However, I do want our government to put in place oversight that ensure the crooks in the financial industry don't find ways to destroy our economy, while making themselves rich.
Yeah, like they did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Its precisely the politically connected managers that created our financial crisis:
youtube.com
Who is James Johnson?
James A. "Jim" Johnson (born December 24, 1943) is a United States Democratic Party political figure. He was the campaign manager for Walter Mondale's failed 1984 presidential bid and chaired the vice presidential selection committee for the presidential campaign of John Kerry. He was involved in the vice-presidential selection process for the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama.
..... From 1991 to 1998, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the quasi-public organization that guarantees mortgages for millions of American homeowners. Previously, he was vice chairman of Fannie Mae (1990-1991) and a managing director with Lehman Brothers (1985-1990). An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report[1] from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive substantial bonuses in 1998.[2] A 2006 OFHEO report[3] found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Originally reported as $6-7 million, Johnson actually received approximately $21 million.
en.wikipedia.org
Who is Franklin Raines?
Franklin Delano "Fred" Raines (born January 14, 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. ... In 1991 he became Fannie's Mae's Vice Chairman, a post he left in 1996 in order to join the Clinton Administration as the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he served until 1998. In 1999, he returned to Fannie Mae as CEO, "the first black man to head a Fortune 500 company."[3]
On December 21, 2004 Raines accepted what he called "early retirement" [4] from his position as CEO while U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators continued to investigate alleged accounting irregularities. He is accused by The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulating body of Fannie Mae, of abetting widespread accounting errors, which included the shifting of losses so senior executives, such as himself, could earn large bonuses [5].
In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $90 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings [6] initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as 6.3 billion.[7]. ..... On 16 July 2008 The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters." [23]. Also, in an editorial in August 27, 2008 titled "Tough Decision Coming", the Washington Post editorial staff wrote that "Two members of Mr. Obama's political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae."[24]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines
Who is Jamie Gorelick?
Jamie S. Gorelick (born May 6, 1950) is an American attorney and judicial officer who was Deputy Attorney General of the United States during the Clinton administration. ....Even though she had no previous training nor experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed Vice Chairman of Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) from 1997 to 2003. She served alongside former Clinton Administration official Franklin Raines.[2] During that period, Fannie Mae developed a $10 billion accounting scandal.[3]
On March 25, 2002, Business Week interviewed Gorelick about the health of Fannie Mae. Gorelick is quoted as saying, "We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody's gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength -- without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions."[4] One year later, Government Regulators "accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses".[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Gorelick
Who is Andrew Cuomo?
Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie
How the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history gave birth to the mortgage crisis
By Wayne Barrett
Tuesday, August 5th 2008 at 11:00am
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-08-05/news/how-andrew-cuomo-gave-birth-to-the-crisis-at-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/
Based on the record, I am not at all confidant in the ability of bright government appointees to run industries. I see no reason why that s/b different when Obama is President either.
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Obama takes the politics out of energy.
LOL Chu may or may not be a political creature, but Carol Browner sure is.
We were talking about alternative energy as an investment in the last few posts. You should take an honest look at the industry, because all the signs are pointing to Obama keeping his promise to do a Manhattan Project on alternative energy. There will be money to be made in this sector and this year's hit on the stock prices is a gift to anyone who's investing right now. Obama's stacking the deck in favor of alternative energy and he's going to spend big on it. So the wise are staking their positions right now.
I'm sure some folks can make a lot of bucks by positioning themselves in front of the government's spending machine. ADM and others certainly have made out on ethanol. Boone Pickens is positioning himself out there too.
Obama's energy and environmental folks all seen to share an intense antipathy with the forms of energy we now use for most of our power - coal, nuclear, oil. You can believe they are going to displace all this energy infrastructure that has arisen over a century in four years with new green alternative sources guided by wise government hands on the steering wheel.
I will remain skeptical. I can foresee a massive clusterf***. |
