On 8/16/2012 5:38 PM, George Plimpton wrote:
On 8/16/2012 5:27 PM, wrote:


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How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis: Kevin Hassett

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The financial crisis of the past year has
provided a number of surprising twists and turns, and from Bear Stearns
Cos. to American International Group Inc., ambiguity has been a big part
of the story.

Why did Bear Stearns fail, and how does that relate to AIG? It all seems
so complex.

But really, it isn't. Enough cards on this table have been turned over
that the story is now clear. The economic history books will describe
this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some fatally.

Fannie and Freddie did this by becoming a key enabler of the mortgage
crisis. They fueled Wall Street's efforts to securitize subprime loans
by becoming the primary customer of all AAA-rated subprime-mortgage
pools. In addition, they held an enormous portfolio of mortgages
themselves.

In the times that Fannie and Freddie couldn't make the market, they
became the market. Over the years, it added up to an enormous
obligation. As of last June, Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more than
$388 billion in high-risk mortgage investments. Their large presence
created an environment within which even mortgage-backed securities
assembled by others could find a ready home.

The problem was that the trillions of dollars in play were only low-risk
investments if real estate prices continued to rise. Once they began to
fall, the entire house of cards came down with them.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aSKSoiNbnQY0


*ALL* caused by the Democrats: CRA and the Clinton gutting of
underwriting standards at the GSEs.



Oh, so now I see where you get all this right wing claptrap from. Your
source is the director of policy studies at the American Enterprise
Institute, a far right wing think tank. He's a right winger with right
wing goofy economic ideas. He's not a mainstream economist by any
measure. No wonder you follow him. He's another extremist right winger.

Here's some of his work. He was McCain's chief economic adviser in the
2000 presidential primaries. He was an economic adviser to George W.
Bush in the 2004 and the 2008 presidential elections. So the guy is a
total right wing economist and was advising Bush in all his far out,
supply side economics that brought down the economy. This is where Bush
and the republicans got their screwy economic trickle down ideas from,
guys like Hassett.

Here's another example of how far off the guy is. In 1999 he co-authored
a book called: Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the
Coming Rise in the Stock Market. I'm not making that up. That is how far
off the guy was. He predicted the stock market going to 36,000. Not a
very good prediction for 1999 was it? Want to take his economic advice?
No thank you.

That's where Pimple-dick gets his freaky ideas from people like Hassett
that thought in 1999 the stock market was going to 36,000, and who
advised Bush in all his economic strategies which were what plunged the
country into the worst financial crisis in our lives. I'm not surprised
this is where the information comes from. This economist is a completely
committed republican operative. Who would have ever guessed he would
have blamed our economic problems on the Democrats, even when he was
advising Bush what on what economic policies to follow. No wonder he
appeals to Pimpleton, he's wrong about everything.


Hawke