The "It's all Fannie and Freddie's fault" talking point...

[redqueen]

anyone else hearing this or seeing it posted on discussion boards / in comments after articles?

It's not the free market... it was the government!



They are so efficient at getting their spin out... depressing.



Oh and I almost forgot... the corollaries to this talking point are
"it's all Barney Frank's fault!"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...agewanted=print

and

"McCain tried to stop it!"
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190#sMonofilemx003Ammx002Fmmx002Fmmx002Fmhomemx002Fmgovtrackmx002Fmdatamx002Fmus002Fm109mx002Fmcrmx002Fms20060525-16.xmlElementm0m0m0m



Forewarned is forearmed, right?
Good luck battling the spewers.

[Jim__]

1. Pretty hard to deny Greenspan's role in this.

Dropping the interest rate through the floor after 9/11 definitely fed the housing bubble. Now, as the government bails out the financial elites, they turn around and blame their own stupidity on the government.

[redqueen]

8. True enough, but their goal is to be apologists for the "Free Marketism" that is their religion.

This, as McInsane becomes a champion for regulations. Well, sometimes.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Will Man U wear the US Dept. of Treasury logo on the front of their shirts? nt

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Ah, but Fanny and Freddie were private corporations until a month or so ago.

[redqueen]

6. All of a sudden they believe in nuance... it was only sorta private...

it was still mostly "The Gubbamint"...

Are you not hearing / reading this?

[Yavin4]

4. Easily Shot Down

The very definition of sub prime mortgages are mortgages that WOULD NOT pass the Fannie and Freddie screening procedures. That's why they were called, SUB PRIME.

[redqueen]

7. You would think...

sadly, facts bounce off of their thick, thick skulls. They add a few insults, and keep repeating the lie.

One hopes at least the people reading are picking up some clues...

[Uncle Joe]

5. I believe the root cause of all of this is the price of fossil fuel energy.

When the cost of filling your gas tank alone triples over eight years and salary doesn't go up near that rate, people will lose their homes.

If the exploding cost of depending on fossils fuels to run our economy is the earthquake, the mortgage crisis or financial crisis are the tsunami created by that earthquake.

Our current energy policy of depending on fossil fuels is dysfunctional and that's the root cause of all this anguish.

Thanks for the thread, redqueen.

[redqueen]

9. Yes... that might well have been the first domino.

And people might have been able to absorb the increase in cost, if it didn't affect the price of nearly everything else in turn.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Exactly, a domino effect and here is a key dysfunction in how

the Consumer Price Index is calculated, many people of course are on fixed incomes which rise based on the rate of inflation, but the rate is misleading. The effect of course is the same as quicksand with too many people losing ground.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3679390

"The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, was unchanged in April, the lowest rate of underlying inflation since November 2003."

[redqueen]

11. I don't see how it makes any sense at all to leave those costs out...

I have to hope they're included in some other index... but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it's just flat-out chicanery.

[Uncle Joe]

12. I believe the logic or excuse depending on how you look at it is

those costs bounce around too much. I believe this is bogus serving more as a means to screw over the most vulnerable in our society to benefit the wealthy and powerful.