Thursday, February 26, 2009
Are you (we) crazy?
"Are you crazy? Are you outta your mind? Take you franks and beans and..."...that was the late great Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," as he incredulously questioned the poor timing of Felix Unger (the equally late, great Jack Lemmon) after Unger called the ball park to advise Oscar not to eat any hot dogs because he was "making franks and beans for dinner." Of course, just as Oscar turns to reluctantly take the call, he misses an amazing (almost unheard of) triple play...
Speaking of triple plays and other rarities, I'm left to wonder just how the hell are we (the good old US of A) supposed to get out of the "Bush recession," by creating an equally debilitating "Obama Depression?" Man, $250B for banking, $634B for health care, $410B for "domestic programs," $75B for "homeowners" (read, folks who bought homes they either couldn't afford or shouldn't have qualified for)...and speaking of shouldn'ts...
I received an e-mail from another reader (well, a reader in that, hey, I forward him a copy of my post on occasion)...anyway, the e-mail referred to a 1999 article in the NY Times, relating to "Fannie Mae easing credit to aid mortgage lending." Well, being the naysayer I am, I went to Snopes.com and checked it out...IT'S LEGIT!!! Yes, that's right...the Sept. 30 article reported that under pressure from the (trumpet sound please) Clinton Administration...and yes, also unscrupulous lenders attempting to cater to their quote-unquote stockholders, etc...Fannie Mae would now, "encourage banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans." Hmmm...
But wait...it gets better...I mean, better for all you Bush haters and/or Clinton lovers out there. The Snopes report referenced another article from the New York Times (hardly a bastion of conservatism) from Sept. 11, 2003 which additionally referenced the Bush Administration's attempts to "REGULATE" (i.e. have Treasury assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and/or assure they maintain "capital reserve requirements," etc. Not quite what the mainstream media has been reporting, eh?
But hey, "whahappend?" Well, the whole thing was shot down by "The National Association of HomeBuilders (eek, big business?) " and Congressional Democrats (I submit to you that they were assisted in this counter productive endeavor by equally unscrupulous Congressional Republicans)...who feared that "tighter regulations of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing."
Where am I going with this? Well, we're ALL responsible...this "last eight years" crap won't cut it much longer (it NEVER did, in my opinion)...YES, Bush blew it...he deserves his share of blame. But, just watching Bill Clinton whine and snivel that, "I didn't have anything to do with the crisis we're facing," well, I don't know how he could look us in the eye and offer up such a blatant...oh, ah, never mind...go to http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/easecredit.asp
Speaking of triple plays and other rarities, I'm left to wonder just how the hell are we (the good old US of A) supposed to get out of the "Bush recession," by creating an equally debilitating "Obama Depression?" Man, $250B for banking, $634B for health care, $410B for "domestic programs," $75B for "homeowners" (read, folks who bought homes they either couldn't afford or shouldn't have qualified for)...and speaking of shouldn'ts...
I received an e-mail from another reader (well, a reader in that, hey, I forward him a copy of my post on occasion)...anyway, the e-mail referred to a 1999 article in the NY Times, relating to "Fannie Mae easing credit to aid mortgage lending." Well, being the naysayer I am, I went to Snopes.com and checked it out...IT'S LEGIT!!! Yes, that's right...the Sept. 30 article reported that under pressure from the (trumpet sound please) Clinton Administration...and yes, also unscrupulous lenders attempting to cater to their quote-unquote stockholders, etc...Fannie Mae would now, "encourage banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans." Hmmm...
But wait...it gets better...I mean, better for all you Bush haters and/or Clinton lovers out there. The Snopes report referenced another article from the New York Times (hardly a bastion of conservatism) from Sept. 11, 2003 which additionally referenced the Bush Administration's attempts to "REGULATE" (i.e. have Treasury assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and/or assure they maintain "capital reserve requirements," etc. Not quite what the mainstream media has been reporting, eh?
But hey, "whahappend?" Well, the whole thing was shot down by "The National Association of HomeBuilders (eek, big business?) " and Congressional Democrats (I submit to you that they were assisted in this counter productive endeavor by equally unscrupulous Congressional Republicans)...who feared that "tighter regulations of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing."
Where am I going with this? Well, we're ALL responsible...this "last eight years" crap won't cut it much longer (it NEVER did, in my opinion)...YES, Bush blew it...he deserves his share of blame. But, just watching Bill Clinton whine and snivel that, "I didn't have anything to do with the crisis we're facing," well, I don't know how he could look us in the eye and offer up such a blatant...oh, ah, never mind...go to http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/easecredit.asp
# posted by mediacopp : 7:14 AM
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