Did Condi get her hands on this too?
By John Amato Tuesday Dec 02, 2008 9:01amWhy doesn't this surprise me?
The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.
Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.
The Bush administration actually got a warning about the impending economic doom. Just like old times.
RICE: I remember very well that the president was aware that there were issues inside the United States. He talked to people about this. But I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about.
BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
Now, the...
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
Let's see Bill O'Reilly follow up on this story the way he did with Barney Frank. NOT...
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And did she dig her nails in really really deep?
I don't think anyone knew the economy would fail the way it has.
I like to see another concern troll repug come out and say about the unfair treatment of George W Bush.
How many Mortgage Brokers bought Credit Default Swaps on the Mortgages they sold to Banks that were interest only; mortgages for people they knew were going to default when the terms reset?
Brokers, Appraisers, Bankers, anyone along the pipeline that knew what they were doing would blow up and bet the other way. Racketeering 101, that is what I want to know.
The essential element of the financial crisis, which bears repeating over and over, though mortgage defaults are underneath the situation, is that Credit Default Swaps have been the financial folly which has incinerated the investment banks. And will continue to do so.
Except we are bailing them out, here is my last comment.
We are trying to bail them out, but it is not working.
The Financial Modernization Bill of 1999 which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, allowed Investment Banks, Commercial Banks and Insurance Companies to merge.
It allowed Banks to sell mortgages to each other and ultimately removed the concern of a mortgage originator that the mortgage could even be repaid.
Easy credit meant Brokers and Appraisers who went along could pump up prices and thereby increase their fees. Lax lending standards meant people at all levels got into houses they would not be able to afford.
As long as property values went up this might not be a problem since a default could be avoided by refinancing or selling the property. Thereby increasing the Brokers and Appraisers fees, some more.
These mortgages were bundled together as securities and sold on the market. Rating agencies rated them over optimistically. Still, there were problematic mortgages involved so it would be much easier if there were some sort of guarantee.
Enter the invention of the Credit Default Swap, which is like insurance, except because they don't call it insurance it is not regulated. You can sell this 'don't call it insurance, insurance' to anyone, they do not even need to own the security.
More professional fees.
It is as if I could go into a Hospital intensive care unit, find the names of the gravest of the ill and proceed to buy life insurance on them. That would be illegal. For good reason. Credit Default Swaps would have been illegal or regulated as insurance for most of the twentieth century until The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 or CFMA.
The Credit Default Swap market, called the Shadow Banking System by some, has since grown into the largest market in the world.
Then the wheels came off the ponzi scheme bus. Property values stalled and then started to fall.
Defaults piled up. Credit Default Swap contracts that no one thought they would need to pay were triggered.
The Investment Banks were incinerated one after another. AIG was incinerated. Citigroup, there are more on the horizon. There will be, it is estimated, 3 million foreclosures in the next three years.
Whoever has bought CDS on those will keep up their premiums, I will wager. That is not to even talk about Corporate bonds or other securities all of which can have CDS on them.
Over $50 Trillion. More than enough to incinerate the economies of the entire world, except for China which never got into the racket.
At upwards of fifty to one of the underlying security, the fallout will be with us for a very long time.
It ultimately will dwarf even the otherwise gargantuan cost of the Iraq 'war'.
We are trying to bail them out, but it is not working. It will not work until we have destroyed the dollar and ourselves in the process.
We have been nuked with a financial weapon of mass destruction.
We just don't know it yet.
Alice X,
Nice. You got all of the crime and the criminal protagonists in one 500 word swat. Amazing!
What is stunning is how much of the instrumentation used in the bust outs were known to be toxic paper and never remediated or outlaws. Stuff like, be still my heart, remember the Neutron Mortgage, the negative amortization note? - from the S&L meltdown era were never taken out of the portfolio. What Wall Street did was learn from the S&L bust outs and figured out how to work the scam on a global basis - and bet against the inevitable losers.
There were lots of regulators and some old school economists (ones that believe gravity doesn't go away because you're excited) during the S&L meltdown that told the truth before during and after the horrors transpired and told it through the trade press of the time. This time around? Silence. No one said this is madness.
By the late 1990s, real estate markets were getting overheated again and Wall Street was putting the finishing touches on the instrumentation that would allow them to foist a bust out on the world's banks, leveraging all the housing stock in America.
All the exotic mortgage instrumentation building during the 80s, 90s and naughts has to go.
Credit default swaps, gone or booked transparently and regulated by the SEC.
If Obama wants to do one thing to prove to the finance houses and reserve banks of Europe that he is reigning in the excesses of Wall Street, he will make it impossible once more for a home to be inducted as a chip in a global casino.
Instead of serving her country, Condi destroyed her entire reputation to be a submissive disciple of her pimp, Dubya....and she surely knew better.
That's boosh?
http://www.ultimatepartyshop.com/shopimages/p...
chuckles the clown knew and warned everybody about it ! no body listens to a clown! say that reminds me of a sighn i used to see in resturants in the 30s , it said please dont hesitate to ask us for credit as we have the nicest way of refuseing it! hill 180
"Low interest home loans determined to attack inside the U.S."
speaker of the house.
i have no doubt that "impeachment is off the table" caused a lot of this. pelosi has been negligent in her duties to prosecute bush for his war crimes and domestic misdemeanors over the stuff that happened on HER term as speaker. to willingly ignore the signs that economy is beginning to crater so that it favored the banks (that were about to fail themselves) against the american people is criminal.
it is very hard for me to go about blaming just republicans for this mess we are in. not only because i know that there are some very decent and rational republicans in the party (olympia snow, susan collins, formerly lincoln chaffee) that probably aren't for any of what has happened over the last 2 years, but because there are a lot of democratic enablers that did not hold the administration's feet to the fire to keep them honest. its a case of who do you find more responsible- the administration for doing it or the congress for letting them do it without real punishment?
there were/are people that knew this financial/economic crisis could happen. you look at many of the players from mortgage brokers to investment instrument/bond rating agencies....they knew.they didn't
care. when certain bankers and insurance people spoke up no one listened. why? they didn't want to hear it. Soon as one financial firm was smiling and leading the way by making easy money everyone got in the game. the envy of Lehman Bros. permeated wall street. the rating agencies knew there were mortgages that were dicey rolled into other investments. the fees were about 600k and they were doing(S&P/rating) 20-30 a month.
personally, I believe there were plenty of people who knew this could and maybe would happen. there were investors that "bet" the other way and made billions. this was a possible outcome from a golden bubble that financial engineers designed. the home foreclosures is only a simplistic linguistic strategy. the real culprit is credit default swaps/BETTING.
the bottom line to me is that Wall Street/(R) looked at this, this way: every person for themselves,we don't care about the reprecussions,this is "real" capitalism,NO rules the way it should be,Darwinian. These people don't care if they haven't been harmed/made plenty of money.Wall Street and BUSH knew this was very possible. they didn't care BUBBLES create opportunity at the expense of others. this is Greed and Envy at it's finest moment.
..is one, big Ponzi scheme. There was no need for a "warning" - the Bushists and all their friends in Congress and elsewhere in corporate America and the banking and financial world were in on the scheme.
They knew exactly what they were doing - creating the largest "trickle-up" of wealth the world has seen. And, theyr've managed to arrange the implosion (just like 9/11) and divvy up all the taxpayer bailout money just before they're ready to leave town.
Disgusting, despicable, and fuckin' criminal. Time for some perp walks!
Is is physically impossible to resist these guys???
Do they threaten your family??
Bush and Bristol Palin:
http://www.enlighted.com/media/fuzzy/pdcoat/p...
How many people are aware that Obama voted to confirm the Chimpster's nominee, Condoleeza Rice, as secretary of state back in early 2005?
...it was one of Obama's very first votes as a senator from Illinois!
Obviously, a lot of people back then, including Obama, did not realize that Rice was just a weak and passive Neocon syncophant who would do very little good for the world. Anybody can be a genius in hindsight. So what's the point of bringing this up?
She was (4 yrs) national security advisor for Chimpster and she was obviously derelict in her duty leading up to, during, and after 9/11 (see above)
as national security advisor she helped get us into war with Iraq under false pretenses.
Obama did not use hindsight and thus helped promote her to secretary of state.
and if he'd voted against Condi, you'd just bitch about something else. troll.
Of the thousands of traitorous actions by the GW admin. you are more concerned with a vote by the Pres-elect that wouldn't have changed anything in any case. Do you really think there was any chance that Boosh would have nominated someone competent?
If she killed her parents, she would seek sympathy because she is an orphan. calling her a **** is an insult to the word ****.
this sack of sh*t has been a total disgrace. WHY even have a secretary of state if they perform as miserably as her?
she is part of the loop. she needs to be held accountable with all the rest of the criminal family when this comes to trial.
I love how Condi is the interviewee and is badgering the interviewer. Despite all the obvious nonsense that went on back then, and the farce that was the 9/11 commission (+report) it doesn't look like we'll know the truth any time soon.
This site, which is apparently affiliated with the Obama site is putting together 10 ideas from people's submissions and votes to be presented to Obama on Inauguration Day. However, despite having over 600 votes (which would place it 2nd currently out of 1647 submitted ideas) the idea of reopening the official investigation into what happened on 9/11 was removed (censored?) as an idea.
Some people think it sounds like more of the same, and who could blame them?
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