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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (117139)	12/3/2008 3:03:18 PM
From: GuinnessGuy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Hi Mike, I'm surprised more stories like this aren't getting much play: --------------------------------------------------------- google.com WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents. "Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.[SNIP] --------------------------------------------------------- Sure, a lot of mistakes were made and some things happened that were out of anyone's 'short-term' control, like the oil spike(although that may have been caused by some inactions/actions by the gov't). But, had the regulators(who presumably owe their allegiance to the executive branch) heeded those warnings, we might not be looking into the abyss right now. Personally, I can't wait until some good investigative reporters find out what really happened. Hard for me to believe that the regulators were 'sweet talked' into dropping their demands for action by these lobbyists. What really stinks up the house - and I've posted this here before - is that the administration actively stopped states from either investigating alleged fraudulent/dangerous mortgage loan activities or enforcing the states own laws concerning predatory lending(or both). It's one thing to do nothing to stop a train wreck, it's quite another to lay a steel bar across the rails. I hope whoever the culpable party is, that they get fingered. No one in the administration will go to jail, but at least their legacy will be forever tarnished in the history books. Just started reading, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman. So far so good. Has anyone read it that has an opinion they'd like to share? craig

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (117139)	12/4/2008 3:59:40 PM
From: Freedom Fighter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

KT, I didn't make any excuses for Bush. I told the absolute unspun truth - something that is in very short supply in any political environment or discussion where people have clear biases. There were huge economic problems Bush inherited from Clinton/Greenspan/Rubin, problems of his own making, and a couple of somewhat random events (like 9/11) etc.. that lead to a series of his decisions. Some of those poor decisions were bipartisan (like cutting taxes and raising spending to create a deficit - only the details were different), some were his own making (like not controlling spending or rolling back the tax breaks once the economy recovered) etc.... The key point is that anyone that thinks the Clinton/Greenspan/Rubin years were good economically doesn't understand economics or is full of shit. Any dickhead can show you a good time during the formation of a bubble. It's the sucker (Bush) that comes next that has to deal with it, much like Obama has to deal with Bush's mistakes.