Good luck and best wishes, Mr. Tinklenberg, from Long Island, New York.

Give now to defeat this evil harpie Michelle Bachman!

Are you all CRAZY.

These are the people you are voting for.

The first step was the making of fundamentally bad loans — loans that the lenders did not expect to be repaid. Why did they make those loans? Jimmy Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act — given new, racially-tainted teeth by the Clinton administration — and out-of-control GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) drove otherwise rational banks to lend money, on the basis of skin-color or the skin-color of the neighbors of prospective borrowers, to people who the banks knew couldn’t or wouldn’t repay. But the banks also knew (or thought) they wouldn’t be on the hook for long.

Banks made these loans because (a) the GSEs promised to buy them and (b) they were threatened by “community organizers” in communities where minorities were in the majority (logic-defying, I know — try living in Atlanta sometime) with lawsuits if they did not make the loans. The GSEs then repackaged these bad, racially-motivated loans — like tainted Chinese milk — for resale. The bad loans, in turn, drove more money into the home-buying market, making it appear as if homes were worth more than they really were. Over time, it grew into a mountain of excess.

But the bad motives in this massive fraud were not all race-related. Just as at Enron, Worldcom, Ahold and Adelphia, financial greed was a big driver. Greedy, foolish buyers of these mortgages and their derivatives (called CDOs and CDSs — this is a great article) should have known better.

Greed drove the GSEs, as well. As highlighted above, OFHEO investigators reported, in 2004, that Fannie Mae executives raked in millions of dollars by lying about Fannie’s the earnings-per-share on which their compensation was based.

This was in very deed a financial Worldcom or Adelphia, but with consequences for the entire world of finance. Executives of those companies are serving long prison terms for relatively harmless misbehavior. What about Franklin Raines? What about Rep. Maxine Waters who aided and abetted this scam and pitched a fit when it was uncovered? Taxpayers — busy with their day jobs — figured that Congress would look out for them. Not a good bet.

The truth is that many congressional representatives were alert and tried to warn the country to the fraud going on at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, those who were alert never controlled the microphone before it was too late. Others — like Nancy

The democrats DESTROYED the economy with their community reinvestment act and Fannie mae.

I agree the republicans are pretty stupid in the way they are running their campaigns.
All they have to do is show VIDEO testimony of Barney (Franks not the dinasour), Maxine Waters, C Dodd and All members of the BLACK CAUCUS: who STOPPED BUSH and McCain in 2004,2005 of giving more power to the REGULATOR of Fannie Mae.

They Said there was NO EVIDENCE of TROUBLE, No SIGN OF DOOM. The DEmocrat Rymes who headed Fannie Mae said there was NO TROUBLE and they should extend the programs even further. HE SAID THERE WAS NO RISK!!!

McCain said the taxpayers will pay an extreme amount in the end and he was right.

While you blame WALL STREET- Fannie Mae and the ReinvestmetnACT forced them to write these LOANS. Projects were held hostage unless a portion, usually 25% of the UNITS, were made available to LOW INCOME PEOPLE.

You cannot legislate this and force it into a free market.

Just visit this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Best of luck to you from San Francisco, Mr. Tinklenberg.