Oh, they know what they’re doing.
They just haven’t learned that God knows better.
Not sure how they are doing that?
Rates are super low for sure. I just locked in my refinance at 3.625 on a 30 year fixed this morning.
Returning to the scene of the crime
The number of people in this country who paid dearly for this leftist experiment in social engineering is staggering. A large percentage of the retirement age population the democrats claim they are ‘protecting’ have been the hard hit by this economic debacle, fueled in very large measure by democrat policies. The question is not ‘when is the government going to learn’. The question is when are the usual democrat voting groups going to realize that they are voting against their own best interests, and against the best interests of the nation as a whole?
"The CRA and other government mandates didn’t cover Wall Street investment banks like Goldman Sachs, pure mortgage lenders like Ameriquest, nor hedge funds like John Paulson.
"The IBs, pure mortgage lenders, and hedge funds cranked out trillions of dollars worth of subprime paper and derivatives, all in the private sector and all in competition with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They did it without any government pressure. They did it because they were making a ton of money in the subprime market.
"Peter Ferrara is perpetuating a politically convenient myth, that “the government caused it all”, which gets treated like Gospel around here because a lot of conservatives start with the belief that only government could do something so stupid and damaging, and the facts be damned if they indicate otherwise.
"Well Wall Street spent a whole lot of money paying politicians of both stripes to dismantle the Glass Steagall act and to pass laws to prevent regulation of the derivatives industry. Google “Gramm–Leach–Bliley” and the “Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000”. The private shadow banking sector was in the subprime market up to their eyeballs, without government pressure, and they did a whole lot of stupid and destructive things, courtesy of their refusal to price risk correctly due to their idiotic belief in David X Li’s Gaussian Copula Function.
"HUD and the CRA ought to be scrapped. But so should the claim that the government caused the crisis and that the lending business was simply an innocent victim of government regulation."
I highly recommend everyone read Gretchen Morgenson’s book. You’ll get quite an education.
Another take on the Fannie/Freddie issue.
This guy doesn’t blame Fannie and Freddie per se, but points out that they are useful idiots for government policies. And made a boatload in the good times.
Ron Paul Highlights - South Carolina CNN Debate 01-19-12 (1 of 2)