Bronco wrote:-
Been posted many times before but always good to show the folks that just read this site what was going on
Others, I guess... keep forgetting
Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial and housing crisis in 2001
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1[/youtube]
Aaaaaand right back at ya:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAtUq0OJ68[/youtube]
WASHINGTON — "We can put light where there's darkness, and hope where there's despondency in this country. And part of it is working together as a nation to encourage folks to own their own home."
- President George W. Bush, Oct. 15, 2002
From his earliest days in office, Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own homes with his conviction that markets do best when left alone. Bush pushed hard to expand home ownership, especially among minority groups, an initiative that dovetailed with both his ambition to expand Republican appeal and the business interests of some of his biggest donors. But his housing policies and hands-off approach to regulation encouraged lax lending standards.
Bush did foresee the danger posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage finance giants. The president spent years pushing a recalcitrant Congress to toughen regulation of the companies, but was unwilling to compromise when his former Treasury secretary wanted to cut a deal. And the regulator Bush chose to oversee them - an old school buddy - pronounced the companies sound even as they headed toward insolvency.
"There is no question we did not recognize the severity of the problems," said Al Hubbard, Bush's former chief economic adviser, who left the White House in December 2007. "Had we, we would have attacked them."
Looking back, Keith Hennessey, Bush's current chief economic adviser, said he and his colleagues had done the best they could "with the information we had at the time." But Hennessey did say he regretted that the administration had not paid more heed to the dangers of easy lending practices.
And both Paulson and his predecessor, John Snow, say the housing push went too far.
"The Bush administration took a lot of pride that home ownership had reached historic highs," Snow said during an interview. "But what we forgot in the process was that it has to be done in the context of people being able to afford their house. We now realize there was a high cost."
For much of the Bush presidency, the White House was preoccupied by terrorism and war; on the economic front, its pressing concerns were cutting taxes and privatizing Social Security, a government retirement and disability benefits program. The housing market was a bright spot: Ever-rising home values kept the economy humming, as owners drew down on their equity to buy consumer goods and pack their children off to college.
Lawrence Lindsay, Bush's first chief economic adviser, said there was little impetus to raise alarms about the proliferation of easy credit that was helping Bush meet housing goals.
"No one wanted to stop that bubble," Lindsay said. "It would have conflicted with the president's own policies."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/busin ... d=all&_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
So curiously, we have a Republican president and a Democratic president both pushing for policies that increase minority home ownership. My whole point in bringing up the CRA and the industries that benefit from home construction is why? Why does it come from both sides? BDK, Bronco, and nearly the entire right wing of this country harken back to F&F and the CRA, politicizing the issue. And milquetoast conks like Gannon and Leadbolt defend the notion by saying it's all in the past and lets focus on now!
The home construction, real estate, and mortgage industries aren't in the game to do what's best for America in this regard. They want to build, sell, and finance homes. The financial services industry wants deregulation of markets so they can bet on the success of these loans. They all pay for these policies to be implemented, and they pay both sides of the fence.
This is crony capitalism at its finest and it starts with campaign finance. But lets keep wringing our hands about why we're repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe it will change.
C'mon fellas, make some connections...think bigger picture.
