Blame it on Greenspan and Bush

The blame game will go on and on, particularly as the mess world financial crisis deepens. But this, almost a month old from the Financial Times needs to be part of the record. Particularly since the Republican contenders for US President keep blaming it on the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Oxley hits back at ideologues, Greg Farrell, Financial Times, Sept. 9: … Ohio Republican [Mike Oxley] who headed the House financial services committee until his retirement after mid-term elections last year, blames the mess on ideologues within the White House as well as Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The critics have forgotten that the House passed a GSE reform bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis, says Mr Oxley, now vice-chairman of Nasdaq.

He fumes about the criticism of his House colleagues. “All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this,” he says. “What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute.”

The House bill, the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership.

Mr Oxley reached out to Barney Frank, then the ranking Democrat on the committee and now its chairman, to secure support on the other side of the aisle. But after winning bipartisan support in the House, where the bill passed by 331 to 90 votes, the legislation lacked a champion in the Senate and faced hostility from the Bush administration.

Adamant that the only solution to the problems posed by Fannie and Freddie was their privatisation, the White House attacked the bill. Mr Greenspan also weighed in, saying that the House legislation was worse than no bill at all. …

HT: Paul Krugman

Comments

[melvin polatnick]

Big budget deficits will be on the minds of the new congress. Raising taxes and cutting entitlement programs usually has solved the problem. But a Democrat congressman named Barney Frank has a great idea,he has suggested trimming military spending by 25 percent. It would take the place of raising taxes and cutting entitlement programs. This suggestion has angered most congressmen. But with a new Democratic administration soon coming into power the suggestion by Barney Frank will be taken seriously.

Military spending is necessary if our country is to remain safe. But there is a limit to how powerful we want our armed forces to be when there is no enemy nearly strong enough to challenge us. The money saved by cutting military spending could be better used to make our nation stronger by creating more jobs. The defeat of McCain and the Republican Party in the presidential elections will remove the strongest advocates of increased military spending. We need an economy based on peace not war. Obama is a peace candidate and will be a master of international negotiations. He is loved by peace loving people all over the world. Obama understands that America has internal economic problems and making new wars will not solve them.

[Seamless]

Bailout 2008, a poem by David Jeffrey

Like a bloodied warrior,
laying broken and torn.

Like a dying soldier, hopeless and forlorn.

But the blood, it be green,
the color of money.

And the soldier is an economy,
and it is anything but funny.

Broken are it's people and shattered are their dreams.

Thanks to the ultra rich and their full proof schemes.

It is a tragedy with more pain to come.

Finance will be Hell, and their wills will be done.

[george abney]

HEDONISMmemememeHEDONISMmemememme

God cursed America. The land you used to love.
He stood beside Her, and he guided her
Through the night with the Light of his love.
From the mountains to the oceans
To the prairies bright with grain.
God cursed America, your home sweet home.
WHY did God curse America?