense.
Big government is government without limits.
And if government thinks it CAN do everything, then it will try to do everything.
#55
The premise of the article you posted, and your original post, is that the CRA had no (or very little) impact on the financial crisis. The article’s author came to that conclusion by ignoring the changes to the CRA during Clinton’s administration. I agree that the CRA is not the only catalyst but to claim wasn’t one of the significant factors is silly.
The Bush administration did try to improve regulation over Fannie and Freddy. Did they try hard enough is a valid critique but on more than one occasion, his administration called for more regulation and oversight on Fannie and Freddie.
#56
Funny you should mention additional stimulus. Paul Krugman, a noted economist, has been calling for another stimulus bill of similar size to the first one because he said that the last bill didn’t spend money on things that would have created stimulus. Some call that “chasing bad money”.
Hey Thomas–as one of the commenters said: “The law didn’t make the lenders lend.” Why are you trying to push the blame to the government program?
Why could that be your goal?
What could cause that???
I’m drawing a blank here.
OTOH–fine, whatever you say Tommie. But so what??? Lots of blame to go around. Bit tedious on your part to parcel it out so parsimoniously.
Can I get your agreement that a great many people should go to jail? elected Leaders as well as Business Leaders?
I hope so.
Government Oversight
“Oil Spill Commission Co-Chair Startled By Federal Rig Inspectors’ Lack of Formal Training and Lack of Knowledge of Underwater Drilling Operations”
http://tinyurl.com/BigGovFail
jbenson2: Firstly, the falsehood that the India trip is going to cost so much is debunked at snopes.com as well as the lies about Obama not being a citizen. As for your comment #37, only an idiot doesn’t realize that the Obama administration inherited the financial mess that was created by previous administrations, including 8 years of Bush and 4 years of Clinton before him making bad decisions that, among other things, allowed the banks to make loads they never should have been making and breaking the loans into little bits and selling those bits in packages with the good loans lumped together with the bad ones and writing the prospectus’ up claiming that they were all the good loans.
Seriously, if all you can do is regurgitate falsehoods you’ve heard somewhere without even thinking about how they don’t make sense then you aren’t even worth listening to.
To all who do not want big government telling them what to do and how to live, [;ease stop setting your clocks by NIST, stop using those federal highways and ONLY use private roads, grow and raise your own crops and livestock, drill your own well and test it yourselves, don’t call the police or fire department in an emergency, do it yourselves.
And turn off the TV and leave the net. Those are gubermint controlled as well.
Thanks and have fun in the caves.
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