Posted on 11/02/2011 7:43:12 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Banks: Using the Guy Fawkes mask emblem of Occupy Wall Street and the "Anonymous" hacker group, leftists are planning a big Nov. 5 to-do to pull their money from big banks and put it into small banks. It's economic idiocy. Led by the likes of MoveOn.org, Arianna Huffington and a supposed Los Angeles art gallery owner named Kristen Christian, the leftist game of "blame the banks" for the acts of Democratic politicians is coming together Friday — Guy Fawkes Day in England — in an extravaganza of events alternately titled "Bank Transfer Day,"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
11/5/2011 is Saturday. Do the leftists not know this? Their prank is therefore either a day early or two days late. Or does this not matter, so long as a stupid and futile gesture is made and followed up on by a compliant media?
Gov forced banks to consider poor borrowers and to relax standards, creating subprime loans and to give incentive for banks to assume the risks, Freddie and Fannie will buy the mortgage notes. That is the liberal gov policy stupidity. However liar loans were never sanctioned by the CRA or gov. Banks figured that if they push through tons of mortgage applications, earn the points and fees up front and then dump all of it onto Freddie and Fannie within six months, the money earned from such scheme was better then other competing investments. Ironically the full time civil service in Freddie and Fannie warned the politically appointed officers that this was happening and a financial meltdown can occur with the taxpayers stuck holding the bag. The political heads of the agencies did not care, the Federal Reserve in cahoots with bankers did not care, the US Treasury warned by the FBI in 2004 about finding liar loans among white collar crime investigation did not care and the bankers took advantage of this fed regulator and FM/FM negligence with a gusto. Liar loans mortgage notes flooded the market, pension funds and etc in the world, while the buyer did not suspect the AAA rated portfolio was actually junk/high risk. Now bankers, and many freepers claim that banks were victims and the gov was the sole villian in this mess. EXCUSE ME!!!!!????? Occupy Wall Street and Wall Street Bankers deserve each other. When the enemy of the US are at each others throat, sit back and let them kill each other. Remember bankers were the first to demonize the Tea Party because we wanted small gov and that means the end to corporate welfare and bailouts. Now bankers have a vicious attacker at their throats, and conservatives/TP should not risk our lives defending the bankers who were more then willing to crush our throats if they had a chance to place their boot on it.
I dunno. B of A backpedaled from the five dollar fee for a reason. If the OWS crowd can take down a bank by creating a run on it they will have shown some real power, to be feared.
“Gov forced banks to consider poor borrowers and to relax standards, creating subprime loans and to give incentive for banks to assume the risks, Freddie and Fannie will buy the mortgage notes. That is the liberal gov policy stupidity.
However liar loans were never sanctioned by the CRA or gov. Banks figured that if they push through tons of mortgage applications, earn the points and fees up front and then dump all of it onto Freddie and Fannie within six months, the money earned from such scheme was better then other competing investments.
Ironically the full time civil service in Freddie and Fannie warned the politically appointed officers that this was happening and a financial meltdown can occur with the taxpayers stuck holding the bag.
The political heads of the agencies did not care, the Federal Reserve in cahoots with bankers did not care, the US Treasury warned by the FBI in 2004 about finding liar loans among white collar crime investigation did not care and the bankers took advantage of this fed regulator and FM/FM negligence with a gusto.
Liar loans mortgage notes flooded the market, pension funds and etc in the world, while the buyer did not suspect the AAA rated portfolio was actually junk/high risk.
Now bankers, and many freepers claim that banks were victims and the gov was the sole villian in this mess. EXCUSE ME!!!!!?????
Occupy Wall Street and Wall Street Bankers deserve each other.
When the enemy of the US are at each others throat, sit back and let them kill each other. Remember bankers were the first to demonize the Tea Party because we wanted small gov and that means the end to corporate welfare and bailouts.
Now bankers have a vicious attacker at their throats, and conservatives/TP should not risk our lives defending the bankers who were more then willing to crush our throats if they had a chance to place their boot on it.”
Exactly right, the bankers BOUGHT those politicians and made a deal with the socialist/commies and the devil. They made their bed with them, not conservatives. I say let the lefties have their way with those bankers who have helped to destroy this country for obscene profits. There was a reason Christ threw out the money changers at the Temple.
The sad truth is that all the banks are realistically insolvent. In fact, it was a kind of “bank run” that sunk MF Global this week. They have been allowed to leave assets on their balance sheets that would make Enron blush. The regulators know it, the FED knows it, and I would think by now, Congress knows it.
And somewhere along the way they will try to print again, if they aren’t already doing so now. It is the classic way governments react to this situation.
Well said.
Thank you, but most of it was a re-paste from the poster, Fee.
Only the last paragraph was mine.
Well said to both of you then.
I have read several books on this issue of the subprime crisis, but by far, the best one (and most infuriating) is “Reckless Endangerment” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.
I am about 3/4 of the way through it, and felt compelled enough to purchase the electronic version so I could mark it up for easier reference.
Most of what I have learned has been out of curiosity since BearSterns fell. I have not purchased any book, but I have heard of the one you are reading as being excellent.
It amazes me how there is so little outrage here at FR on this topic. The leftists will swing their hammers and claim that it is captialism that has caused all of this. But it won’t be true. This nation has been and continues to slide down the slope of socialism, and THAT is what is failing.
But attack the banks? Oh, my, we can’t do that! But how are we capitalism now? We aren’t and haven’t been for more than 50 years now.
Put the blame where it belongs, on SOCIALISM, and return this nation to sound money, and limited government. The Constitution doesn’t need to be changed, we need to go BACK to it, and FOLLOW it.
Somewhere along the line the old maximum ratios of 28% of pay for the house/36% for all outstanding debt payments disappeared. I remember even having to bring in my recent college diploma to my loan officer because some underwriter at the bank was worried about it for some reason.
“leftists are planning a big Nov. 5 to-do to pull their money from big banks and put it into small banks”
What difference could that make? Money is fungible, being all fed notes. Doesn’t matter where you put it, it ends up here, there, and everywhere. Small banks will loan it out to people who deposit it in bigger banks.
You could bury it in the backyard, but then eventually the Fed would notice and print more to cover the difference.
I’m familiar (somewhat) with “V For Vendetta,” but what’s with these people and Guy Fawkes Day? Aside from being a terrorist, don’t they know his goal was to reinstitute state Catholicism?
“Exactly right, the bankers BOUGHT those politicians and made a deal with the socialist/commies and the devil. They made their bed with them, not conservatives. I say let the lefties have their way with those bankers who have helped to destroy this country for obscene profits.”
I wouldn’t phrase it that way, and there were plenty of forces pushing for the New American Dream (or whatever they called it) wholly divorced from the financial industry helping make it happen, but let’s say you’re right. It’s still ultimately the government’s responsibility, not the banks. Get government out of the system and bankers won’t be able to exploit it.
bankers are probably celebrating that these hippie p-in-a’s are leaving the banks.
“Move your money to our new bank; we are calling it Occupy America Bank and Trust. Everyone is treated the same at Occupy America Bank and Trust. It doesn't matter if you have a 300 credit score and no income; you get the same loans terms as those filthy rich capitalists with obscene 800 credit scores and $200,000/year income”
“lot to do with Fannie and Freddie taking a dive and the banks being more than willing to punk them”
What do you mean, “punk”? That means prank, right? More like piggyback. There are, in my opinion, four interlocking causes we need keep in mind in tracing the origins of the meltdown:
1) the political push for increased home ownership;
2) the securing of mortgages by Fanny and Freddy, which the market rightly perceived as government guarantees, thus making the mortgages attractive to investors who bundled, insured, and fashioned derivatives from them;
3) either the greed or the honest misreading of the market by bankers, investors, etc.; I have trouble thinking of them as criminally fraudulent; some of them must have been pirates, but I can’t imagine an entire industry trying to take the money and run, as it must have occured to them that it would bottom out; why they miscalculated so broadly can be explained by the skewed price system, which did not reflect reality so much as the wishful thinking of bureaucrats and people with dollar signs in their eyes; if they went above and beyond government mandates and encouragement, okay, but they were kickstarted and buoyed all along by a giant moral hazard; what I’m saying is that there will be greedy bankers always, but never so many at once without government interference; can’t happen;
4) and most importantly, imagine the greediest banker in history, with a top hat, monocle, tailcoat, and disdain for all bellow him; alone he is harmless; he couldn’t do anything, anything significant, without a bunch of money waiting for an outlet; people have been known to risk their own and their company’s money, but that only goes so far; eventually you run out; ah, but not if the price of money is set bellow the market rate by a central authority, the same authority which ostensibly counterfeits money for you to spend; suddenly there’s a whole lot of money everywhere, and there isn’t even what you’d cal risk anymore (at least for now), only other people’s money invested in capital with infinite returns do to an ever-rising prices, thanks again to other people’s money; bubbles are caused by inflation, and the most powerful private banker in the history of the world could inflate only so far; you need a central bank to crash an economy with an ersatz housing boom.
Back in the 1980’s I worked for a mortgage broker who sold various mortgage products. He was constantly worry that we did not carefully do preliminary checks on the applicants info. The loan applications were sent to the bank who allowed the broker to broker their products. The bank has an Underwriter group that combs thru the application and call the references to insure the applicant has the income, amount of money in the savings accounts and it is seasoned money (been in referenced account for 6+ months). Credit checks were ran and debt ratios were confirmed. If too many applications are returned to broker as incorrect, the bank can withdraw the broker’s right to use their products. Accuracy of loan applicants info was premium. When the crisis broke out (I have been out of mortgage business for 15+years) I was shocked at liar loans, debt ratios allowed and what went on in the bank loan departments!!! Few mistakes are human, series of mistakes is incompetence, but widespread mistakes are intentional fraud or gross negligence.
The banks BOUGHT that government.
Why else could Paulson hold up Congress with threats of mayhem IF they DIDN’T pass TARP? Which really should have been called TRAP.
Besides, when was the last time that the FED had to show their books to Congress, all of their books?
Fiscal policy has been out of the hands of government since the FED itself.
Get the FED out of OUR government. Then, you can work on getting government out of areas that are not constitutional.
The government can not have responsiblity BACK until THEY take back giving the people of this nation sound money. Period.
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