NY Post: The Real Scandal (Mortgage Meltdown)

The New York Post ^ | February 5, 2008 | STAN LIEBOWITZ

[Orbiting_Rosie's_Head]

PERHAPS the greatest scandal of the mortgage crisis is that it is a direct result of an intentional loosening of underwriting standards - done in the name of ending discrimination, despite warnings that it could lead to wide-scale defaults.

[JasonC]

I am talking about the luddites walking around here and the halls of the administration deciding that oh, it'd be just great to tell half of wall street to walk the plank. Heck, bankers are unpopular, why not have the air force nuke New York City tommorrow at noon, just to teach 'em a lesson?

[JasonC]

Swing and a miss, with the usual ad hominem smear. Veteran, patriot, life long republican.

[Trailerpark Badass]

mark for tomorrow

[ikka]

I CAN HAZ EXAJJERATION?

[GOPJ]

Senator Dodd, number one recipient of lobby funds from FNMA since 1989 (with Obama being #2)

Feb, 2007 “For many years, the battle so many of us fought was to make credit available to neighborhoods that had been redlined, or to people, particularly minorities, who felt the sting of rejection regardless of their creditworthiness. In response to this injustice, and after years of hard work by people like Reverend Jackson, Hilary Shelton, and many, many others, we passed the Community Reinvestment Act and the Fair Housing Act, so that credit to buy a home or build a business would be available to all Americans. As a result, we have seen homeownership grow. Every one of us has spoken about homeownership – how it provides stability and a chance to build wealth for the vast majority of Americans. It is the most valuable asset that most of us own. Our homes provide us with a financial cushion on which we can draw to send our children to college, pay for unexpected health care expenses, or finance a secure retirement.

Dodd should be arrested and hung at dawn ( metaphorically speaking)

[JasonC]

We know what the bleeding problem is. There is a $500 billion unallocated financial loss on US residential real estate careening around the financial system, and everyone is playing hot potato trying to drop it steaming in someone else's lap. Which might be amusing, except that it has already done 5 times that much damage, and it is looking to go nuclear and raise that by another factor of 10 by the end of the month.

Allocate the loss. Ignore the question of blame. Ignore who gets hurt. Just take the hit and put it behind all concerned. Burn down whatever is insolvant and remove anyone running any institution that is, fine no problem, nobody cares. But focus entirely on limited the size of the overall hit, by getting it over with, and stop playing spin games to try to get someone else to take it for you. No one walks away from the hit this size untouched. It is metaphyically impossible, and blame has nothing to do with that fact. It is a mere law of economics. You might as sensibly try arguing with gravity after walking off a cliff, claiming you don't deserve to fall.

[editor-surveyor]

You’re doing all the smearing here.

Your refusal to recognize that the problem is partisan/idological belies your ‘republican’ claim.

[JasonC]

Snot nosed kid, grow up and go away until the country is safe again. Grown ups are talking.

[JasonC]

Ideology is indeed the root of the problem at this instant, because no one is acting as a technocrat economist looking at the common good, everyone is instead acting like a partisan hack only interested in making hay from the ruin of their country. McCain called for calm and said the fundamentals are sound - it was the only *adult* word on any of it, all day.

[editor-surveyor]

"Allocate the loss. Ignore the question of blame. Ignore who gets hurt. Just take the hit and put it behind all concerned."

Can't we all get along...

Problems have causes, and until the cause is properly addressed, there will be no solution, just a deferral to the deja-vu club.

[JasonC]

Oh and look around - people are posting that bankers deserve to be shot and politicians hung, and cheering as the wealth of the nation evaporates in useless bickering. They are bloody well smearing the living crap out of everything they can reach!

[eddie willers]

Bump

[GOPJ]

There’s some some serious problems going on - might have another great depression - or worse. Hopefully that won’t happen. People are tying to figure out what happened and how can it be undone. The court of public opinion has a role to play and we’re playing it. I just don’t understand where your anger is coming from...

[PGR88]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02052008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_real_scandal_243911.htm?page=0

[PGR88]

And this link, posted before, gives good evidence that CRA and the housing frenzy earlier in the decade were greatly abused by illegals as well

http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_diversity_recession_or_how_affirmative_action_helped_cause_the_housing

[editor-surveyor]

"

That's what people do when they feel totally helpless, and recognize that all real solutions are beyond their grasp. No gold, no survival; that is the cold reality. When all the fiat currencies become cigar lighters, the righteous anger floats to the top. Get ready!

[Rembrandt]

“..Jimmy Carter Community Reinvestment Act, or ACORN Community Reinvestment Act..”
—
Can you spell social engineering, boys and girls?

I knew you could.

[editor-surveyor]

"look around - people are posting that bankers deserve to be shot and politicians hung..."

That's what people do when they feel totally helpless, and recognize that all real solutions are beyond their grasp. No gold, no survival; that is the cold reality. When all the fiat currencies become cigar lighters, the righteous anger floats to the top. Get ready!

[Uncle Miltie]

Are you saying that Obama and his former employer ACORN are responsible for the meltdown?

[JasonC]

My anger is coming from the men on other threads right here on this site openly advocating the physical murder of bankers, and others merely gleeful that the wealth of others is being destroyed wholesale. Look around. My anger is directed at the blind partisan blame games will our country is burning. Does anyone here gives a rats rumpus about the bleeding country? Or is all if it just another excuse to made snide remarks about hated opponents to amass more personal power?

Conservatism is supposed to be about character. It is supposed to be about competence and merit and ability to execute. It is supposed to be about the good of the people and helping lift all together, not the class warfare crap we despise the left for engaging in. It is supposed to be about knowing economics, not just having a vested interest and a bet. It is supposed to be about patriotism and putting the country first. It is supposed to be about being superior to press pressure and mad crowd passions. It is supposed to be responsible, grown up, and sane.

Look around you. Any of that strongly in evidence over this financial crisis?

When a weak hurricane headed for the Louisiana coast on the eve of the Republican convention, men dropped everything to show their concern for an issue of common welfare. It was obvious they feared being blindsided by apparent indifference to another Katrina scale disaster, but they did what they should do in such circumstances. You see any of that over the Wall Street mess?

I've seen maybe 3 government officials, from top to bottom, show real spin-free technocrat sense in this entire crisis. Everyone else is just playing it for angles and could care less what they burn to the ground in the process. These people aren't fit to run a hotdog stand, and they want to run my country. You bet I'm mad!