are Dodd and Frank the two to blame for this mess?

Remember what happened with the Enron deal? This is no different!

The People’s House needs to hear from the people. Get your fingers dialing for Operation Hold The Line. Because so many of you asked, I’ve compiled the phone numbers for each and every one of the House GOP members who voted no on Monday. They need to hear from you again. Area code is 202 for all numbers:

Aderholt R AL legislator No 225-4876
Akin R MO legislator No 225-2561
Alexander R LA legislator No 225-8490
Bachmann R MN legislator No 225-2331
Barrett (SC) R SC legislator No 225-5301
Bartlett (MD) R MD legislator No 225-2721
Barton (TX) R TX legislator No 225-2002
Biggert R IL legislator No 225-3515
Bilbray R CA legislator No 225-0508
Bilirakis R FL legislator No 225-5755
Bishop (UT) R UT legislator No 225-0453
Blackburn R TN legislator No 225-2811
Boustany R LA legislator No 225-2031
Broun (GA) R GA legislator No 225-4101
Brown-Waite, Ginny R FL legislator No 225-1002
Buchanan R FL legislator No 225-5015
Burgess R TX legislator No 225-7772
Burton (IN) R IN legislator No 225-2276
Buyer R IN legislator No 225-5037
Capito R WV legislator No 225-2711
Carter R TX legislator No 225-3864
Chabot R OH legislator No 225-2216
Coble R NC legislator No 225-3065
Conaway R TX legislator No 225-3605
Culberson R TX legislator No 225-2571
Davis (KY) R KY legislator No 225-3465
Davis, David R TN legislator No 225-6356
Deal (GA) R GA legislator No 225-5211
Dent R PA legislator No 225-6411
Diaz-Balart, L. R FL legislator No 225-4211
Diaz-Balart, M. R FL legislator No 225-2778
Doolittle R CA legislator No 225-2511
Drake R VA legislator No 225-4215
Duncan R TN legislator No 225-5435
English (PA) R PA legislator No 225-5406
Fallin R OK legislator No 225-2132
Feeney R FL legislator No 225-2706
Flake R AZ legislator No 225-2635
Forbes R VA legislator No 225-6365
Fortenberry R NE legislator No 225-4806
Foxx R NC legislator No 225-2071
Franks (AZ) R AZ legislator No 225-4576
Frelinghuysen R NJ legislator No 225-5034
Gallegly R CA legislator No 225-5811
Garrett (NJ) R NJ legislator No 225-4465
Gerlach R PA legislator No 225-4315
Gingrey R GA legislator No 225-2931
Gohmert R TX legislator No 225-3035
Goode R VA legislator No 225-4711
Goodlatte R VA legislator No 225-5431
Graves R MO legislator No 225-7041
Hall (TX) R TX legislator No 225-6673
Hastings (WA) R WA legislator No 225-5816
Hayes R NC legislator No 225-3715
Heller R NV legislator No 225-6155
Hensarling R TX legislator No 225-3484
Hoekstra R MI legislator No 225-4401
Hulshof R MO legislator No 225-2956
Hunter R CA legislator No 225-5672
Issa R CA legislator No 225-3906
Johnson (IL) R IL legislator No 225-2371
Johnson, Sam R TX legislator No 225-4201
Jones (NC) R NC legislator No 225-3415
Jordan R OH legislator No 225-2676
Keller R FL legislator No 225-2176
King (IA) R IA legislator No 225-4426
Kingston R GA legislator No 225-5831
Knollenberg R MI legislator No 225-5802
Kuhl (NY) R NY legislator No 225-3161
Lamborn R CO legislator No 225-4422
Latham R IA legislator No 225-5476
LaTourette R OH legislator No 225-5731
Latta R OH legislator No 225-6405
Linder R GA legislator No 225-4272
LoBiondo R NJ legislator No 225-6572
Lucas R OK legislator No 225-5565
Mack R FL legislator No 225-2536
Manzullo R IL legislator No 225-5676
Marchant R TX legislator No 225-6605
McCarthy (CA) R CA legislator No 225-2915
McCaul (TX) R TX legislator No 225-2401
McCotter R MI legislator No 225-8171
McHenry R NC legislator No 225-2576
McMorris Rodgers R WA legislator No 225-2006
Mica R FL legislator No 225-4035
Miller (FL) R FL legislator No 225-4136
Miller (MI) R MI legislator No 225-2106
Moran (KS) R KS legislator No 225-2715
Murphy, Tim R PA legislator No 225-2301
Musgrave R CO legislator No 225-4676
Myrick R NC legislator No 225-1976
Neugebauer R TX legislator No 225-4005
Nunes R CA legislator No 225-2523
Paul R TX legislator No 225-2831
Pearce R NM legislator No 225-2365
Pence R IN legislator No 225-3021
Petri R WI legislator No 225-2476
Pitts R PA legislator No 225-2411
Platts R PA legislator No 225-5836
Poe R TX legislator No 225-6565
Price (GA) R GA legislator No 225-4501
Ramstad R MN legislator No 225-2871
Rehberg R MT legislator No 225-3211
Reichert R WA legislator No 225-7761
Renzi R AZ legislator No 225-2315
Rogers (MI) R MI legislator No 225-4872
Rohrabacher R CA legislator No 225-2415
Ros-Lehtinen R FL legislator No 225-3931
Roskam R IL legislator No 225-4561
Royce R CA legislator No 225-4111
Sali R ID legislator No 225-6611
Scalise R LA legislator No 225-3015
Schmidt R OH legislator No 225-3164
Sensenbrenner R WI legislator No 225-5101
Shadegg R AZ legislator No 225-3361
Shimkus R IL legislator No 225-5271
Shuster R PA legislator No 225-2431
Smith (NE) R NE legislator No 225-6435
Smith (NJ) R NJ legislator No 225-3765
Stearns R FL legislator No 225-5744
Sullivan R OK legislator No 225-2211
Terry R NE legislator No 225-4155
Thornberry R TX legislator No 225-3706
Tiahrt R KS legislator No 225-6216
Tiberi R OH legislator No 225-5355
Turner R OH legislator No 225-6465
Walberg R MI legislator No 225-6276
Wamp R TN legislator No 225-3271
Westmoreland R GA legislator No 225-5901
Whitfield (KY) R KY legislator No 225-3115
Wittman (VA) R VA legislator No 225-4261
Young (AK) R AK legislator No 225-5765
Young (FL) R FL legislator No 225-5961

I want one of our politicians to stand up and say - We F’d up!

It was not the Dem’s or the Rep’s that put us where we are - it was all of us collectively.

You can blame the CRA, or you can blame the Bush administration for letting Investment banks leverage themselves 40 to 1 (commercial banks are leveraged at 10 to 1).

It was pure and simple Greed on the part of the bankers - a normal human trait.

Wall Street values a company on its ability to innovate and expand. Banks need to innovate new ways of making money - and one way was to exploit the ability to give money away. There was no federal legistlation that said that the banks had to give teaser rates, or that they had to create interest only loans - it was the banks way of answering to the wall street need of creating more profits and more value.

Human nature is to exploit the week - and boy did wall street and the bank exploit us.

The other thing huring us is that we have this inner desire to keep up with and try to outdo our neighbors. I have a 10 year old car - in good condition - my neighbors and friends always ask me when am I going to get rid of it - why should I - it runs fine, the PP Tax is low, and it does its job. A new car will only give me additonal expense and no additonal value. In order to keep up with this artificial wealth, many of us chose to tap our home equity and use the home value as an ATM machine - This has lasting long term consequences. With the decline in the defined benefit pension, and the continuing decline in Soc Sec (didn’t bush say he would fix this in 2000?) There are going to be many many of us who are poor in retirement.

http://capwiz.com/gopusa/issues/alert/?alertid=12004521&PROCESS=Take+Action

Thanks for the link Frank. The numbers speak for themselves, as well as this:

Summary Conclusions
Our study concludes that CRA Banks were substantially less likely than other lenders to make the kinds of risky home purchase loans that helped fuel the foreclosure crisis.

From this one may conclude that:
a. a significantly high percentage of honest people handled these matters.
b. the oversite and qualifications for the CRA ratings kept people honest.
c. the regulations were actually followed when handeling these matters.
d. safe and sound banking operations were in place
e. All of the above

CRA-covered entities made 23% of all home loans, but 9% of all high-risk loans, in the 15 most populous MSAs in the country.

It’s tough to actually find numbers that support the notion that the CRA is responsible for the current mess. More bad lending occurred from non-CRA covered entities than CRA covered entities. Just trying to keep the arguments on the level here, if anyone can point to any actual numbers otherwise, please post. There’s lots of reasons for the current mess, focusing on the CRA is not one of them, no matter how bad CRA is in principle.

The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound banking operations. ( http://www.ffiec.gov/cra/history.htm )

Note the part about CONSISTENT WITH SAFE AND SOUND BANKING OPERATIONS. Many studies, reports and regulations have been written on the subject, so it’s not like they had to figure out what these were. Their failure to adhere to this is a great part of the problem, along with constant tweaking and changes of the act itself.

Also note when you have crooks in charge, there is some delay in assessing the status of any problem.

From:
http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/annualreport2006.pdf

Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight
Report to Congress
June 15, 2006

Although the Special Examination Report was not published until May 23, 2006, much of the work was done in 2005. The report concludes that Fannie Mae senior management presented an image of the Enterprise as one of the lowest-risk financial institutions in the world and as “best-in-class” in terms of risk management, financial reporting internal controls and corporate governance.

The reality was that the image presented was false. The risks at Fannie Mae were greatly understated and senior management manipulated accounting and earnings. Fannie Mae also signed settlement agreements on May 23, 2006 with OFHEO and the SEC that include a $400 million fine, growth
Limits and top-to-bottom remedial actions to enhance the safe and sound operation of the Enterprise going forward.

Note the part about SENIOR MANAGMENT MANIPULATED ACCOUNTING AND EARNINGS. That would be Franklin Raines and crew. Who, by the way, only paid back pennies on the dollar against the bogus bonus millions they paid themselves.

Also worth noting in this report:

The annual examinations of both Enterprises state that progress was made in 2005, but that further work and several years are needed to fully achieve safe and sound practices. Although the Enterprises have differences, the key areas that need significant remedial attention are similar: accounting systems, internal controls, risk management, human resources, corporate governance and growth.

So, looks to me like the key areas for REMEDIAL ATTENTION pretty much cover the whole operation.

Congress was aware of this as early as 2004 but it failed to become a high priority issue with the body as a whole. An interesting side note is no one, to my knowledge, has been prosecuted.

NEW YORK - Stocks are rebounding and a new bailout package could be coming soon, but the credit markets — where day-to-day borrowing occurs to keep the gears of the economy turning — are still stuck.

Even relatively healthy businesses are being left out in the cold.

Randall Stephenson, the CEO of AT&T Inc., said Tuesday that when the telecommunications company tried to get short-term cash last week by selling corporate debt known as commercial paper, no one was willing to lend anything for longer than overnight.

The crunch is being felt by others, too. Many small businesses can’t get funding for supplies and in some cases are falling behind on their payrolls, said John Castellani, president of Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of companies that employ more than 10 million people.

Castellani said the credit problems have been going on for several months but have accelerated in recent weeks as lending tightens further and consumer spending wanes.

“It feeds into itself,” Castellani said. “It just continues to spiral down.”

For Americans already worried about their nest eggs, mortgages, and fuel, food and medical costs, the prospect of an even deeper economic downturn is troubling — especially since it’s so hard to understand how we got here.

In simple terms, banks made bets on the housing market when it was booming, and didn’t cash out in time. When people started defaulting on their mortgages last year, banks’ investments went bust. As banks’ losses started piling up, they pulled back on lending and started stockpiling cash.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080930/ap_on_bi_ge/credit_markets;_ylt=Aqzebq5oHu_.o5N8EwRPyeOyBhIF

No, you’re right, they haven’t been in majority rule for about 12 years, but they were the ones who “dished it up” to Jimmy Carter in the first place…and regardless of their “majority rule” or not, there’s NO WAY they’d admit the CRA to be an absolute financial disaster, and allow a turn around. They still won’t.

http://www.loudountimes.com/news/2008/sep/30/loudoun-prince-william-counties-immigrant-populati/

Two Northern Virginia counties that took highly publicized stances against illegal immigration saw their number of foreign-born residents decline last year, while one of their neighbors saw its immigrant population go up.
In 2007, the immigrant population dropped about 1 percent in Loudoun County and 6 percent in Prince William County, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2007, which was released Sept. 23.

However, in Fairfax County, where leaders have been less willing to place restrictions on illegal immigration, the foreign-born population went up 7 percent last year. In addition, Fairfax saw its number of residents who are not U.S. citizens – which includes legal immigrants — increase 8 percent, while Prince William’s noncitizen population dropped 4 percent and Loudoun’s remained relatively unchanged.

snip

http://mikepence.house.gov/UploadedFiles/RSC_Economic_Rescue_092908.pdf

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/080928_rove.htm

http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2008/09/30/video-burning-down-the-house-rove-bush-style/

The problem is that this legislation encouraged people who have no clue how to manage money, to go into debt, and forced institutions to lend them the money. I have got news for everyone. Most of these borrowers are “poor” for a reason. They have bought into the socialist mantra of ” You are a citizen of the richest country in the world, so if you vote for us, we liberal democrates will use our power to make sure you receive your birthright. Just vote for us” They are poor because the believe that they are entitled to everything “the Joneses” have. No sacrafice. No hard work. You see this in its basest form when looking at the Latino immigrant community. Buying the $500K house, driving the $20K truck, having 5 kids… And making only $35K per year!

We are in this mess, because we have defied God. There are over 2300 references to money in the Bible. Many of them deal with debt, and all say that debt is a bad thing. Now we see it. Bad debt is the cause, but greed for profits amd votes is the root. Let us look at who in our government misused their powers tho enabled this (Obama and ACORN, Frank, Dodd, Clinton,Reid, Reno), and make them pay in November. They almost destroyed this country, to achieve their socialist agenda. Rise up and defeat them!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f67_1222761495

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2094199/posts

I LOVE that kind of news!!! It let’s me know that there is still “hope” (not the empty Obama kind)…..