Hmmm.... where was the media when all this was happening? I wonder how well
the vote was publicized? And when the topic was difficult to understand
<<if their constituents understood what they were doing.''>> they protected
the dems as they always have.
But very gradually the situation is sloooowly turning around as things like
NYT and others of similar ilk see their sales plummet. Same for the Big 3
networks as their viewerships continue to fall.
Unfortunately, it's taking too long.
Take Care,
Larry T
http://youroil.net
http://members.rennlist.org/oil/ - Oil Testing
http://members.rennlist.org/webercarbs/ - Carb & Jet Settings:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald Snook" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <Mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Three cheers for an OKie! Was PORK
Rich wrote: "Note that this is on the Opinion page, but it seems rather
straightforward and factual by a guy who knows his topic."
Here is another interesting article. It has a similar thesis, EXCEPT it
explores the role of Congress, finds the point at which Congress tried to
act (and then places blame on those for failing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0
It's a pretty interesting article. Here is the most important part:
"What happened next was extraordinary. For the first time in history, a
serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking
Committee<http://banking.senate.gov/public/>. The bill gave a regulator
power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate
their investments in risky assets.
Different World
If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In
2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out
of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most
venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid
and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed.
But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it
on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a
partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic
opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.
That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the
Democrats was obscene even then. Wallison
wrote<http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.22514/pub_detail.asp> at the
time: ``It is a classic case of socializing the risk while privatizing the
profit. The Democrats and the few Republicans who oppose portfolio
limitations could not possibly do so if their constituents understood what
they were doing.''
Mounds of Materials
Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate
Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly
did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of
materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda
convincing.
But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and
Freddie, including Barack
Obama<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Barack+Obama&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
Hillary
Clinton<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Hillary+Clinton&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>
and Christopher
Dodd<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Christopher+Dodd&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the
years."
There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look
back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.
Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that's worth keeping in
mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John
McCain<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=John+McCain&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>
was one of the three cosponsors of
S.190<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN00190:@@@P>, the bill
that would have averted this mess.
Donald H. Snook
1990 Volvo 240DL (with a McCain sticker on it).
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