My LTTE to the letter in response to "Barney Frank caused the financial crisis"

[rfranklin]

John Skoufis ("Obama critiques off the mark") should check his facts before calling other people liars. His letter was filled with whoppers. To remain within the 250-word limit, however, I will point out just one. (The wingnuts have been complaining that the editors show left wing bias by occasionally letting a letter writer exceed the 250-word limit. The letter I responded to exceeded the same limit.)

Skoufis accused Senator Barney Frank of precipitating the financial crisis by championing the "everyone is entitled to a house" program (also know as the Community Reinvestment Act.)

But it was actually President Bush who was the champion on May 17, 2002: "I've challenged the industry leaders all across the country to get after it for this goal, to stay focused, to make sure that we achieve a more secure America, by achieving the goal of 5.5 million new minority home owners.... First of all, government sponsored corporations that help create our mortgage system...they call those people Fannie May and Freddie Mac, as well as the federal home loan banks, will increase their commitment to minority markets by more than $440 billion."

(To see President Bush say it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8)

In 2004, the Office of the Currency Comptroller under the Bush administration also prevented states' attorneys from cracking down on predatory lenders by invoking an 1863 law to give itself the power to override state laws against predatory lending. As a result, 80% of subprime loans were written by unregulated private-sector companies, not Fannie or Freddie.

And finally, from McClatchy Newspapers: "Fannie and Freddie, however, didn't pressure lenders to sell them more loans; they struggled to keep pace with their private sector competitors. In fact, their regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, imposed new restrictions in 2006 that led to Fannie and Freddie losing even more market share in the booming subprime market."

Sorry, John, just because you say it, doesn't make it true.

[Kookaburra]

1. Great letter!

Did they print it?

[rfranklin]

6. Not yet, but they usually print my letters because they actually cite facts...

unlike the wingnuts who regurgitate Fox-Limbaugh falsehoods. (Then again, they might be closet liberals, as the wingnuts are always claiming.)

[n2doc]

2. Always amazes me that they get away with this

Frank was a member of the minority party in the House at the time. He could no more force the house to pass legislation (let alone the Senate and the President!) than he can nowadays.

Yet the T-baggers make him out to be some sort of all powerful politician. And we all know why they chose him to be their scapegoat. Rhymes with "ray"

[Bigmack]

3. Facts mean nothing to them....

the fact that the government agency that overseas F & F is suing the banks for fraudulently rating the junk they sold F & F should tell us something.

[banned from Kos]

4. Sheila Bair (Republican) wrote an essay about how the CRA had no effect

on the housing market.

Google her name and CRA - it should pop up first.

Lehman, Bear, etc were all unregulated disasters.

[rfranklin]

5. I made a mistake in that letter...Barney is a Congressman, not a Senator...

I have asked the editors to correct that since the wingnuts would invalidate the entire message by finding that mistake.

[Hotler]

7. kicking. n/t

[Drew Richards]

8. sorry your facts are skewed...Frank may not have been the architect but...

This was a bipartisan fire sale started in 1999 of our protections from corporate entities and their greed. Specifically under the Clinton Presidency proposed by the Republicans Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, repealing the "Glass-Steagall Act" 1999 and accepted in total by the Republican Chair of the Finance Committee Jim Leach and unopposed by democratic members of the committee. The Democrats in congress could have filibustered or President Clinton could have rejected this bill but they evidently had their hands out just like the rest of the House and Senate.

Barney Frank it was rumored allegedly praised and glorified this bill repeatedly and profusely on the house floor gushing and blushing like a little school girl in love; it sounds absolutely sickening, embarrassing and egregious and yet, he voted against it, because... "it didn't go far enough?" His words...

Then he was given the Chairmanship in 2007 surprise, surprise...

In 2007 the new Chair of the House Finance Committee Barney Frank and Democrat Chuck Schumer It is rumored allegedly, put political pressure on Fannie and Freddie to buy more sub-prime loans so the "dream of home ownership could be extended to more Americans" thus finishing off Glass-Steagall and ushering in the death knell and financial meltdown of the mortgage industry. To this day Frank accepts no responsibility for the destruction of Glass-Steagall or the subsequent meltdown...of course neither do the Republicans or the Financial Institutions who thought up this Ponzi scheme in the first place.

[rfranklin]

10. By 2007 the meltdown of the real estate market was already in full glory...

It was the credit default swaps and other creative Wall Street financial instruments that imploded and caused the financial meltdown.

[onethatcares]

11. what does "rumored alledgedly" mean? your post uses it twice

does that mean that "factually"???

I just gotta ask. Is "rumored alledgedly" the same as "bullshit"?

[Drew Richards]

12. That was an excerpt from an article I had written and

used the language to stave off frivolous lawsuits that i cannot afford...

As to the facts those are the facts SOME of which I witnessed myself on C-Span2.

But hey, if you want to believe Barney Frank is politically on your side, more power to you.

You will never convince me that he is anything but a slimy corporate weasel that votes where the money is.

[salin]

9. Great LTTE. Snapping down The Lies - one by one.

Kudos.