Is the GOP Taking a Dive?
Somewhere between The Republican National Convention and the first debate on September 26, John McCain left the race. It’s as if the McCain campaign remains on suspension pending resolution of the economic crisis. Why?
It’s possible, of course, that McCain is simply inept at closing the deal. As every baseball fan knows, closers don’t grow on trees. Many fine pitchers flounder in the ninth inning with a narrow lead. They’re not all Bob Gibson. Some panic upon seeing the white tape of the finish line.
McCain doesn’t strike me as that type. If for no other reason, he seemed to grow stronger as the GOP nomination came closer to his grasp.
With a little over a month to go in his race for the White House McCain held a slight lead in the national polls and had taken the lead in the battleground states–Florida, Virginia, Ohio, New Mexico, Nevada, and others. He held the electoral vote lead.
Then he quit.
I can’t help but wonder what he learned in Washington on September 24 and 25. What did President Bush, Ben Bernanke, and Henry Paulson reveal that changed McCain’s mind about winning the White House? Is it possible that something awful is about to happen to America–something so awful that the party in power will sink to unimaginable depths in public trust and public opinion? Did McCain figure out the next president will be the next Hoover?
When the House passed the economic rescue bill on Friday morning, the stock market fell. Up more than 100 points before the vote, by the time the House roll call was complete, the Dow was hovering slightly above neutral. Within an hour, it was 150 points below zero and remained there.
At 4:00 p.m. Eastern, news reports began flowing in that showed the trillion dollar package would have little effect on the credit paralysis sweeping the globe. Banks and governments in Europe announced more financial problems than solutions. Ireland, France, Germany, the UK seem to worry that something terrible is about to sweep their continent.
Is it possible that the credit freeze brought on primarily by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recklessness followed by commercial bank imitations has set the world’s economy on a collision course with squalid destiny?
A week ago, I was convinced that McCain would win the election handily. I did not expect him to quit this early. Barack Obama is a Marxist who will bring some degree of Soviet-style communism to the country that introduced the modern world to the democratic republic. If whatever is about to happen seems worse than that to McCain, whatever’s coming must be really, really scary and big.
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Read The Dems Race Card Attacks on Fannie Mae Regulators
In 2004, John McCain cosponsored legislation to clean up the criminal fraud of Obama advisor Franklin Raines’s Fannie Mae. The WSJ has a round up of key Democrats defending Raines’s fraud, calling the regulators and auditors liars, and telling McCain to stuff his reforms where sun shineth not.
Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there’s a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios. . . .
House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003:
Rep. Frank: I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing. . . .
Rep. Waters: However, I have sat through nearly a dozen hearings where, frankly, we were trying to fix something that wasn’t broke. Housing is the economic engine of our economy, and in no community does this engine need to work more than in mine. With last week’s hurricane and the drain on the economy from the war in Iraq, we should do no harm to these GSEs. We should be enhancing regulation, not making fundamental change.
Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and in particular at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines. Everything in the 1992 act has worked just fine. In fact, the GSEs have exceeded their housing goals. . . .
Bastards all. Dirty, thieving bastards. Barney Frank should be in prison. He should not be allowed to speak or vote on this issue. The people of his district in Boston should be ashamed of the $700 billion he helped heap on the back of taxpayers.
And the biggest per annum recipient of these crimes was Barack Obama. Here is a breakdown of the top recipients of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac kickbacks by annual receipts:
Average Fannie/Freddie Donations by Years in Congress
What did the Republican have to say?
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.):
Mr. Chairman, what we’re dealing with is an astounding failure of management and board responsibility, driven clearly by self interest and greed. And when we reference this issue in the context of — the best we can say is, “It’s no Enron.” Now, that’s a hell of a high standard.
Well, we can no longer say “It’s no Enron,” can we? Franklin Raines makes Kenneth Lay look like Mother Teresa.
Barack Obama, fannie mae, Financial Crisis, freddie mac, wall street journal
Write Your Senator. NOW!
The Senate will vote on Socialism for Billionaires II tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. TELL YOUR SENATOR TO VOTE NO!
One-third of the Senate is up for re-election this year. Make sure they all know that a vote for the bailout is a vote for unemployment.
I’ve written Senators Bond and McCaskill. You need to let yours know that you like 485-point Dow advances, and you don’t want Congress screwing up our bull market.
Socialism is no way to run a democracy. Tell your Senator NO!
Financial Crisis
Government Never Solved a Democrat Mess
As the Wall Street crowd howls, Americans should thank the 228 Republicans and Democrats who voted against the most socialist piece of legislation offered since Hillary Clinton’s failed attempt to nationalize medicine.
Make the Banks Fix It
I am familiar with several financial services companies. These outfits are demanding price concessions to help them get through the current mess. “Hey, we fucked up the economy–why don’t you guys fix it for us?”
Bankers are the dumbest lot of people on the planet, next to Democrats in Congress. Wachovia’s Ken Thompson bought a troubled sub-prime mortgage lender in 2006 after the last sub-prime mortgage company he’d bought was failing. Genius.
Every real business person knows how to deal when a large number of customers are struggling–help them.
The banks (as required by Congress directly through legislation and indirectly through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) made a bunch of loans they knew would fail in order to prop up their balance sheets. Paper profits–and wholly fraudulent. Thank Sarbanes and Oxley.
Anyway, the banks can still fix themselves and their delinquent borrowers by writing new, standard, 30-year fixed loans at an appropriate interest rate. That’s all they have to do.
Yes, they’ll lose out-year paper profits. They were never going to collect those, anyway. Had the economy kept up, the borrowers would have refinanced before the rate adjustments or balloons. No one was going to pay $5,000 a month on $250,000 loan. No one. Never.
So recast the loans, take one, final write down (which would probably be a write-up at this point), and move on. You could have done this two years ago, you idiot bankers, but you were too damn greedy and stupid. For your stupidity you should be chained naked to the bumper of a 1963 Chevy pickup and dragged slowly through the streets of Wichita, Kansas.
If the government wants to help the banks do this right thing through insurance, I’m all for it.
The World Won’t End Because of the “Credit Crisis”
Everyone involved in this “rescue plan” is a professional salesman. They all know the importance of creating a sense of urgency. “You know, another couple saw this house this morning, and they’re coming back at 4:00 to sign a contract.” Horseshit. Even if a couple really did say they’d be back, every sales professional knows that buyers are liars.
The world will not end because democracy worked today. The world is better off because democracy prevailed over emotional tyranny. Nor will we fall into Great Depression II. Nor will you be unable to get a car loan. Nor will McDonald’s go out of business, as Shepard Smith was saying tonight on Fox News.
Credit markets are currently “frozen” because the lenders are smart enough to wait until Uncle Sam (meaning you and I) assume the risk for bad loans. Why would I lend you money today on your promise to repay if I can lend you more money tomorrow on the government’s promise to repay? I wouldn’t. I’d wait until Congress passes the rescue plan. When Congress says, “take a hike,” the people who make money lending money will start lending money again. And if they can’t, others will get into the market. IT’S THE WAY CAPITALISM WORKS.
Today the stock market fell 7 percent., In 1987, it fell 22 percent in one day. IGNORE THE HYSTERIA ABOUT LARGEST ONE-DAY POINT DROP. Seven hundred points in a day was a big deal in 1987. It’s not today. Don’t believe me? What if your boss offered you a 7 percent raise . . . based on your 1987 salary? For me, that would be about $100 a month. Give me 3 percent on this year’s salary, any day.
(As of 10:16 p.m. CDT, Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P Future are UP)
Democrats–and Democrats Alone–Caused the Financial Mess
In 2005, John McCain proposed an overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to curb abuses by its Democrat executives. Democrats blocked the bill using parliamentary maneuvers. From McCain’s endorsement:
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
Barack Obama, already amassing a fortune in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives, did nothing to advance this needed reform. He could have stood up to the all-time champion of Freddie/Fannie fund-taking, Chris Dodd, but Obama failed to lead. He followed the party line, helped his friends Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines, and let this current crisis evolve.
UPDATE: Watch Democrats PRAISING the leadership of Fannie Mae crook-in-chief Franklin Raines on Conservablogs.
John McCain warned us of the current mess we’re in and offered a solution to prevent or minimize the damage. Obama took money to make sure the problem happened.
John McCain Was Right About Bailout Vote
Barry “Himmler” Obama mocked John McCain for claiming that the administration’s $700 billion bailout plan lacked the votes to pass. At the White House meeting last Thursday, Obama was insulting and abusive to everyone in the room. The man who didn’t know that the inauguration is in January and not November appeared not to know that he wasn’t President.
Turns out McCain was right. Even after making progress in Washington last week and over the weekend, the bailout package still lacked a majority in the House.
Forty percent of Democrats voted against the bill, along with two-thirds of Republicans. Republicans who voted against the bill cited constituent opposition and Nancy Pelosi’s post-agreement bitch-session from her pulpit in the House Chamber.
Kudos to the GOP Representatives who had the courage to vote against the bill.
Bailout, Financial Crisis
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