Say Anything Blog

watashiwa,

Precisely what laws were broken by whom?

Out Here
Rodney G. Graves

Ceterum censeo Parthia esse delendam
Latin: “Furthermore, Parthia (Persia aka modern day Iran) should be destroyed.”

W,

You make the common mistake of confusing congressional Democrats, the ones who “went after Bonds and Clemens” with the government.  Wishful thinking not withstanding, they are not the same thing.

As for those “crooks” in the mortgage and banking industries,perhaps you can be a bit more specific as to who you are referring to, and what crimes were committed.  Lumping all the mortgage industry players together and calling them all “crooks” is a convenient shorthand for leftist angst, but it is essentially no different than lumping all liberals together and labeling them brain-dead mollusks.  Except for insult to mollusks, of course.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

Good question, Watashiwa.  I think the answer is that nobody’s really proven that anyone in the industry has done anything illegal, and that’s not for lack of trying in certain quarters to find something that would stick.

Insane, stupid incentives set up by Congress and the Federal Reserve with disastrous consequences?  You bet.  Criminal activity?  Haven’t seen too much of it yet.

I’ve also got questions about how the mortgage crisis was created. How big it really is? Whether the panic among the banks and investment firms on Wall Street is justified? How the various fixes proposed by govt. officials would work?  BUT unlike the Dems, I won’t go looking for someone to put in jail or otherwise punish.  I DO know that once the President leaves office, the financial press and MSM will discover how much better the economy is.

Zsa Zsa, you can get a lot of explanations, and most of them have at least an element of truth.  There are bad operators who write loans, knowing that the income and assets figures are lies.  There are greedy borrowers.  There may be companies who knowingly deceive borrowers.

On the government side, all subprime loans are the product of a 1977 law meant to prevent banks from refusing to loan in certain neighborhoods.  Meant to give access to blacks to loans, it’s created a whole new category of high risk loans. 

You also have the Fed.  Many people who never would have considered subprime bit when the “bait” of a 2% loan was dangled in front of them--and the banks were using money from no other source than the Fed.  (nobody else loans money out for 2% when inflation is at 3%)

Then the prime rate went up, and all those ARMs went out of control.

Who to blame?  Personally, I don’t know that I’ve got enough fingers to point here.  :^)

I find it odd that the Bear- Stearns Investment firm is not being treated as more of a scandalous issue. Someone was not doing their job so well. OR at least that is the way it looks to me.

Who is to blame for bailing out the
smartest guys in the room.
Lower the life boats.
Bankers and hedge funds first.

Why is private debt being turned into public debt?

Strange capitalism don’t you think?

Darned right, Woof.  I blame President Wilson.

Congress forced an expansion of mortgages to high risk customers beginning in the late ‘80s, and accelerated the practice in the ‘90s. Now morons like this want to attack lenders, instead of going after the criminals who actually created this “problem”, Democrats in Congress and State Legislatures. And their PACs that pushed this stupidity in the first place. Typical Marxist societal deconstruction, abetted by willingly ignorant cry babies.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

The FBI is currently investigating 16 mortgage firms. A recent 60 Minutes interview explained how the scheme worked. In the end investment banks floated bonds on the world markets as legitimate high value bonds. All the while knowing that the bonds were useless. If this is not fraudulent and criminal, I don’t know what is.
Above all, I believe that it is unpatriotic of these corporate entities, and the people who were in on this, to put the American economy at risk in the name of profits. I admit that I know little about financial laws. However, I feel that what ever was done smacks of high treason.

Keep in mind, Watashiwa, that this is what 60 minutes said--the Biblical book of Proverbs tells us that every case looks compelling until the other side gets to state its case.  The news shows on TV are notorious for misrepresenting what went on.

If indeed the FBI is working on this, then let’s wait for their investigation to complete.  Their work, while not perfect, is certainly more authoritative than “60 Minutes.”

BTW, what does “Watashiwa” mean?  Call me curious, I’m guilty.

Bike Bubba,
Sometimes you can get the real scoop from TV expos`es. This has been proven time and time again. I have learned over my 60 years of life that our government cannot be trusted. I only feel that government believes that the public is so dumb, that if a high level official says something, we will believe it. I am not closed minded. Just skeptical. As for my name: google it.
God bless America.

I would suggest rarely--while I share your distrust of government, I also extend it to the media, especially those that infest the idiot box.

And, um, googled that name, and....well...I found both commendable and vile uses of that word.  I’ll assume the commendable for you, but would suggest that you might want to re-look at the name to see whether you want the vile part to come to peoples’ minds as well.

The treason here was committed by politicians forcing the extension of credit to individuals who were bad risk loanees. Remember the screeching&wailing from people like you about redlining? Remember how people like you screeched&wailed that banks were discriminating against certain groups, merely because banks would not lend them money on the grounds they were unable to repay it? And yet you refuse to punish the politicians and special interest assholes who willfully created this situation in the first place.

A pervert, indeed.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

Good question, Watashiwa.  I think the answer is that nobody’s really proven that anyone in the industry has done anything illegal, and that’s not for lack of trying in certain quarters to find something that would stick.

Insane, stupid incentives set up by Congress and the Federal Reserve with disastrous consequences?  You bet.  Criminal activity?  Haven’t seen too much of it yet.

So why the hell do we have to bail these people out then. Heck I am going to send the Government a bill for my mortage as well so they can pay mine too…

Check out:
Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck
Goon’s World

Watashi Wa is Japanese and roughly translated means, depending on the context, “I”, “myself”, or, “As for me”. Fans have speculated that this is a reference to the Biblical “I am”, a phrase used throughout the Old and New Testament of the Bible by God and Jesus. It may also be a reference to Joshua 24:15 “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD”.

Surely this is what he means.

Goon, don’t you know that you the taxpayer get stuck with the bill no matter how clear it is that the problem is someone else’s fault?  Yeesh.  :^)