Trust Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Barney Frank?

I want to know whose authorization Barney received to add another premeditative secret monstrous burden on the backs of the American taxpayer which thus far the taxpayer has received absolutely nothing but anxiety, anguish, depression and agitation. Again, this has blown past the point of embarrassment, absurdity, ignorance and well into the realm of the bizarre. This level of social re-engineering is beginning to wake the masses who normally slumber through until next elections.
 
This must stop so what’s it going to take is my question.   

Badger  

tek, I was so intrigued by your reference to de Tocqueville that I went looking for more.  I found much food for thought here. 

The quote you referred to may be this one:  “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” 

I don’t see much bribing of the general public these days.   Our government is now structured such that the public is irrelevant.  They only need to bribe a select few.  But the other half of the equation remains intact…they’re doing it with our money.

Kucinich continues to defy his own party on its outrageous policies. He’s mocked and derided by nearly everyone, but he courageously continues to speak truth to power. The guy’s amazing! He’s got the heart of a lion. I respect him immensely after watching him for years. Same with Bernie Sanders. 

Btw, Zero Hedge had an interesting article on this “dark of the night” goodie from Treasury, indicating that it could very well be the biggest fraud ever [which is saying a lot with everything that's come down the pike].

This popped out:

“It takes only a cursory examination to suspect that misdirection plays a key part in the latest act of the ongoing crisis theater of the absurd.  Misdirection to distract attention from the key complicity of GSEs in the crisis.  Misdirection to deflect scrutiny away from the political personalities from both sides of the aisle responsible.  Misdirection to conceal what could only be described as the most damaging acts of accounting and securities fraud in the history of accounting, securities or fraud.

“Precious few assumptions are required to come to conclusions laying responsibility for the largest economic disaster in recent memory at the feet of the GSEs.”

Full article here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/origins-american-kleptocracy

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae–they sound like nice hometown folks–whaddaya mean they’re giant corporations?!?!   And WHO wrote them a blank check?  WE did?  You’ve got to be kidding!  I don’t remember writing any blank checks . . . and if I did, it’s going to bounce!

Pork Barrel spending, a consequence of factionalism, interest groups or coalations of of citizens with interests contrary to the rights of the majority, is a scourge that has been with us at least since the days of Madison, Hamilton and the Federalist papers. That is to say since founding of this country, if not before. And with my greatest respects to de Tocqueville, The Republic still stands — although how to guard against official bribery is a legitimate question. 

From the website of a group of Congressional legislators known as the Porkbusters Coalition:

The central question of whether the federal government had the constitutional authority to finance what was called “internal improvements” or whether such an expenditure required a constitutional amendment has been debated since the early nineteenth century. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe believed that the constitution must be amended to allow such spending, whereas Representative Henry Clay and Senator John C. Calhoun believed that ample authority was vested through the Constitution’s commerce clause and Congress’s power to establish post offices and post roads. Since that time, porkbarrel spending ceased to be an abstract question and became routine. Over the years, the practice became so intertwined with the official appropriations process that it was accepted as a necessary part of doing business.

creeper:  While I don’t disagree with your statement that the general public is largely irrelevant today, I wonder if you missed the fact that the last two presidents more or less bought votes from swing voter constituencies?  Dubya paid the evangelicals for their votes with his Faith Based Initiative and Obama has expanded that as well as creating the Neighborhood Project to pay off African Americans and he’s promised amnesty to get the hispanic vote.  The Dream Act is part of the payoff to the illegal hispanics whose legal relatives vote.  

The greatest scandal in the history of this country is that in an English-speaking country, voting ballots are printed in a foreign language (Spanish–not German or French or Italian) and hispanics go into the voting booths, get their Spanish ballot and punch whatever holes La Raza has instructed them to punch.  How can these people possibly know anything about the candidates if they don’t speak English?  They only know what they hear from Spanish-speaking groups and media, but they vote for our public officials. 

People need to just stop all this total nonsense about socialist takeover.  That is just deflecting attention from the true agenda of the Obama crowd.  They don’t need a revolution.  They have viable plan to give the U. S. to hispanics who will be loyal to the Obama Dems.  Just let millions of them in and grant them instant amnesty (the terms of Gutierrez’ bill now floating through the House).  Even if amnesty is never debated or voted on during Obama’s term, the hispanics can take the majority by 2018 because they will have a majority of American born anchor babies.  The longer this issue is not pushed into the public consciousness, the longer the border remains porous and the more thousands of illegals come in and have babies.  This is the threat, people, not a socialist, Hitlerian takeover.

Nice rant. First thing I say is that when you use the word “American” you are using the wrong word as such. You need to use a word that defines “American” as American youth or American college students.

What you don’t understand is that all the items you listed will essentially affect the youth of the country more than anyone else. So, your rhetorical question should look at why American college students allow all those things to happen and they don’t even say a word but rather go rally hip hip hurray to their football games.

You need to notice that in many other countries, like in France, Iran, Venezuela, etc. it is the youth that take to the streets and protest government policies. So the question must be made as to why American college students can care less. Why? Well that article about ‘affluent cycle’ that was referred in a previous post explains the answer.

Why is it that the American youth does not take their responsibility of leadership more seriously is always an interesting topic with me.

“So what’s it going to take is my question?”

Answer: Someone with enough “balls” to take on the establishment.

Who would that be, you may ask?

One woman from Alaska is poised and ready. And, though she has the liberal MSM against her, she has got more guts than all these tiddly-winks strung together and she’s got a shot-gun ridding side-saddle.

 top edhardy  swimwear http://www.lookedhardy.com

I expect the Obama people have a plan for that.  They could get a big surprise however.  I say they would vote Mexicans into every public office.  

Dec 2008
House Committee
Oversight and Government Reform

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Industry Analysts and Academics

Edward Pinto
Former Chief Credit Officier , Fannie Mae 1989

“Witnesses testified about business practices and operations at Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac that eventually led to their takeover by the federal
government. They focused on risk management practices and warnings to key
company executives about the hazards of the subprime mortgage markets and
over extension of credit to home buyers. They also talked about the housing
industry and its role in the current financial crisi”

This is from that hearing I watched today (from transcript)

there are a total of 25 million subprime and Alt-A loans outstanding in the United States

an unpaid principal balance of $4.5 trillion.

These 25 million default- prone loans constitute 44 percent of all mortgage loans by count in the United States

This is the largest percentage that has ever happened in our history

they are currently defaulting at unprecedented rates

They loosened credit standards for mortgages, which encouraged and extended the housing bubble

Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac trapped millions of people into loans they knew were unsustainable. And they destroyed the equity savings of tens of millions of homeowners spread throughout every congressional district in the United States.

permitted to operate at a 75-to-1 leverage ratio that makes Lehman Brothers look like they were operating conservatively

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may deny it, there could be no doubt that they now own or guarantee $1.6 trillion in subprime, Alt-A and other default-prone loans and securities

They were responsible for 34 percent of all the subprime loans made in the United States

59 percent of all the Alt-A loans made in the United States

These 10.5 million non-prime loans are experiencing a default rate that’s eight times the level of their 20 million traditional quality loans

These 10.5 million loans include 5.7 million subprime, 3.3 million Alt-A, and 1.5 million loans with other high-risk characteristics

This 10.5 million total does not include FHA’s obligations, which add another 3 million to the total and bring it to 13.5 million out of the 25 million subprime and other default-prone loans. That’s more than half

I estimate that 1 million of the GSEs’ Alt-A loans had no down payment.

If the default rates I predict actually occur, U.S. taxpayers will have to stand behind hundreds of billions of dollars of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac losses

in the years 2005 to 2007, they bought over $1 trillion of these junk loans that are still on their books. Their purchases were a major factor in the development of the housing bubble and in the huge number of defaulted mortgages, which are now causing massive declines in house prices

In late 2004, Richard Syron and Frank Raines both went to the meetings of the originator community and made clear that they were going to wrest back the subprime and Alt-A mortgage market from Wall Street.

Syron said, “Our success in the future depends on our ability to serve emerging markets, and they’ve become the surging markets.”

Raines also said, “We have to push products and opportunities to people who have lesser credit quality.”

And this stimulated an orgy of junk mortgage development. Fannie and Freddie used their automated underwriting systems to divert subprime and Alt-A loans from private-label securitizers, driving up the value of these loans and making mortgage brokers even more eager to find borrowers, regardless of their credit standing.

Why did Fannie and Freddie do this? First, they were trying to meet HUD’s affordable housing goals, which by 2005 required 55 percent of all their loans that they purchased be affordable housing loans, including 28 percent to low-income and very low-income borrowers. Second, after their accounting scandals of 2003-2004, they were afraid of new and stricter regulation. By ramping up their affordable housing lending — that trillion dollars I mentioned earlier — they showed their supporters in Congress that they could be a major source, on a continuing basis, of affordable housing financing.