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Nancy Pelosi: From the Kitchen to the Congress

Commonwealth Club
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RoyalWe Avatar
RoyalWe
Posts: 47
Posted: 04.24.09, 06:44 AM
What an absolute and epic joke - I don't suppose Ms Speaker is calling for an investigation in the joint role she and Barney Frank played in blocking increased regulation of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac in both 2003 and 2005?

Given that those two are at the epicenter of the collapse, naturally it wouldn't make any sense for the American people to get a clearer view of why they weren't regulated more thoroughly? We know why. Because Congressional Democratic leadership went to the mattresses to protect their donor pool.

Wall Street bears plenty of blame in this mess - but no more than Congress. And no one in Congress bears more blame than those who prevented efforts by the usually idiotic Bush admin to tighten regulation of the two housing behemoths (yes - the Bush admin proposed dramatically tightened regulation of Fannie and Freddie in 2003 but got blocked with the lead help of Barney Frank and other Congressional Dems). Any so called "investigation" at his pt is a purely populist political game.
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lyonsban Avatar
lyonsban
Posts: 3
Posted: 04.24.09, 09:07 AM
I agree with you RoyalWe on all points except blocking an unbiased analysis of the problem.

I suspect the Bush administration bears some responsibility for opening the floodgates on the money supply. I suspect wall street played fast and loose with the AAA valuing of risky securities, knowing full well the government has a long history of both supporting banks (hence the cash/cash equivalent/AAA security percentage requirement) and supporting homeownership (hence fannie and freddie). I know the Democrats bear much responsibility for protecting one of their most lucrative donors from oversight, but that doesn't mean Republicans had voters best interests at heart either. I'm not interested in partisan politics. If I had to choose I'd ask Ron Paul, or better yet Huckabee to oversee the investigation. An unloved politician just might get an unbiased report.

I think most of the world would like an economic report on exactly where things failed and what processes broke to allow the failure. No new regulations or laws, just where the spirit and letter of current law was bypassed and why. Recessions happen, no capitalist society can avoid them, no capitalist society should avoid creative destruction, however something stinks about this recession and the smell has 3/4 of people wondering where it's coming from.
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JacobvanLennep Avatar
JacobvanLennep
Posts: 3
Posted: 04.25.09, 05:21 AM
Besides of the well known fact, that no nation how wealthy or how big ever can afford a war in today's world economy, it seems to be evident that a national economy could do without those bond and credit rating agencies. They are corrupted, mismanaged and don't make any sense at all. If someone wants to know whether he or she should lend money to a corporation, he should find out by himself whether it's safe or not. If you cannot do that, get a savings bank book. That's what you hear as an advice when you ask finance experts in Europe, when you ask them what to do with your surplus money. And in Europe there are no such gangs as Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae or similar companies with Disneylike names.
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TreeLuvBurdpu Avatar
TreeLuvBurdpu
Posts: 20
Posted: 04.25.09, 08:58 PM
She says 75% of Americans want an investigation into Wall Street's role. Isn't that already assigning blame before the investigation? Kind of like, "We want an investigation to found out how it was all Wall Street's fault." I remember her saying, "the party is over on Wall Street". Then she gave them a trillion dollars. She said, "This was all caused by greed on Wall Street". Did someone forget to notify Speaker Polosi that there were greedy people on Wall Street? Was she legislating under the assumption that Wall Street was populated by altruists working for the greater good of mankind and the Earth to the detriment of themselves? If there is an investigation it should be into the root cause, not just Wall Street's role. And by the way, Speaker Polosi, now is not the time to start kicking the Wall Street dog while it is in a world of hurt and now that you have just invested all our tax money in it.
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