Bush administration was thoroughly briefed on mortgage situation

[leftyladyfrommo]

by the FBI but they just decided not to do anything about it.

There is an article over on Raw Story about how the FBI knew about the massive fraud that was going on and the dangers of the cascading effect but didn't have the agents to pursue it. They were all transferred over to anti terrorism.

So, we didn't get attacked by air. But our whole economy came under attack. How completely ironic.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/397690_fbiweb28.html

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Well you know, it's all Barnie Frank's fault.

This entire economy is Barnie Frank's fault.

Who knew that one congressman out of 435 could bring down this country like that!

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Well, It's So Obvious!

You know all that fiscal policy and monetary policy, and tax cuts (that Barney voted against), and overmainpulation of interest rates by the fed, and all that are because of Barney Frank.

It's stunning in its simplicity. (Or is that "stunningly simplistic"?)

It's always so easy to blame someone who didn't do it when one is trying to avoid taking responsibility for doing a crappy job, isn't it?
GAC

[lib2DaBone]

34. $10 Billion a month in Iraq doesn't help....

pallets of money shrink wrapped and sitting in the green zone disappeared and CONgress just yawned.

Have you ever worked in an office and had to account for where your last pencil was located? How can you place millions of dollars in cash in Bagdad and make it disappear, and no one in government says a word?

Now that is a nice trick pulled off by Rummy and Darth Vader.

[ProfessorGAC]

36. We Agree Completely

I was being facetious in my other post about blaming Barney Frank.

It's obviously because of gross mismanagement of the fiscal elements of gov't. And, as you said, theft doesn't help matters.
GAC

[AndyA]

2. Typical of the Bush Administration.

They also didn't do anything to stop the terror attacks on 9/11/2001 after being warned about that possibility as well.

The Bush Administration needs to be charged for their crimes. This type of negligence on the part of our government leaders is inexcusable.

[havocmom]

3. No surprise. They were also warned about Bin Laden and airplanes

To borrow a line from the play "Mary, Mary":

Some people are so good at making the best of a bad situation, they go around making bad situations to make the best of

[rrneck]

14. Naomi Klein would agree with you. Have

you read The Shock Doctrine?

[havocmom]

19. Read it then donate it to your local library

:evilgrin:

[rrneck]

33. Absolutely. After I read

Deer Hunting With Jesus I actually used the multiple mailing option in Amazon to send out a few copies to spread the word, but that's before the economy went into the toilet...

[blm]

4. Kerry put addressing coming mortgage/credit crisis into 2004 Dem platform - newsmedia couldn't find

anything interesting in that, could they?

GOP are traitors to the country and to the American worker.

[Dreamer Tatum]

5. Glancing blow at a huge target

Fraud definitely grew, but was still a small contributor to the problem. Lack oversight and regulation
of legitimate loans is what caused the crash.

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. How much of that lack of oversight was really just intentional?

I have to wonder. I was working in mortgages then. People at FNMA and Freddie had to have known that the huge changes they were making in their underwriting programs would eventually cause a disaster. I saw it - their automated underwriting programs made fraud incredibly easy. Only they didn't call it fraud. They just made it way too easy for unqualified people to get loans. They had to have known that mortgage people would rake in huge money on the front end but would incounter massive losses in the long term.

They had to have known that. And they did it anyway,.

[Dreamer Tatum]

11. All lacks of oversight are intentional

But let's be brutally honest here: there is a lot of blame on both sides of the aisle as regards the ability
and willingness to deal with the issue.

[leftyladyfrommo]

16. Well, of course. I think if we really knew how many of our Congress people

were owned by the company store we would just be aghast.

Its just that the size and scope of this was so huge it is just staggering.

I remember looking at those loans and thinking that these lenders were crazy to make them. I wouldn't have loaned money to those people. Bottom line credit score they were taking was 520 for heaven's sake. No money down. Debt to income ratios that were just crazy.

What I didn't see was the size of the scandal. I had no idea how huge this thing was.

[leftchick]

6. and Elliott Spitzer

he was on to them like white on Rice and instead of bush using him to save our economy he sent the FBI after him. Bush Belongs in JAIL!

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. That whole administration belongs in jail.

It just makes me sick what they did and on how many fronts and they will all just walk away.

And the poor little homeless guy who stole $100 got 15 years.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. I think Spitzer should pursue if he wasn't illegally surveilled.

How exactly did they tumble onto the prostitute issue? (Not that he wasn't totally wrong and hypocritical to consort with prostitutes when he personally had gone after them as AG - I'm not excusing that)

He is a writer for Slate now, so maybe he should talk about his own case.

[leftchick]

26. I didn't know he wrote for slate

thanks for that. :)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

30. It might be Salon - I always get those 2 confused. nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. "Enemies domestic and foreign"

Bush needs to be held accountable

"I swear to "defend and protect" the Constitution from all enemies, "domestic and foreign. ..."

[stillcool]

12. Nah..they were too busy going after pot smokers..

and let's not forget this ....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html

Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers


By Eliot Spitzer
Thursday, February 14, 2008; Page A25

Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.

Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.
ad_icon

Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.

What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.

In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.

But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on predatory and unfair lending would have in no way jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position.

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.

The writer is governor of New York.

[leftyladyfrommo]

25. Poor pot smokers. They take the brunt of it for everything.

I love pot. I would love to be able to just go buy it at Quick Trip. But I can't and probably never will be able to.

[SoCalDem]

13. Bushie crossed his fingers and prayed that it would all hold together until AFTER he left

then the republicans would say that america got "askeered of the angry black man" and pulled all their money out of the market..

But probably somewhere in a far away country, someone actually opened up some of those CDS "instruments" and found a pile of shit..and the everyone started looking into all these fine USA tippity top "investments", and discovered it was all a ponzi scheme, dreamed up by 28 yr olds from Wharton, who found a nifty way to make themselves rich..

[Gman2]

24. A foreign power had downloaded all the World Banks records for convenient purusal.

China prolly bought the info. They saw Bush trying to rig the economy to explode right after inauguration. They saw that the entire top investments were frauds. They saw that there would be a domino effect that Bush didnt give a shit about. China threatened to call in aaaaalllllllllllllll our loans. That is why Paulson said that he didnt know if the 600 billion would be enough and was needed by monday. The Chinese backed off some. I think there is a secret linkage in all this, and we are becoming yesmen to Chinese threat. I think your askeered concept was goin g to be the story, if McCain and the repubs were within stealing distance in the election.

The outright telling us that we would be just another voice on economic issues in perpetuity, says volumes about what many countries must know, and we wont be told.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. Bush probably said, "Ok, you've covered your ass. Now watch this drive." nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

18. or went fishing. or biking.

I still don't think he gets it.

[.... callchet ....]

17. Lot of my Buddies going to make a lot of money.

[leftyladyfrommo]

21. They did make a lot of money. Huge amounts of money.

The mortgage market was just crazy for 10 years. All those upfront fees, all those gazillions of loans they were making.

And then the whole house of cards just came crashing down. And everyone acted surprised.

[.... callchet ....]

23. And the big boys still have the money.

All the money !

[aquart]

20. No terrorist ever destroyed an American city. Bush and Katrina did that.

Terrorism was always an insignificant threat. Traumatizing, but insignificant. Terrorism was the Look! Look! Over there! they used to keep us distracted while they robbed us blind.

I was embarrassed that anyone could mention 9/11! after Katrina! We don't have a good grasp on our real enemies.

[leftyladyfrommo]

22. Oh, I know. I am still just completely shocked by the damage that

the Bush administration did. And how they did it. How they simply streamrolled over everyone that tried to stop them.

It is just unbelievable. And I am old compared to most people on this board. I have seen a lot of administrations come and go. Have seen a lot of crooks get caught. But nothing even begins to compare with this. Nothing even comes close. I think we came just so close to losing our country that it just scares the dickens out of me.

[aquart]

39. We did mention it to people once or twice. We weren't silent.

They had us in a bind. A Valkyrie plot would simply have made the situation worse and strengthened their hold. So we were stuck with them and their treasonous Supreme Court.

[Ian David]

27. "No one could have anticipated..." n/t

[leftyladyfrommo]

28. Greenspan? I know - he was a god. And he was so wrong.

That was amazing.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

29. There is a whole group of mortgage holders who were just flat out lied to

about what kind of mortgage they were getting. They were not involved in fraud or misrepresenting themselves, but they were the victim of misrepresentation or fraud on the part of the mortgage broker .I have seen these victims in both local and national stories. Usually they were refinancing for a specific purpose like home repairs, college for their kids or to put money in a family business. They did not get the mortgage at the terms they thought they were getting.

I know that many say,"too bad for them, didn't they read the documents?" Some of the documents were worded so torturously and obscurely that even extremely literate and sophisticated people were taken in, not to mention those at the other end of the spectrum.

There was a lot of actual CRIME involved in the mortgage mess and some of the perpetrators of these crimes should be civilly fined with the fines going to a victims fund and they should be criminally charged. Hire more FBI agents - that will stimulate the economy and put them to work on this.

[leftyladyfrommo]

37. I think some homeowners knew what they were doing - the ones who

applied for and got loans where their income wasn't even checked - the stated income loans.

But what I saw wasn't the mortgagor's fault. Most people are not that sophisticated when it comes to home loans. They really thought that if they were approved that the bank thought they actually qualified to make that payment. Probably if they had sat down and figured out how much they have to pay out each month they would have seen that there was no way in hell they could afford that loan. But most people just trusted the mortgagees to make good loans.

Fools. Never, ever just trust a banker.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Hmmm....doesn't the FBI have an obligation to put the country first?

[jtrockville]

35. Apparently not when Republicans are in charge.

[thesquanderer]

38. They must have missed the memo...

"Financial Institutions Determined to Strike in U.S."