Edwards calls for credit and lending industry crackdown

[Nutmegger]

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) - Democratic presidential contender John Edwards says that if he's elected, he would crack down on abusive lending practices.

Edwards also told a group of about 70 people at a Fort Dodge community college that he would work to boost family savings through government subsidies.

He says rising fuel and health care costs are among the reasons many Americans borrow more money.

Edwards says that he would create an independent commission to regulate the lending and credit industry and evaluate all products and services marketed to people to ensure fair disclosure of what is being offered.

Full article: http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=7439445&nav=1sW7

[Joanne98]

1. We need to have interest rates CAPPED at 4%

[Snarkoleptic]

4. The problem with a rate cap is that it's also a risk cap.

For mortgage lenders to make a profit, they must consider the layers of risk in the loan.
If rates were capped at 4%, most people would not qualify because underwriting would be tight.
Think car insurance for a parallel...
Should you pay the same amount for your car insurance as someone with 5 tickets and 2 DUI's?

Liquidity must remain in the mortgage market, else values will collapse.
Liquidity is maintained by securitization, which involves Wall Street and (gasp) profit motives.

[MethuenProgressive]

2. He's throwing a rope to the people he threw overboard?

:eyes:

[Donnachaidh]

13. link?

Who EXACTLY did he throw overboard? The Corporations he sued?

[Tellurian]

16. HaHa! You got that right! The Twangy Carpetbagger!

Edwards helping to Bankrupt Americans..

which makes the middle class highly susceptible to Poverty. (the centerpiece of his platform)


* Edwards supported a bankruptcy bill that was vetoed by President Clinton. In 2000 John Edwards voted for the Bankruptcy Overhaul bill. While this bill included a slight increase of the minimum wage, its major design was to revise bankruptcy laws to make it easier for courts to force debtors to repay their debts, while before the law had allowed debtors to discharge their debt. 12 Democrats and 2 Republicans rejected this bill, including Chris Dodd, Ted Kennedy, Paul Wellstone, and Tom Harkin. President Clinton eventually vetoed this bill because it was too hard on debtors.

* Edwards voted for the same bill in 2001, again choosing financial interests over working families. In 2001 Edwards voted for a similar Bankruptcy Overhaul bill that again required Americans facing bankruptcy to undergo debt repayments instead of debt relief. Specifically, the bill required debtors able to pay $10,000 or 25% of their debts over five years to file under Chapter 13, which requires a reorganization of debts under a repayment plan, instead of seeking to discharge their debts under Chapter 7. Edwards voted with nearly the entire Republican caucus in supporting this bill, as well as voting to end debate on the measure. Chris Dodd voted to reject this bill, joining Senators Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Kennedy, Kerry, and Wellstone. In all, the bill was rejected by 13 Democrats and 2 Republicans.

* Edwards would not allow relief for people who were forced into bankruptcy from medical bills. Edwards also sided with the entire GOP caucus to vote against the Wellstone amendment to the 2001 bill. This amendment would have provided an exemption for debtors who were forced to file for bankruptcy due to medical expenses, under the rationale that health expenses are often unpreventable and can be an especially debilitating cost to low and middle income families. Chris Dodd was one of the 34 Democrats who voted for this amendment?a group that included Senators Clinton, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Kennedy, Kerry and Wellstone.

* Edwards rejected a means test amendment that would have protected debtors from sudden financial misfortune. On the same bill, Edwards again voted with the entire GOP caucus to reject an amendment that would have included a more consumer friendly means test than that included in the original bill. The amended means test would have used the average of a debtor's last two months of income to determine their ability to pay a certain threshold amount of debt, instead of the last six months of income. The amended means test was designed to protect debtors who face financial difficulties from sudden job loss or disability. Paul Wellstone, who authored the amendment, said the original test "will make it impossible for families to rebuild their lives." 22 Democrats supported this amendment, including Chris Dodd. Dodd was accompanied by Senators Clinton, Durbin, Feingold, and Kennedy.

* Edwards supported the final version of the Bankruptcy bill that "punishes the vulnerable." Months later, Edwards again voted for the similar version of the Bankruptcy bill that emerged from negotiations with the House of Representatives. He also voted to limit debate twice on the bill, stifling further amendments or arguments. This version was not substantively different from the earlier versions, as it still made it significantly harder for working Americans to discharge their debts through the bankruptcy system. Chris Dodd rejected this bill, along with Senators Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Kennedy, Kerry and Wellstone. 14 Democrats and 2 Republicans voted against the final measure.

The bill Edwards supported "punishes the vulnerable and it rewards the big banks and credit card companies for their poor practices," said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., a leading opponent of the legislation. "We are heading into hard economic times and we're going to make it hard for people to rebuild their lives."

Edwards has been part and parcel of the GOP agenda all the way. Edwards voting record is one of the worst of our Dem Senators. Edwards is helping create poverty in the middle class with his bankruptcy vote and earning millions for himself when working for the Hedge Fund sector. The same Hedge Fund sector that was buying sub-prime mortgages for their investment portfolios.. The same "POVERTY" he now professes to help as the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. It must be hard for Edward's supporters to understand the meaning of the words "poverty" and "hypocrisy", when their candidate, John Edwards exemplifies it so well.

Why shouldn't he, he voted for it!

I have great respect for Biden for the work he's put into getting our troops out of Iraq. Edwards, not so much. AFAIC, Edwards has NO redeeming factors that would put him in the category of presidential hopeful. The best news is, he isn't running as an incumbent VP.

We dodged a bullet on that one.

[Froward69]

3. Thats cool We will need the

Relief after we all have to buy Health insurance because of his Mandatory plan.

[K Gardner]

5. Cha-Ching ! ^5

http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org
A Far Cry from Mandatory Coverage complete with full employment for collection agencies.

On second thought, maybe I should just change my line of work. Instead of treating patients, it might be more lucrative to just call and harass them for their mandatory insurance payment.

[Jillian]

6. Every day there is a new exciting big plan from JE.

Getting desperate?

[gmudem]

7. Or he could be acting presidential?

God forbid a presidential candidate have plans. We wouldn't want that now would we?

[MalloyLiberal]

8. Boy are you jealous

And Edwards isn't a racist and plagiarist like your candidate

[Jillian]

9. At least he doesn't make money off of the poor.

[waiting for hope]

10. Prove it -

That's a pretty strong statement with a link to back it up.

[Jillian]

14. You better read this and learn about your candidate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201339_pf.html

and this

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/17/321613.aspx

[waiting for hope]

17. That's bullshit and you know it -

I'm at work right now and will be most Happy to back up my statement later this evening.

[waiting for hope]

19. First off - anything written

by John Solomon should be taken with a grain of salt (http://www.alternet.org/story/58593/ ) - the man is a right wing hit job and quoting him as a source just puts your argument in the trash - but given you gave the link, Solomon did quote this:

Nearly 100 Fortress employees or their family members donated to Edwards around the time of a fundraiser his campaign held at the firm in mid-March. Senior executives, individual fund managers, lawyers and a secretary gave the maximum $2,300 donation. Three administrative or executive assistants gave smaller amounts.

That was 167,460 among 100 Fortress employees or their family members - not quite the smoking gun as you are pointing out. As for the second link:

Edwards told the Journal “that when he first joined Fortress, ‘I made clear that I didn't want to have anything I was investing in to be antilabor or involved in predatory lending practices.’ But he added that he didn't fully understand the firm's complex operations, saying: ‘They're diverse. They're very diverse.’”

He told them from the start that he would not join a company that practiced such tactics and was assured by the partners that they didn't. When he found out what was going on, he dumped those investments. http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/politicians/edwards/story/673983.html

I've read all that - months ago, and if that's all your got, I have to say, it's pretty week.

[Stop Cornyn]

11. Amen!

[Czolgosz]

12. This is SUCH an important issue

[Milo_Bloom]

15. Hmm, the same John Edwards who voted FOR the first Bankrupcy Bill.

More empty rhetoric from the empty suit.

[EVDebs]

18. Repeal the Clinton repeal of the Glass Steagall Act that allowed for much of this !

"Two separate United States laws are known as the Glass-Steagall Act. The Acts (Glass & Steagall) were both reactions of the U.S. government to cope with the economic problems which followed the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Both bills were sponsored by Democratic Senator Carter Glass of Lynchburg, Virginia, a former Secretary of the Treasury, and Democratic Congressman Henry B. Steagall of Alabama, Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency....

On November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One impact of this repeal is that certain advisory activities of the banks are now regulated by the Investment Advisers Act of 1940."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act

Clinton's deregulation of these oversight/regulatory acts affecting the banking industry helped spur on this sub-prime fiasco and the simultaneous 'self dealing' through affiliates both foreign and domestic.