Financial crisis...How we got here...yes we were warned

I’ve been purging through 25 years of paperwork. I just came across a note I made while listening to a radio program about an article in Mother Jones from 2000.

The title is “HOME CHEAT HOME”.

First the notes I made: Cuomo, HUD...Mortgage bankers lobby....changes in 1994 to lending voted in by the democrats....realtor and lender often the same....low income limit mortgage loan $220,000.00......6 to 8 billion per year on defaults......FBI Investigating.......

And yesterday we heard the ‘FBI is investigating”...again???

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2000/07/outfrontja00.html

July/August 2000 Issue Mother Jones

[snip]Evans is among tens of thousands of low-income homeowners victimized by a scam called “flipping” that is being repeated every day in inner-city neighborhoods from Syracuse to Los Angeles. To resurrect blighted urban areas, the government sells abandoned houses to real estate investors for renovation. But some speculators simply slap on cosmetic repairs and “flip” the properties, reselling them for many times their true value. Because the FHA co-signs the loans, it gets stuck with the bill when homeowners can’t pay the inflated mortgages. Last year the agency spent $6.5 billion to bail out 78,890 home loans that went bad-up 30 percent in three years. The foreclosed homes are seized, boarded up, and put back on the market, and the cycle starts all over again.

“We have found flipping scams in every city we’ve investigated,” says an official with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which recently indicted 41 Realtors, lenders, and appraisers in California. “What has me shaking is that we have these kinds of numbers on defaults and we are in a bull market.”

Federal investigators call flipping more lucrative than bank robbery ­ but it was mortgage bankers who lobbied to make the scheme possible. Historically, the FHA assigned independent appraisers to inspect houses and set a fair value. But lenders wanted to select their own appraisers. They claimed it would streamline the process. But it would also make it easier to find someone who would ignore shoddy repairs and approve jacked-up prices.

The industry certainly had plenty of clout on Capitol Hill. From 1991 to 1994, lenders handed out $2.3 million in campaign contributions, and the investment paid off. At a meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association in 1993, the FHA unveiled a “lender select” policy allowing bankers to choose appraisers. The news was greeted by a standing ovation.

Because the FHA supports low-income home buyers with shaky credit, defaults on agency loans have always been above the industry average. But since lenders have been allowed to handpick their own appraisers, investigators say, foreclosures have skyrocketed.”

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Here is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have with the Democrats in Congress, brought down Wall Street.

Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregulaties in Fannie Mae’s accounting activities.

Raines left with a “golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear.
http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ .
The Government noted, “The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public.

Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard “was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a “stable pattern of earnings” at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, “Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,”

Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004.

Howard’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!

Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO.
A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you’ll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson’s 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million.”

Johnson’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor

TIM HOWARD? Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama

JIM JOHNSON? Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama’s Vice Presidential Search Committee

IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS - HIS ADVISORS HAVE THE EXPERTISE - THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Would you trust the men who tore Wall Street down to build the New Wall Street?

9 posted on Wed Oct 1 11:28:12 2008 by COUNTrecount

The bird feeder - build it and they will come

The analogy is absolutely right on . . . Maxine tells it like it is!!!! I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. What a beauty of a bird feeder it is, as I filled it lovingly with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table ... everywhere! Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be.... quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal. Now let's see. Our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, and free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English. Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to 'press one' to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than 'Old Glory' are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties. Just my opinion, but maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder. If you agree, pass it on; if not, continue cleaning up the poop.

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The "coming to a town near you" Article of the day!

http://www.theindependent.com/news/x1213267511/Striking-and-misinformation-at-Swift-night-fight-breaks-out

Striking and misinformation at Swift, reports of night fight

A cyber friend sent this article with a comment:

"The Swift plant is a microcosm of the coming America, balkanization and all."

This one tells it all. There's a little culture war going on at the Swift meat packing plant in Grand Island, USA. The newly imported Somali Muslims have DEMANDED and gotten special hours, privilege to practice their religion and culture in the workplace. The rest of the workers lose hours, etc. to please these new refugees and this makes them unhappy. And WHO is the MOST unhappy among them?

ILLEGAL HISPANIC ALIENS!

You have to admit one thing. At least they will stand and fight for what they want, whether they deserve it or not. Most of us won't fight for what is ours.
We could learn a lesson from them.

The entire article is a HOOT! It boggles the mind. And the worst of it, is the Swift Company, knowingly hiring illegal workers. Buy from companies that don't exploit workers and leave US Citizens jobless!

Here are the highlights.

GRAND ISLAND —Day four of strikes at the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Grand Island opened with a majority of A-shift workers (6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) walking off the job Thursday in a continued counterprotest -- and ended with police called to a reported riot in the Swift cafeteria.

Reports Thursday night from workers at the scene indicated that a fight broke out between about 20 to 30 Somalian and Hispanic workers, but that the scuffle was under control in less than half an hour. A police team was called to Swift about 9 p.m. and entered the building. Shortly after, a group of Somalian workers were seen exiting Swift from north side doors and heading toward the parking lots.

Veronica Yebra said the numbers were down because most protesting A-shift workers were being blocked from leaving the plant building after clocking in.

"They are in the cafeteria," Yebra said. "The green hats (management) and supervisors are blocking the doors."

B-shift protester Jose Amya said he and fellow strikers on Wednesday were threatened by Swift management.

"They told the illegal immigrants they don't have the right to express their opinion," Amya said. "A superintendent told people who don't have documents that they don't have a right to express their opinion or they will be fired."

Amya said he knows there are undocumented workers at the plant and so do company officials. Swift was raided on Dec. 12, 2006, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who arrested 252 Swift workers. Thirty-three were charged with using false documents to get a job at Swift.

Amya said striking B-shift workers Wednesday were also told that 300 scabs -- workers willing to cross a picket line -- from Texas and Florida would be brought in if the workers didn't return to their lines.

"They told us everybody outside the building will be fired," Yebra said from outside the plant Thursday morning.

Human resources spokeswoman Mary Chmelka approached the Swift fence and spoke to B-shift protesters gathered outside the plant on Thursday.

"I suggest you get a representative from every culture," she said, issuing an invitation to a 2 p.m. Thursday sit-down meeting.

Hoppes said no such meeting occurred because counterprotesters refused to meet.

But the counterprotesters did have some demands.

Donato Medina held a hand-written list in Spanish.

It included pay for days on strike, a raise, having equal break times, equal consideration for promotions (longer-term Hispanics allege being bypassed by Somalian workers), having an on-site Health Department representative to tend to workplace injuries, cleaning bathrooms strewn with water and paper, acquiring more parking so shift workers can be on time and being treated with respect as a human being instead of being treated like a machine.

Sudanese protester Gatluak Wuol from the B shift wanted to distinguish his culture as being different from the Muslims from Somalia.

"We have a different religion. I'm Christian," Wuol said. "We support this (the counterprotest) because we need equal rights."

"We respect where they come from -- I'm from someplace else and have a different religion," Hispanic protester Juan Guebara said. "We want equal opportunity to everything. Everybody needs to be together."

"I'm not upset with the Somalians," Yebra said. "It's the company -- the decision. They gave in so easy. We have Hispanics and Vietnamese and Laotians. It affects all of us, and we want the same opportunity for everyone."

"I don't know what happened," Hoppes said. "I think we have problems between races.”

___________________________

WHAT happened is idiots like this are in charge! Cultures can't be forced into changing to suit the bottom line of companies like Swift! It's not about RACE...it's about common sense and history!

Are you one of the millions concerned about FANNIEMAE & FREDDIEMAC?

According to this, BARRACK OBAMA got $126,349 in contributions from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. If this isn't bad enough Fannie Mae gave millions to LaRaza, Maldef, Lulac, The Rainbow Coalition...to name a few. AND YOU AND I financed million dollar bonus's for the people (Raines, Gorelik) that ran these rip offs and now GET TO BAIL THEM ALL OUT!!!!

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html

Here’s an article that talks about the oversight that the Bush Administration proposed in 2003.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

...including a quote near the bottom by Democrat Rep. Barney Frank not too long ago...

‘’These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’’ said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ‘’The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.’’

Elitist Geographic Bigotry at it's finest!

Headline: Intolerance thrives in Palin's Pacific Northwest
by Catherine McNicol Stock


The headline should read "Intolerance thrives AGAINST Palin's Pacific Northwest."

"Sarah Palin's political views - ardently pro-gun, pro-censorship, antichoice and antigay - make John McCain's conservative credentials pale in comparison. What few observers have said, however, is these beliefs are not just extreme - they are radical, and even bear a comparison with some of the most notorious "rural radicals" of our time....
But we should never forget that in the late 20th century, ultra-Christian, antistatist and white-supremacist groups flourished in the states of the Pacific Northwest - called by many the "Great White Northwest" - the very region that Sarah Palin and her family call home. "

Rural radicals? Rednecks, hicks, white trash? Oh, you betcha, we're a scary bunch, Ms. McNicol Stock! Unlike those 'civilized' folks that inhabit your beloved degenerate cities.

Then WHY are the crime rates so much lower for rural, Northwestern locations??

If BS is a science, Ms. Stock is an Einstien! The Stats are consistent: Crime is higher in Urban areas than rural. This author, like most of the media, has NO basis except for her own ignorant prejudices for her silly conclusions.

The average annual 1993-98 violent crime rate in urban areas was about 74 percent higher than the rural rate and 37 percent higher than the suburban rate. Urban males experienced violent victimizations at rates 64 percent higher than the average combined suburban and rural rate and 47 percent higher than urban females. Although most violent crimes in urban (60 percent), suburban (68 percent), and rural (70 percent) areas were committed without a weapon, firearm usage in the commission of a violent crime was higher in urban areas when compared to suburban or rural areas (12 percent urban versus 9 percent suburban and 8 percent rural).

http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=182031

Mosher et al., using 1990 Uniform Crime Report data, also found that homicide rates were lowest in cities with populations under 2,500

Murder rates are highest in cities with populations greater than 250,000 and decline for each decreasing city-size category, to a low of 3.0 per 100,000 for cities under 10,000. A similar pattern is seen for robbery, where arrest rates are over six times higher in the largest, as opposed to the smallest, cities.

Bachman analyzed data from the National Crime Victimization Survey for the years 1973 to 1990, and found generally that individuals living in central cities had the highest rates of criminal victimization for all types of crime, while those living in nonmetropolitan (rural) areas had the lowest rates. More specifically, on average, individuals residing in central areas experienced nearly twice as many crimes of violence as those living in nonmetropolitan areas.....

http://law.jrank.org/pages/1990/Rural-Crime-Urban-rural-crime-differences.html

In general, In California from 1987 to 1996:
Urban areas comprised about 97 percent of the population and reported about 98 percent of the crime.
Rural areas comprised about 3 percent of the population and reported about 2 percent of the crime.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:3vwlCgMuH2AJ:ag.ca.gov/cjsc/publications/misc/urbrurt.pdf+crime+rates+urban+vs+rural&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&client=firefox-a

PALIN!!! The Artic Fox!

Obama cares about women?? LOL!

Obama’s female staffers shortchanged
The Boston Herald

Obama’s commitment to federally mandated pay equity stretches from the Rockies to Wall Street and beyond. And yet it seems to have eluded his U.S. Senate office. Compensation figures for his legislative staff reveal that the Illinois senator pays women just 83 cents for every dollar his men make.

A watchdog group called LegiStorm posts on the Internet the salaries for Capitol Hill staffers.

Based on these calculations, Obama’s 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397.

Obama’s 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average.

John Bolton speaks on Sarah Palin "Impressive!"

Listen to Ambassador John Bolton as he joins Lars at the RNC to talk about Sarah Palin.

Tuesday, Sep 02, 2008

http://www.larslarson.com/pg/jsp/charts/streamingAudioMaster.jsp?dispid=362&size=10&headerDe

John Bolton has met with Palin. He has every confidence in her.

Bolton said [paraphrasing]...they talked about missle defense, etc. and she was very knowledgeable and she is a ‘quick study’. He was very impressed.

Also at the Lars Larson website is a discussion he had with Gov. Palin in July about Energy and Alaska. Worth the listen!

Two quotes:

"Alaskans want to see Anwar developed"

"What we [Alaska] need if for congress to unlock our lands!"

javascript:playArchive('13367');

Katie! It's NOT the United States of D.C.!

What a bunch of arrogant, ignorant jerks! Yes, the media. I’m stuck with CBS’s Katie Couric to cover the Republican National Convention and Sarah Palin.

She described Palin, after a profile spot on the independence of the people of Alaska, as being part of the ‘extreme fringe’. It wasn’t an act. Katie really is that stupid. And dangerous. Witness the elitist, power broker mindset and it’s nothing new. Why don’t you just say it Katie, the look of your disgust for anything you can’t understand is apparent.
“ Knuckle draggers, rednecks, White trash”....that’s what she wanted to say.

Katie thinks she’s safe merely insulting the state of Alaska, but what she’s too narrow minded to see is that those same kind exist in every state. She insulted us all. The millions upon millions of us that Katie describes as the ‘extreme fringe’ have watched her kind through out the history of this nation as we settled and built it and fought for it so idiots like her could spout their uninformed opinions. Surprise! I hate to be the one to tell you, Katie, it wasn’t illegal aliens from Mexico! It was people just like Alaskans. People who love the land, love their kids and value education and independence above most things except God and Country. They don’t need her or her socialist ideas and that offends her.

She’s the kind that cleaned Native Americans from their homes because, after all, they were mere savages. “The fringe...” All Katie shows is how little she knows of what the United States of America is supposed to be or what its people are like.

Craig Ferguson, unfortunately on CBS, said it best describing what the United States of AMERICA meant to him becoming a new US Citizen. This isn’t the exact quote, but it’s close.......

America is the expression of people who just want to be left alone.

Katie reminds me of an encounter with a New Jersey banker, likely a Biden supporter, a few years ago. His daughter was marrying a relative of mine and they flew out to Oregon for the ceremony. After the libations, he took my hand, explained how they expected to find dirt roads, kerosene lamps, no means of transportation and people who couldn’t form a sentence. He said, “We’re so delighted! You’re just like us!”

I took my hand back, smiled and did not say, ‘Oh, my, I hope not!”

Katie just doesn’t get it.

(Stole it! Thanks, Daffynition)