Obama to Propose Eliminating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

[jtuck004]

2. I wonder how incredibly ignorant people still are about this? The right-wing spin machine worked

overtime to sell a lie about government, and it was remarkably effective, it appears. Even seems to have "the government" believing it.

Fannie Mae was solvent for 70 years, started in the Great Depression when the thieving bankers were visiting incredible pain on this country and our people. And it stayed solvent until Reagan, Clinton, and Bush made it possible for the banks to create the financial crisis we are in today. So now we are going to put the final nail in one more thing that FDR, who fought against the greedy hand of the money lenders for the people, put in place.

Worth knowing the facts, as if it makes a difference.

Headline:

Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/10/12/53802/private-sector-loans-not-fannie.html#storylink=cpy

WASHINGTON — As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.

Commentators say that's what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They've specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie's and Freddie's financial problems.

Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.
...
In a book on the sub-prime lending collapse published in June 2007, the late Federal Reserve Governor Ed Gramlich wrote that only one-third of all CRA loans had interest rates high enough to be considered sub-prime and that to the pleasant surprise of commercial banks there were low default rates. Banks that participated in CRA lending had found, he wrote, "that this new lending is good business."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/10/12/53802/private-sector-loans-not-fannie.html#storylink=cpy

Not enough to fund the banks with, what was it on DU's front page a few days ago, $14 trillion so far? Now we are going to give it all up to the criminals that brought tragedy to 10 million families yanked out of their homes in foreclosure.

I think Barry Ritholtz, here, got so tired of ignorant people on the telly blaming F&F and the CRA for the crisis that he offered $10,000 cash to anyone who could back up their bullshit with facts. It was never claimed. Still available, I think

Here's a couple of charts from his site...



F&F were late to the game - it had already started tanking by the time they decided that they were missing the curve...but the Rethugs needed a financial Benghazi to beat the government over the head with...



Just when you thought we couldn't bend over any more...

btw, Ritholtz's book, "Bailout Nation, with New Post-Crisis Update: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy Paperback", may be at your library, if you are in need of fact-based info. It's one of several, but good.