(POSTED ORIGINALLY 9/28/08 Update 7/8/09 CONGRESSIONAL REPORT: FANNIE MAE FREDDIE MAC POLICY CORRUPTION CAUSED FINANCIAL MELTDOWN Washington (CNSNews.com) – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the chief culprits in the housing crisis because they encouraged people who could not afford payments to borrow money, according to a congressional report released Tuesday.
The claims in the report have long been advanced by conservatives, who argue that the Community Reinvestment Act and other federal programs fed the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to the economic downfall in 2008.
But the report explains in detail how Fannie and Freddie -- government sponsored enterprises (GSE) that were not subject to the same oversight as other publicly traded firms -- “privatized their profits but socialized their risks..."the ultimate effect was to create a mortgage tsunami that wrought devastation on the American people and economy,”
The institutionalized 'roots' of the Federal Reserve/government cabal that aided and abetted the looting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, can be found at: AMERICA IN GRAVE DANGER/ CFR / ILLUMINATI BACKGROUND which was originally posted March 2008. This current economic crisis was caused by a 'one-two punch' of greed and high treason! Many seeds of America's destruction were sown during the Clinton administration. This meltdown is a major one sown by Clinton but watered, cultivated and harvested by leftists now running the "democratic" party. The Bush neo-cons are not without blame, as they did nothing to intervene and prevent this crisis. The fattest cats at the top of the pyramid, (elite sociocrat oligarchy composed of elites from both "parties") in fact profited handsomely. It is obvious to me that "Rome" has just begun to burn and that powerful entities are bringing America down.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 15, 2008
"Big Government: Barack Obama and Democrats blame the historic financial turmoil on the market. But if it's dysfunctional, Democrats during the Clinton years are a prime reason for it...And it was the Clinton administration that mismanaged the quasi-governmental agencies that over the decades have come to manage the real estate market in America.
As soon as Clinton crony Franklin Delano Raines took the helm in 1999 at Fannie Mae, for example, he used it as his personal piggy bank, looting it for a total of almost $100 million in compensation by the time he left in early 2005 under an ethical cloud.
Other Clinton cronies, including Janet Reno aide Jamie Gorelick, padded their pockets to the tune of another $75 million.
Raines was accused of overstating earnings and shifting losses so he and other senior executives could earn big bonuses.
In the end, Fannie had to pay a record $400 million civil fine for SEC and other violations, while also agreeing as part of a settlement to make changes in its accounting procedures and ways of managing risk.
But it was too little, too late. Raines had reportedly steered Fannie Mae business to subprime giant Countrywide Financial, which was saved from bankruptcy by Bank of America.
At the same time, the Clinton administration was pushing Fannie and her brother Freddie Mac to buy more mortgages from low-income households.
The Clinton-era corruption, combined with unprecedented catering to affordable-housing lobbyists, resulted in today's nationalization of both Fannie and Freddie, a move that is expected to cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars." ______________________________________________
So go figure... a player in the Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac crisis and recipient of money from the shakedown and destruction of our economy, further exploited the pandemonium that he helped to cause, in order to become president! Priceless...absolute evil genius! The "mainstream (socialist) media" has given Obama and anything that might damage him a "pass" as far as doing important investigatory reporting concerning this crisis BUT Newsweek has just bent over backward to print a story about how McCain's campaign manager, worked for Freddie Mac in recent years. Newsweek being so willing to print an article that smears McCain by association while giving a complete pass to much more numerous and guilty Obama associates, is overt propaganda. The leftist media 'strains at a gnat' while they ignore the pink elephant in the room with them. Newsweek and the leftist media is practicing Stalinist propaganda tactics by throwing a spotlight on anything the least bit negative about McCain while giving Obama a complete pass as far as scrutiny. The leftist scream, complain and take offense as often as they can. Obama's front persons, spin, get angry and obfuscate away from the truth if they are asked a probing or "offensive" question. (I have never seen spokespersons for a campaign act so immature and as repugnant as the Obama spokepersons. They act completely entitled to having a huge chip on their shoulder and vehemently attacking anything that the opposition says.) Newsweek doesn't seem to care now to admit that a huge problem pre-existed at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just as long as they can openly hang that upon someone working for McCain rather than the numerous leftist democrats who clearly profited by using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the style of mob racketering. In identifying and demonizing McCain's campaign manager and thus McCain by association, (something which the leftists accuse McCain of doing ie: Bill Ayers) Newsweek has exposed it's hateful leftist bias. It is proof of how most of the leftist media actually works for leftist causes through propaganda. Unfortunately, most Americans aren't sharp or discerning enough to see or understand this kind of evil work. I certainly don't defend McCain for hiring this person and if I were him, I wouldn't have hired him in the first place. BUT Obama's extended camp is full of advisors and politicians who profited like mobsters while pimping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and who created the whole sub-prime lending scam that has ruined our economy.
Punch #2: Yes, the elite banking/(non)"Federal Reserve system"/ investment/internationalist/New World Order class figure-headed by Georg Bush II and his neo-con cronies was just oh so happy to profit from their scam as well, as they turned a blind eye to their economy-busting scam. The Bush administration is guilty of not regulating and enforcing existing laws (FOLLOWING THE FED'S LEAD) for Wall Street and the mortgage industry. Their complicit greed (and desire to control/devalue our money) certainly super-charged the crisis. The timing and forcing of a blind bailout that gave draconian, secret power to distribute trillions of dollars to secretary Paulson, is the most brazen and bizarre act ever, of a sitting president. There is no doubt in my mind that they are bringing America to her knees.
(Original posting: 9/28/08)
"Barack Obama's incessant drumbeat about the failure of the economic policies of the last eight years is either gross ignorance or, more likely, political blame shifting. The cause of the current meltdown is clearly the Democrat's insistence upon giving federally guaranteed mortgages to people who could not afford them. Even now, Democrats insist, not on the minimum government involvement possible, but on adding all sorts of give-away ornaments on the bailout Christmas tree. Obama is also promising to take over the energy industry, the health industry, and to give tax credits and even refunds to some people with money he shamelessly takes from others. This is redistribution of wealth – pure socialism.
During the 1960s, the United Nations produced the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Article V(e)(iii) proclaimed that all people had a "right" to housing. Both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations supported the treaty, but it was not ratified until the Clinton administration, Nov. 20, 1994. No one noticed or connected the dots to the emerging socialist, communitarian concept called "sustainable development." Grass-roots organizations across the nation were deeply involved in preventing ratification of another U.N. treaty, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was also under consideration at the time.
To meet its obligations under the U.N.'s Racial Discrimination Treaty, the Clinton administration instructed Fannie Mae to expand loans to low-income borrowers, according to Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman. Thus, the "sub-prime" market was born, and government guaranteed-loans were extended to millions of families who could not qualify for a mortgage in a free market economy, but easily qualified under the new socialist scheme.
In 2005, Republican senators saw the danger and tried to reform these institutions with the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulator Reform Act (S.190), but Democrats blocked the bill.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were institutions that were neither purely socialist, nor purely free market – a blend that is best described as communitarian, in that they allowed private investors to buy and hold shares in the corporations, but were also guaranteed by the federal government. That is, until recently, when the federal government took over both institutions. Now, the federal government essentially owns all those properties – a result that is as socialist as had the government nationalized those properties by force.
AIG, the international insurance giant, and other Wall Street and international financial institutions bought the bundles of mortgage securities that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offered. Everybody involved made a ton of money, and housing for low-income families expanded exponentially – just as the Treaty on Racial Discrimination and the proponents of sustainable development had predicted. With all the new loans being made, the home building industry flourished, the real estate industry flourished, all industries related to housing flourished – until the market became saturated.
Home values stopped rising. Housing inventories began to rise. Home values began to decline. Foreclosures began to rise. Homebuilding slowed, housing-related industries began to lay off workers. Energy prices began to rise. Paychecks fell short of family needs. Foreclosures skyrocketed. Suddenly, there was little or no value in the bundles of security Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had packaged. Financial institutions found themselves in possession of massive "assets" that had no value. Creak, crumble, crash! The financial markets came tumbling down.
The piper must be paid. The question is whether to do it now – and let the chips fall where they may, or, to kick the can down the road and pay the piper later. The answer, of course, is to kick the can into the next generation, with another leap toward socialism. The bailout plan – whatever the particulars – is nothing short of a government takeover of the financial industry. The next president will have to sort it out and build the road toward future recovery or final disaster" Henry Lamb Worldnetdaily ______________________________________________
Democrats received the largest political contributions from the companies. As WND reported, Obama in his three complete years in the Senate is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions, behind only Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee.
According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including gifts from PACs and individuals. He is followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.
In 2005, McCain warned of the coming mortgage crisis and pressed for regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Countrywide Financial
Angelo Mozilo
In addition to being the former Fannie Mae chief executive, Franklin Raines is also one of several "friends of Angelo," or FOAs. These VIPs accepted loans at below-market rates with preferential terms from Countrywide Financial, a now bankrupt loan originator in the subprime mortgage debacle. Only prominent people were allowed to participate in the low-key program, named for former Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo, that did away with points, fees and borrowing rules.
A Washington Post profile published July 17 said Raines was then playing a role advising the Obama presidential campaign on mortgage and housing policy. As WND reported, he also received $90 million in his five years as Fannie Mae CEO, from 1999 to 2004. He was forced to retire when reports surfaced that the company had hidden profit fluctuations. Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of Countrywide mortgages.
James Johnson
Another former CEO of Fannie Mae and former adviser to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, James Johnson, is reported to have accepted more than $7 million in FOAs from Countrywide. Johnson was appointed to head Obama's vice-presidential selection committee, but he was forced to step down when the Countrywide controversy surfaced in June. As WND reported, Johnson earned $21 million in just his last year at Fannie Mae.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, also received an FOA from Countrywide Financial. At the same time, he recently proposed the federal government bail out failing mortgage lenders, including Countrywide. According to Condé Nast Portfolio, Dodd also received $21,000 in campaign donations from the company since 1997. From 1989 to 2008, Dodd also received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including contributions from PACs and individuals, followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also accepted a $1.07 million FOA from Countrywide, as did former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, according to a report by Condé Nast Portfolio.
Jackson received his loans in 2003 when he was deputy H.U.D. secretary under President Bush. Sahalala served under the Clinton administration and became president of the University of Miami before receiving two Countrywide FOA loans in 2002. Holbrooke, former adviser to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, received one of the VIP loans in 2001.
Condé Nast Portfolio reveals the Countrywide code of ethics bans executives and employees from "improperly influencing the decisions of government employees or contractors by offering or promising to give money, gifts, loans, rewards, favors, or anything else of value." Likewise, federal officials are not allowed to accept gifts, such as loans not available to the general public.
Countrywide also has a registered lobbyist, and strict rules ban senators from accepting gifts worth more than $100 in a single year. According to reports, it has granted hundreds of millions of dollars in special FOA loans every year to politicians, officials, executives, celebrities and other VIP borrowers.
Bank of America penned a deal to aquire the company in early 2008 after its shares plummeted from $45 to less than $5 in one year. Countrywide is now said to be under FBI investigation for securities fraud.
Indymac Bank
IndyMac Bancorp Inc. was sent into freefall after Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, escalated the crisis by publicly leaking his June 26 letter to the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. He warned that the bank was on the brink of collapse.
Schumer said he was "concerned that IndyMac's financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers and that the regulatory community may not be prepared to take measures that would help prevent the collapse of IndyMac," according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Schumer's letter sent IndyMac customers into widespread panic, and they quickly withdrew their money from the bank – to the tune of $1.3 billion.
OTS Director John Reich told the Journal Schumer's letter gave the bank "a heart attack." However, Schumer has not expressed remorse for the letter. He says he was simply doing his job when he cautioned regulators about an impending collapse.
"It's what legislators are supposed to do," Schumer told the Journal. He said faulting him is like blaming "the fire on the guy who called 9-1-1."
While the bank had experienced some mortgage portfolio losses prior to the incident, OTS has directly attributed IndyMac's closing to Schumer's letter." Worldnetdaily ___________________________________________________
“Lehman Brothers collapse is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago. Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs. A group called the Center for Responsive Politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were Democrats and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama”(foxnews.com).
Obama has these connections with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Jim Johnson and former Fannie Mae chairman and CEO Franklin Raines are part of Obama’s advisors. Franklin Raines stepped down after a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, which Obama’s calls on for advice on mortgage and housing policy matters. Jim Johnson was on Obama’s VP search and made millions from his Fannie Mae CEO job.
Obama hired these people who were a big part of the team that brought down Fannie Mae to be on his campaign. How come Obama has not fired these people yet? How can we trust Obama to help our economy when he hangs around people that would bring America and our economy down?"
