Clinton talks trade & mortgages in Iowa

[rinsd]

The Democrat outlines her economic plan. She urges revisiting NAFTA and helping homeowners with adjustable loans find fixed rates.

By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 9, 2007

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA -- Hillary Rodham Clinton fleshed out her economic platform Monday, rolling out proposals to toughen U.S. trade policy and help homeowners facing higher adjustable-rate mortgage payments.

Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) discussed her presidential proposals as she set out on a two-day campaign road trip -- the "Middle-Class Express Bus Tour" -- across rural Iowa.

Appearing at a veterans memorial hall in Cedar Rapids, she ticked off a litany of statistics -- on stagnant wages, higher costs for college and healthcare, softening housing prices, higher household debt -- and said the nation had "a trapdoor economy."

"Too many families are standing on that trapdoor, just one diagnosis, one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment away from falling through and losing everything they've worked for," Clinton said.

Clinton called for revisiting U.S. trade deals every five years to make sure they worked as intended -- and said she'd start with the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed into law by her husband. The deal, which was anathema to organized labor, has "serious shortcomings," she said, citing the trouble New York growers were having exporting apples to Canada as one example.

More at the link - http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-clinton9oct09,1,2741421.story?coll=la-news-a_section

[OHdem10]

1. If Senator Clinton can improve these "woe begotten" Trade

Deals, this would be the greatest accomplishment
of any President .

B. Reuben,EX Treas.Sec., A Blinder(ex V.Chair, Fed Reserve,and
L. Sommers, EX Tres. Sec have admitted these Trade Deals
are not working as thought they would. These are some of
the "Gurus" who helped convince Pres B. Clinton to push
Nafta, etc through.

According to report on MSNBC--back then HRC was not on board
for the Trade Deals. Andrea Mitchell, reporter.

Again, this could do more to help get this ship turned around.

[waiting for hope]

2. Looks really familiar:

Edwards Announces Plan To Protect Homeowners And Fight Predatory Mortgages
Apr 4, 2007

Davenport, Iowa – As part of his ongoing effort to expand and strengthen the middle class, Senator John Edwards today released an aggressive plan to end the harmful lending practices that have put millions of families at risk of losing their homes. At a town hall in Davenport, Iowa, Edwards called for strong national legislation to regulate mortgage abuses and prohibit predatory mortgages. He also proposed immediate steps, including bankruptcy reforms and the creation of a Home Rescue Fund, to provide relief for families who are struggling to keep their homes.

"This is about the future of the middle class," said Edwards. "While Washington turns a blind eye, irresponsible lenders are pulling a fast one on hard-working homeowners. Using deceptive practices, hidden fees, and abusive terms, they have already taken billions of dollars from hard-working homeowners, destroying their nest eggs in the process. For too many families, homeownership has become a risky gamble when it should be the foundation of economic security. It's time to put an end to the shameful lending practices that are compromising our strength as a nation."

Edwards believes that we must act now to prevent widespread foreclosures from devastating communities. Home foreclosure filings rose to 1.2 million in 2006—a 42 percent jump—due to rising mortgage bills and a slowing housing market. The increase in subprime loans and predatory mortgages, which carry abusive terms and excessive and hidden fees, has put more and more American families, especially families of color, at risk of ruining their credit histories and losing their homes. Additionally, economists are concerned that housing sector troubles could put downward pressure on consumer spending and the economy as a whole.

Edwards has proposed a plan to fight mortgage abuses and predatory lending and help families avoid foreclosure. Edwards' plan will:

* Enact a strong national law, based on North Carolina's successful law, to prohibit the worst abuses in the mortgage market. The law will strengthen underwriting standards to ensure that borrowers receive suitable, affordable loans and ban kickbacks to mortgage brokers that encourage them to steer borrowers into more expensive loans.

* Amend the bankruptcy code so families with "underwater mortgages" — mortgages where they owe more than their house is worth — can keep their homes if they pay off the full value of their homes on fair terms.
Create a national Home Rescue Fund to help families in danger of losing their homes. The fund would help homeowners negotiate with lenders and find refinancing options and would provide small loans to cover back payments.

For more information, click here.

http://www.johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/200700404-predatory-mortgages/

[Tellurian]

4. Edwards should have known back in 2005 not at the late date of 2007

Where do you think the (paper) for home mortgages were sold?

HEDGE FUNDS bought the paper on Wall St.

Where was Edwards? Working for a Hedge Fund Group.

He knew long before anyone else Sub-Prime lenders were out of Control!

Two Years too late!

[Cameron27]

6. Yep,

I don't know what the hell he was thinking when he went to work for Fortress, but on the day it was announced, several people on DU predicted this fallout.

[waiting for hope]

8. I was replying that their stands on issue

were familiar. As for him "knowing" about where his money was invested, I believe his answers on that. And thanks for playing six degrees of separation:

Hedge funds also have another connection to the Democratic presidential race—Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Edwards' rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, works for a firm called Avenue Capital Group.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8P0DMAG1&show_article=1&catnum=3

[Tellurian]

17. Yes, but when did he answer it..

Chelsea may have worked for a Hedge Fund Group but she isn't a 40+ yr old attorney with the experience to know the inner workings as Edwards did.

[HeraldSquare212]

3. Were sunset provisions proposed back when NAFTA

was negotiated? I guess Bill had fast-track approval so it's not as though amendments could be offered, but did anyone call for periodic reviews back when it was first passed?

[wyldwolf]

10. .

self delete. Wrong post.

[durrrty libby]

5. Her common sense approach will have broad appeal

[Fovea]

7. And Sen Craig

says that if better, more subtle hookup signals are adopted, fewer bathroom liaisons would be interrupted.

Really, NAFTA should be a subject Hillary Clinton stays far away from. Like Condi Rice demurring on the unimaginability of terrorist using airliners, Sen. Clinton should not suggest that now, suddenly, she understands how to fix NAFTA.

It wasn't like people did stand around at the time waving their arms and screaming that this would help destroy the middle class in America. Isn't it amazing how right labor leaders were then, and how only now that a Clinton suggests that it isn't manna from heaven, it can be admitted.

Note to Rep. Dennis Moore. Did you read the memo?


Yeah, Sen. Clinton, we know how to fix NAFTA, CAFTA, and our obscene obeisance to the WTO.

Scrap them all.

Bring back a measure of economic accountability to corporate citizens, and defend the right of labor to organize. Make workers as important as investors.

[XemaSab]

9. So her "serious shortcomings" have to do with the IMPEDIMENTS to trade left under NAFTA?

:banghead:

[Cameron27]

11. Wasn't AL Gore in favor of NAFTA?

How many others were pushing it as a great idea but now realize all the serious problems it caused? I have a feeling if Gore jumps into the race, all will be forgiven and Hillary will simultaneously have to answer for it.

[Armstead]

13. Gore goofed

But unlike Hilary, I think he has been having an actual change of perspective on it.

[rinsd]

18. Has Gore said something indicating his change of perspective?

[XemaSab]

19. 7 years ago, yes

I think volition has a lot to do with things.

I would hope Gore would have a complex reason for supporting NAFTA, but I fear Clinton supports it because her corporate masters tell her to.

[Cameron27]

20. See that's where you lose me.

You automatically assume that Gore had a complex reason for supporting NAFTA, but throw the corporate master's thing at Clinton. How corporate was Gore prior to his sea-change? I'm not dissing the man, I admire him, but fair's/fair.

[EVDebs]

12. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, she's busy outsourcing jobs to TATA Consultancy

Just say Ta Ta to your soon to be outsourced jobs !

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/memo1.pdf

[rinsd]

14. Ahhh the Punjab memo.

Which caused the Obama campaign so heartache, he had to issue an embarrassed retraction.

[EVDebs]

15. But Buffalo got 10 jobs while thousands of others were outsourced

Obama apologizes over 'Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)' memo
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/19/news/obama.php

"Stopping in the town of Newton (Iowa), which was rocked by the closure of a Maytag home-appliances plant, he (Obama) called for new efforts to create jobs and end tax subsidies for companies that shift jobs overseas."

I note that the facts mentioned in the memo aren't in dispute.

Edwards and Obama, hopefully will bring the troops AND THE JOBS back home from overseas. Obama should have demanded Hillary take ownership of those facts, not apologize for telling the truh !

[Armstead]

16. You ought to make that a seperate post

It's amazing that the Democratic March of the Lemmings wants to turn for a solution to the same people who brought the problem.

[killbotfactory]

21. Let's get the team who screwed us with NAFTA back in power!

I'm sure they'll get it right this time.