“I hope nobody thinks that Congress has done all, or even a large fraction, of what needs to be done,” columnist Paul Krugman wrote about the Fannie and Freddie bailout bill that President Bush signed. “This bill is the latest in a series of temporary fixes to the financial system — attempts to hold the thing together with bungee cords and masking tape — that have, at least so far, succeeded in staving off complete collapse. But those fixes have done nothing to resolve the system’s underlying flaws. In fact, they set the stage for even bigger future disasters — unless they’re followed up with fundamental reforms.”
A main, underlying problem, Krugman said, is that traditional banks have been pushed aside by unregulated financial players. He said that “financial regulation needs to be extended to cover a much wider range of institutions. Basically, the financial framework created in the 1930s, which brought generations of relative stability, needs to be updated to 21st-century conditions.”
75 Comments
Good luck on that one. The financial institutions are fighting it tooth and nail, and congress is listening to them. With elections costing so much, the average congressperson wants money, and you and I don’t have it; the financial institutions do. Our congress: bought and paid for by business . . . again.
Very true JMWalker. Has anyone perused through the campaign finance reports filed last Monday with the KSOS? It’s interesting to see where the incumbent House members and Senators get their money, especially the repubes. It’s mostly big business or their PACS.
And why the hell do campaigns and elections cost so much when they don’t need to?
Get rid of the Fed, eliminate the IRS, get back to Constitutionality and let our Congress print…no, sorry…COIN our money.
This will NEVER be fixed unless and until we get back to where we are supposed to be. But this country is so dumbed down now…
Krugman is right. Unregulated free markets mean the same thing now as they did in the 1920’s which led to depression: huge monopolies, collusion and corruption, and massive debt and foreclosures.
If you want to see a good example of the unregulated free market, look at the slum cities in places like Haiti and Columbia.
Whatever we are doing today is leading to a depression right now.
If the Sherman Anti-Trust Act had been enforced and these companies were broken up into smaller, regional companies then the damage wouldn’t be so bad and the taxpayers wouldn’t have to spend so much to bail them out. The nonsense that some companies are just too big to let fail only supports the notions that big corporations that dominate so much of the market, which have so much influence on the national economy, should be regulated.
they also need a more fair way of helping poor people obtain financing that doesn’t penalize them so harshly. They’re trying. Stop stepping on their fingers as they grasp the cliff.
“The Current Problem
The problem both agencies face is that they hold a very small amount of capital compared to the size of the assets on their books. The two GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) combined have around $95 billion in capital but they own or guarantee over $5 trillion in mortgages creating a leverage ratio of approximately 60 to 1. (By comparison, Bear Stearns had a leverage ratio of about 35 to 1.) The problem with being heavily leveraged is that even a small drop in asset prices can wipe out the equity. For example, if you buy an apartment for $100,000 by putting down $5,000 and borrowing $95,000 from the bank, you are leveraged 19 to 1. Let’s say you sell the apartment two months later because your job transfers you to a new office. Unfortunately, the price of the apartment has now dropped 10%, so you pay the bank the $90,000 you receive for the apartment plus $5,000 out of pocket and you walk away with no money. It is a 200% loss as you not only lost your original $5,000 equity but you also had to come up with an additional $5,000 to repay the mortgage. If you didn’t have an extra $5,000 to pay off the bank, you would be in trouble. This is the situation that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac find themselves in; the decline in the value of their portfolios may cause them to run out of equity, which is also known as being insolvent.
Therefore, as mortgage delinquencies rise and, more importantly, home prices continue to fall, the question becomes do the agencies have enough capital to support their investment portfolio. The equity market began to doubt their solvency, which led to severe drops in their stock prices. The regulators stepped in because the fears about solvency, whether true or not, could become self-fulfilling since the market value of the agencies’ stock are a key component of their capital. If the stock goes down far enough, the agencies could become undercapitalized regardless of the level of delinquencies and losses in their portfolios. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not survive, consequences could be severe. It would remove one of the remaining sources of mortgage financing in a very tight credit market, which in turn would reduce the demand for housing, causing further deterioration of the housing market. Additionally, since agency bonds are widely held, because they are thought to be safe (especially by foreign central banks), a default in the agencies would lead to widespread panic among bond holders.
The Proposed Solution
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that he will seek approval from Congress for the Treasury to potentially buy equity in the companies and to increase the existing Treasury line of credit to ensure they have enough capital to continue purchasing mortgages. This plan, or hope, is that they won’t have to do it, but that by showing the committment, private sources will be encouraged.
This proposal announced by Paulson demonstrates that the U.S. Government is willing to do whatever is necessary to support the GSEs and prevent a financial disaster without actually taking over the companies. However, by offering access to credit through the Fed and the Treasury it appears the U.S. Government’s implicit guarantee on the GSEs debt is becoming more explicit.
In the meantime, the market needs confidence restored and the Fed’s Board of Governors has temporarily voted to open up its emergency discount window to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, thereby providing the agencies with a short-term option for financing.”
https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/j2ee/www/targetedCopy/AdvisorPages/teams/commentaries/team_commentary_07-28-08-095434.jsp?SID=100&AN=oppbrief_07/28/08&HB=HBBEXNTUXAAAGETM&VN=351189932
pmom
Actually, the government should NOT be pushing everyone into home ownership.
A big part of this problem was caused by Congress pushing for easier access to home loans.
“Sub prime” loans and “Alt-A” loans are the loans which are seeing the highest default rates.
Those of you who speak so fondly of the “good old days” of mortgage financing need to think this through.
It used to be that most families bought a house and STAYED in that house for a very long time. Maybe even long enough (30 years) to pay off the mortgage.
Refinancing used to be a rare event. Modern financing and refinancing has made it possible for homeowners to greatly reduce their mortgage costs, when interest rates are low.
Society is far more mobile now, with many people moving frequently over their working lives.
People are also far more likely, today, to retire in a different place from where they have lived most of their working lives.
It is difficult, in modern society, to see how the old system could be brought back to life.
It is not likely that we will return to the days when your mortgage lender knew you by name, lived in the same town as you, your entire life, and held your loan for 30 years.
The MARKET changed because the public DEMANDED these changes.
Yes, the regulatory world has been a bit slow to respond, but we need to talk about regulating the CURRENT marketplace.
We are not going back to the way things used to be.
“It’s interesting to see where the incumbent House members and Senators get their money, especially the repubes. It’s mostly big business or their PACS.”
——
Look no further than our public schools to see the influence of business! Now our educational leaders are bowing to that master in their rush to train aircraft workers. They would like $350 million MORE of OUR money to spend to dumb down the education of our children.
Linda
“Dumb down”??
Actually, most business leaders complain about how little our high school graduates know about life in the workplace.
Very few of our local high school graduates know how to make change, how to convert from metric to english or how to read techincal writing.
You seem intent on making sure our graduates are educated idiots. Should we teach them Plato and Aristotle and let them live on Welfare and Food Stamps?
“The MARKET changed because the public DEMANDED these changes.”
Yes, but they didn’t demand that markets be completely unregulated so that the predictible end result would be just what were seeing now.
Big bailouts are a kind of gov’t intervention after the fact. That’s the problem–either you can have regulation to prevent the bad loans we’ve seen or you can have gov’t intervention to save the economy.
You can’t have what the CONs want–which is nothing.
Yep, Franklin! Exactly what I hope for — educated idiots.
Are you well educated?
Linda,
2 points :-b
And Franklin I think business leaders should have the most say in how public education is accomplished! It’s very obvious right here in USD259 how great a job their influence accomplishes. /sarcasm
When did you sell your soul?
As part of the Housing Act:
“Instead, the measure would raise the legal debt limit to $10.6 trillion — an increase of $800 billion — giving Paulson a large cushion should aid to the firms become necessary. As of yesterday, the national debt stood at $9.5 trillion.”
With the flick of a bic, the democratically led congress upped the national debt almost a trillion dollars over night.
And you guys cried about Bush?
Liberals don’t care about the national deficit, anymore than republicans.
Also included:
“The law grants $4 billion to states to buy up and rehabilitate foreclosed properties.”
And who owns those foreclosed properties? Heh libs?
Rich bankers and developers thats who.
Democrats are helping BIG BUSINESS but not the poor.
The real estate and the mortgage industry have always given very heavily to Democrats and Republicans alike.
Many very powerful Democrats have worked for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Countrywide and other lenders.
Under Bush, the National Debt went from 5 Trillion to 9.5 Trillion.
Almost double.
Under Clinton-Gore, the National Debt fell as a percentage of GDP for the first time since Carter (all-time post-war low) and fell in real terms when compared to inflation.
The two billion a week we spend in Iraq sure isn’t helping . . .
Sorry linda, I still have to disagree with you on this matter. New technologies are not for dummies. The truth is that not all of our students are going to be college bound for one reason or another.
This does not mean they are stupid or we should have lower expectations for them. There are different expectations for those entering the new technologies workplace. Aerospace industries have always been a part of Wichita’s economuy and these indutries are doing fairly well in the bush-trashed economy.
Why do you have so much animosity towards building another facet to the education system? We have to do what is best for our children and grandchildren, make them productive citizens in the 21st century society and economy.
Capn
The policy of the American government was to encourage the lending of money to nearly everyone who applied.
Regulators and the courts were punishing businesses who declined to finances risky loans.
“they also need a more fair way of helping poor people obtain financing that doesn’t penalize them so harshly”
Let me get this straight, my wife and I both work including more than one job each in order to get ahead, provide for our children, and maintain a nice home.
But because someone is POOR, they deserve special treatment under the law? They buy a house they cannot afford – and they get a break? I work hard to qualify for a good loan, but you want to make it “easier” for those who are poor? That’s crap.
You can’t afford to pay: You can’t afford to own.
Besides, Political-mama – this law didn’t help the poor at all.
“Under Bush, the National Debt went from 5 Trillion to 9.5 Trillion. Almost double. (Thanks to democrats in congress approving budgets)
Under Clinton-Gore, the National Debt fell as a percentage of GDP
Sorry Capn: You can’t play the game both ways and use two standards for the debt; one for Bush and a different one for Clinton.
Under Clinton the national debt increased 1.5 trillion dollars. I’ve proven it to you before – just go to US Treasury dot gov and look for yourself.
So clear up your argument by comparing apples to apples.
And Capn, nice redirect.
Today, the democrats in congress sent a bill to Bush which increased the national debt $800,000,000,000.00 overnight.
The issue is today and tomorrow. All our children get to do is pay DOWN the debt incurred by their parents.
Has anything changed with our federal government? They are ALL still spending money we do not have.
Sooo, the Fed prints the reserve notes out of thin air, they then loan these notes to lenders with low interest…mind you this is all made up Monopoly money, then the lenders loan this made up money to us, the sorry saps, with huge interest. We toil all day long to pay for a home that, from the beginning, was financed with nothing.
Slaves we are.
The right thing to do is nothing! I don’t care if every bank in America fails. FREE MARKETS! Hold the feet to the fire on this one. We are having this problem because the government has been jacking with the free market economy for too long.
It is good that this is happening! GOOD! I’m glad! I can’t wait for 30-50 years down the road when the Republic fails (it will). Then we can start over and stick to what our founding fathers intended.
We feed fat lazy worthless people who refuse to work, we redistribute income from our best, to our worse in the name of “fairness”…. I can’t wait until Obama gets elected! He is going to help the process of failure along quite nicely.
Not that it is a partison issue, both sides are completely clueless!
Don’t forget Pleefer, then we get to pay taxes to finance the the loans we take out.
Semperfiguy…
Indeed.
The massive devaluation of the dollar is in part due to the massive surplus of money generated and handed out by the Fed. How exactly do they, or anyone, plan to re-absorb that excess cash sloshing around out there?
AmWay,
We let ourselves get in quite a pickle eh?
Our parent’s, their parent’s and their’s all dropped the ball.
America…going to hell since 1913.
Could our resident advocates of zero government involvement explain (rather than just baldly assert. as usual) just how the Fed’s involvement–and only the Fed’s involvement–created this crisis?
As a bonus question, explain how the mere presence of government in the loop also caused the similar S&L meltdown in 1989.
I’ll just watch.
The “gold bugs” and the anti Federal Reserve crowd will always blame every problem on the Fed.
The only reason that gold has any value is because people have decided, in the marketplace, that it has value.
Fiat money has value because people say it has value.
The “gold standard” and the “silver standard” and the “bi-metal standard” have all been tried.
They all failed.
P.S. And by the way, the dollar was very strong during the S&L debacle–there were even concerns that it was too strong.
Whoa, somebody pinch me. Franklin is making sense. . .
Another thing:
Most of the gold mines, in the world, are in countries with very unstable political systems.
Why do we want Russia to control the price of gold, and therefore, the value of our “gold” currency?
Most of the gold held, in the world, is held by Moslems. This is due, in part, to the fact that the Moslem faith is against charging or receiving or paying interest.
The only reason that gold has any value is because people have decided, in the marketplace, that it has value.
It is a limited finite resource. The Fed prints money at its whim.
Duh.
“Most” is a strong word.
However, Moslems do hold a huge amount of gold.
Yeah, the Fed has worked at running up our National Debt as much as individual’s and their incessant need to run up their own credit card debt. I don’t give a sh.it if it’s gold or silver or fur’s or wampum or sea shell’s. THEY ARE TANGIBLE, THEY ARE REAL.
You fiat dollar-god folks need to get real. I’ll blame the God-forsaken FED all day long, being that it is the 4th plank of the Communist Manifesto and all. And also that it is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL.
Damned skippy, Sol.
These people would be glad to back our dollars with salt water or grains of sand.
Yeah, the Fed has worked at running up our National Debt as much as individual’s and their incessant need to run up their own credit card debt. I don’t give a sh.it
The Fed ran up the national debt? I was no fan of Alan Greenspan, but how the hell did the Fed do that?
I must ask, “when did the gold standard fail”? When FDR limited our gold holding’s? Or when Nixon took us completely off of it? JFK tried to put out the silver notes, now he’s dead…same with Lincoln and the greenback.
I agree with most of the points on this link:
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/Politics/whynotthegoldstandard.html
The “gold standard” made the Great Depression much, much worse.
The greenback’s being printed by the Congress and not any private bank.
Gold Bugs are nuts.
There is no way that gold solves the problems that they are so worried about.
Also, the gold standard causes many other problems.
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/Politics/whynotthegoldstandard.html
And yes, I realize that I find myself in agreement with a college prof from Berkeley.
It is a limited finite resource. The Fed prints money at its whim.
Actually, the same principles apply across the board–the U.S. treasury cannot just “print money at its whim,” partioularly in a global economy. That’s just moronic. Even the slightest tweak can have consequences.
And by the way, explain how a theoretical oversupply of money led to the current financial crisis.
I fully expect to get no answer to that question either.
Inflation is the over supply of currency, not just some word to make you feel smart by saying it. Inflation is why we are paying soo much for fuel, food, housing…whatever. Inflation is why our dollar is dying.
Theoretical indeed. Jeez.
Prices should “theoretically” be the same as they were 100 years ago. The cost of a tree hasn’t gone up in a million years.
“Consequences for the Long-Run Average Rate of Inflation:
Average inflation determined by gold mining. Under a gold standard, the long-run trajectory of the price level is determined by the pace at which gold is mined in South Africa and Russia.
For example, the discovery and exploitation of large gold reserves near present-day Johannesburg at the end of the nineteenth century was responsible for a four percentage point per year shift in the worldwide rate of inflation–from a deflation of roughly two percent per year before 1896 to an inflation of roughly two percent per year after 1896.
In the election of 1896, William Jennings Bryan’s Democrats called for free coinage of silver as a way to end the then-current deflation and stop the transfer of wealth away from indebted farmers. The concurrent gold discoveries in South Africa changed the rate of drift of the price level, and accomplished more than the writers of the Democratic platform could have dreamed, without any change in the U.S. coinage.
Thus any political factors that interrupted the pace of gold mining would have major effects on the long-run trend of the price level–send us into an era of slow deflation, with high unemployment. Conversely, significant advances in gold mining technology could provide a significant boost to the average rate of inflation over decades.
Under the gold standard, the average rate of inflation or deflation over decades ceases to be under the control of the government or the central bank, and becomes the result of the balance between growing world production and the pace of gold mining. ”
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/Politics/whynotthegoldstandard.html
Gold is NOT finite.
Gold is produced every day.
Problem is, most of the new gold is produced in unstable areas of the world.
Also, much of the current world gold supply is held by Moslems.
Inflation is why our dollar is dying.
One can debate whether the “dollar is dying,” but, once again, what’s the connection? The dollar was historically strong when the savings and loan industry collapsed.
But the modern wholesale collapse of financial institutions is due to inflation then?
O. . .kay.
Then why didn’t any this happen during the double-digit inflation of the late 70s? What made it just happen to correlate with massive financial deregulation in the from the 1980s on?
What was the trigger, the breaking point?
P.S. I notice the gold standard didn’t stop the hyperinflation in Weimar Germany:
It is sometimes argued that Germany had to inflate its currency to pay the war reparations required under the Treaty of Versailles, but this is misleading. The German currency was relatively stable at about 60 Marks per US Dollar during the first half of 1921. But the “London Ultimatum” in May 1921 demanded reparations in gold to be paid in annual installments of 2,000,000,000 gold marks plus 26 percent of the value of Germany’s exports. The first payment was paid when due in August 1921.[1] That was the beginning of an increasingly rapid devaluation of the Mark which fell to less than one third of a cent by November 1921 (approx. 330 Marks per US Dollar). The total reparations demanded was 132,000,000,000 gold marks which was far more than the total German gold or foreign exchange. An attempt was made by Germany to buy foreign exchange, but that was paid in treasury bills and commercial debts for Marks which only increased the speed of devaluation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920s_German_inflation
Because the control grid wasn’t yet in place then. When the dollar does collapse, folks will be mad when they have no life savings anymore, hence our lovely police state apparatus being put up. Oh wait, that’s conspiratorial.
But just you wait and see!
We’re all Pavlov’s Dog here.
And by the way, explain how a theoretical oversupply of money led to the current financial crisis.
Take diamonds for example. If I flood the market with 5 carat weight perfect diamonds, say 10 billion worth, what will happen to the carat price of all diamonds. Pretty simple; the more there is of something, the less it is worth. The less there is of something (oil) the more it is worth.
Is the dollar in your pocket worth the same as it was in 1980?
Reality.
Kills arguments dead.
Home prices are going down, not up.
How did an oversupply of money cause deflation in home prices?
Yes, low rates encouraged some people to buy houses, that should never have bought a house.
Now, we are seeing some natural corrections.
However, to say that monetary policy caused the mortgage mess is nuts.
No matter what the interest rate, people have to PAY their mortgages or they will be in default.
Political and legal pressure forced loans that never should have been issued.
I guess “The American Dream” of owning your own home with a picket fence is b.s? That’s what we have ghetto’s for, right?
Pleefer
Those in the ghetto are free to work themselves out of the ghetto.
The reason for most of the defaulted mortgages was that the loans never should have been made, in the first place.
Then it is the fault of the greedy, predatorial bankers that could not bring themselves to say “no” to such a cash cow. This country fills people’s heads so full of sh.t with dreams of homes and futures and the possibility that they can grow up and be President! The lies of the powers are coming home to roost and thing’s will hurt all over. This country spreads itself so thin on bullsh.t wars it can’t afford, on socialized security it can’t afford. We buy sh.t we don’t need from “American” companies who make the sh.t in China. So while we’re bolstering the overseas investors’ pocketbook’s, we cheat and rob and lie to our own countrymen…all for our “prosperity”.
This line of credit that all of us live on here is being called and everyone in the world but us stupid, blind and fat American’s know we can’t pay it back. These so-called leader’s (again, on both sides) are giving our freedom and MUTUAL prosperity away and all people want to talk about is global frigging warming and friggin’ football.
Then it is the fault of the greedy, predatorial bankers that could not bring themselves to say “no” to such a cash cow. This country fills people’s heads so full of sh.t with dreams of homes and futures and the possibility that they can grow up and be President! The lies of the powers are coming home to roost and thing’s will hurt all over. This country spreads itself so thin on bullsh.t wars it can’t afford, on socialized security it can’t afford. We buy sh.t we don’t need from “American” companies who make the sh.t in China. So while we’re bolstering the overseas investors’ pocketbook’s, we cheat and rob and lie to our own countrymen…all for our “prosperity”.
This line of credit that all of us live on here is being called and everyone in the world but us stupid, blind and fat American’s know we can’t pay it back. These so-called leader’s (again, on both sides) are giving our freedom and MUTUAL prosperity away and all people want to talk about is global frigging warming and friggin’ football.
I guess that point was made…twice. The Eagle needs to dump their POS server.
It seems to me that things are getting worse by the day. Just when we think it can`t get any worse, some new thing comes up, and it gets a LOT worse. Again. Gas prices. The weather. The crime rate. Tornadoes, hurricanes. The desperation of mankind…
It occured to me this morning that this must be God`s way of bringing people in, so time can end, as He promised us it would.
We, God`s own people, will be alright. He fed us once with manna, and He can do it again. But a lot of people – probably MOST people – do not even know God.
People will turn to God in a heartbeat when things get desperate enough – or when THEY get desperate enough. So I`m thinking this is God`s way of working everything out – money shortages, food shortages, gasoline shortages, employment shortages, etc. And come winter there will be a heat shortage, I`m sure, for many of us.
So we need to pray, really, fervently pray, that things go on and happen as they should, that men get so desperate that they turn to God.
Because God will not shorten time and let us go home until every man, woman and child who is going to be saved, is saved.
Let’s remember that money is a medium of exhange, based soley on confidence. There is little confidence in the US greenback nowadays hence gold and (other minerals) have been re-valued by the people who control international commodity exhanges so resource rich countries saw their currency boosted against the greenback and those with no resources saw little or insignificant movement in the relative rate of exchange. The world RELATIVE is important here. The European economy SEEMS better managed hence confidence in their economy and the rise in the Euro against the greenback….but not against the Canadian dollar for the relative position twix them is about the same as a few years ago. The Canadian dollar has risen from .62 to par against the greenback in part by reason of it’s mineral wealth, especially energy, reduction in the national debt, running Federal surpluses for years and tax cuts designed to prompt consumption, but also because of American policies and fiscal management, both micro and macro. CONFIDENCE, when discussing an economy and it’s currency cannot be overstated.
pleefer
For heavens sake, would you please admit that lenders do not have the ability to figure out if someone has lied to them?
Lenders can not prove, beyond a doubt, that income documentation is valid and honest.
Poverty is a horrible thing.
Financial distress is not fun.
However, hard work and honesty will almost always get someone out of povery, out of the ghetto, if that is what you want.
You blame everyone except the person who took out the mortgage.
That is absurd.
Look, life is full of risk.
MOST of the people who took out these risky loans are paying them off, on time.
In fact, the vast majority of mortgages in this country are NOT in default.
It is a sad thing when someone can’t meet the mortgage.
It is usually not criminal, but it is a failure that hurts everyone involved.
There are bad lenders out there, of course.
But — the vast majority of these defaulted mortgages are the fault of the borrower, and not the lender.
This is the sort of problem you get when you have too much “industry”.
Here we have a confluence of the housing, credit, and real estate “industries”.
Throw in the landlord industry just for fun. You have a mess.
People making money off of human beings having shelter is NOT the way this country was built.
I’d like to see a huge expansion of programs like habitat for humanity. Endeavors such as that go a long way toward taking the “industries” outta the equation.
I’ll admit freely that some folks get so anxious to get in a home they fudge their own books…and is sad. But when this same family sees that 80% of their payment is being used to pay off the interest, hope diminishes. Our vampiric usury is what is destroying us from within. But yeah, you’re right some people are glutton’s for punishment. I get very angry when we exploit those with less of a chance in order to fatten our wallets. It’s wrong. Dead wrong. And I know folks’ll go, “that’s life”, “that’s the way it is”. Soon enough, that line of thinking will come back to haunt all of us and when the politico’s and rich banker’s say to the rest of us (those that work two jobs, both, father and mother, to feed, clothe, shelter and educate our kid’s), “that’s life”. That’s when we’ll all get to see what life (or death) really is. Things are about to get real ugly.
Bull BJ
This country was absolutely built on providing shelter, food, transportation and other human needs.
The forestry and lumber jack businesses have been around since before 1776.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the idea that people are employed providing homes, financing homes and financing home improvments.
Here is a good museum for you to visit:
http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/chf.shtml
I don’t click on links from you paulie.
What’s it to this time, a comic book?
Members of my family have been in this country since the early 1600’s. I am well aware of how this country was built.
It would be damned hard for a single family to raise a house or a barn now. It was significantly harder in the past.
People helped each other. If we had more of that now maybe we wouldn’t need mortgages.
Apathy and self-serving attitude’s are We The People’s major hurdles, once we overcome those, this country will be great once again (regardless of political-leaning b.s). The banker’s and politico’s are very scared nowadays because they see an awakening in all of us.
Man, speaking of raising a home or barn, I just re-read Thoreau’s “Walden”, I want to do that.
You libs are in la-la land.
Obama and Clinton and nearly every major Democrat politician are heavily financed by mortgage lenders and real estate lenders.
Obama’s Real Estate buddy, who made a sweetheart deal with Obama, is in prison. Remember Rezco?
Realtors have always given heavily to both parties.
Mortgage lenders have always given heavily to both parties.
However, as of late, it seems a great many more high-powered Democrats have been employed at Countrywide, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac etc.
It is lazy and partisan to blame the mortgage problem on Republicans.
I never mentioned “Republican”, not once.
I don’t get it.
Save The Planet? How About Saving The Republic?
Chuck Baldwin
July 30, 2008
Yesterday, the Politico quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as saying, “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet.” She was responding, of course, to pressure that she and her fellow Democrats are experiencing to suspend a congressional ban on offshore oil drilling in the face of skyrocketing energy prices. It would be really wonderful, however, if the liberal congresswoman could get as energized about saving our once great republic.
Herein lies another problem: the vast majority of our politicos (from both major parties) do not even seem to know what kind of country the United States was designed to be. Virtually every reference made to the United States by our civil magistrates is that we are a “democracy.” That’s odd; someone should have told our Founding Fathers, because they emphatically rejected the concept of creating a “democracy” in favor of creating a constitutional republic.
Has anyone quoted the Pledge of Allegiance lately? Does it say, “And to the democracy for which it stands”? Or does it say, “And to the republic for which it stands”? Of course it says “republic.”
At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, a passerby asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got–a republic or monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic–if you can keep it.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the sixty-four million dollar question: Can we keep our republic? Can we keep our constitutional form of government? Can we keep our constitutionally protected liberties?
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison (”The Father of the U.S. Constitution”) said, “[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
The fear of what happens to freedom and liberty under democratic rule is what prompted Madison and the rest of America’s founders to labor so hard to create what they did: a constitutional republic.
Under God, it is allegiance to the Constitution that has preserved our liberties, our peace and happiness, our security, and our very way of life. Furthermore, it is the repudiation and rejection of constitutional government that is responsible for the manner in which these very same blessings are currently being lost.
Someone needs to remind Rep. Pelosi that it is not her duty (nor does she have the power) to “save the planet.” And by the same token, someone needs to remind Senators Barack Obama and John McCain that they are not campaigning to be President of the World, but President of the United States.
What every elected officeholder is expected and required to do is very simple: they are required to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Period. End of story.
Our public servants are not charged with saving the snail darter or the Spotted Owl, or saving the profits of the international bankers, or saving Wall Street in general, or saving the perks of corporate lobbyists, or saving Freddie and Fannie, or saving the peoples of the world from all the bogeymen, or even saving humankind or the planet itself. What our public servants are charged with, however, is preserving (saving) our constitutional republic.
Of course, the problem is, the people who are charged with the preservation of our republic are the ones who are the most responsible for its destruction. The American people have far more to fear from Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and John McCain than they do from any foreign adversary, because our leaders have proven that they have absolutely no fidelity to the principles of constitutional government. They have no compunction about eviscerating the protection of our freedoms, or about abolishing the vanguard of our liberties. They are Machiavellian, making King George of old look like a mere amateur.
No, I take that back. It is not our civil magistrates who are most responsible for the destruction of our republican form of government: it is “We the people.”
At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the people to govern themselves. We must be willing to hold our civil magistrates accountable to the contract they made with us, which is to uphold constitutional government. It is our duty to “throw off” any system of government that does not secure our liberties and protect our Constitution. And this we have not done.
Christian pastors and ministers have failed us. The “Religious Right” has failed us. College professors have failed us. High School teachers have failed us. Newspaper editors and publishers have failed us. TV news anchors and reporters have failed us. Parents have failed. Friends have failed. The two major political parties have failed. As a whole, no one is talking about, or even thinking about, the loss of constitutional government, national independence, and sovereignty. Few seem even conscious that this is taking place.
Worrying about which major party wins a general election is like worrying about whether Coke or Pepsi sold more soft drinks last month. Pick your poison. One is just as bad as the other. Neither has any fidelity to the Constitution or to the principles of liberty, which it represents. Both John McCain and Barack Obama are enemies to constitutional government. Both are in the process of sacrificing our national sovereignty to global entities. Both men lied when they took an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution. So, why should we care which impostor wins the election?
It is up to the American people to enforce constitutional government. From a Christian perspective, it is “We the people” who are the “powers that be” in Romans chapter 13. Under our form of government, the source of authority and the source of legitimacy reside with “We the people.” We are not the slaves of any king or despot. Our elected leaders are public servants, not private masters. In a nutshell, they work for us. They are contracted to preserve our liberties and our way of life. When they fail, they must answer to us.
So, when will the American people pick themselves up by the bootstraps and start acting like free citizens and stop groveling before these imbecilic political parties? When will we set this political house in order?
Of course, all of this demands that each of us understands constitutional government and the principles upon which liberty rests. It also demands that each of us be prepared to do whatever is our personal duty to preserve this republic.
Patriotism is more than waving a flag on July 4th, or singing The National Anthem at a ball game, or wearing a flag lapel pin on Flag Day. For an American, real patriotism means that we are willing to preserve and protect our constitutional republic. Remember, Franklin’s answer: “A republic–if you can keep it.”
Nancy Pelosi can talk about saving the planet all she wants to: her duty, however, is to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution. And that is also the job of every single American citizen. Unfortunately, most of us are no better at doing our job than Pelosi is at doing hers.
I’ve been reading a lot on folks who find that after their home values drop and interest rates increase, they walk away from the home and let the bank take the hit. And most of these folks are professionals making “wise” business decisions.
Maybe there will be more of that to come?
I think it’s farging hilarious.
Then it is the fault of the greedy, predatorial bankers that could not bring themselves to say “no” to such a cash cow. This country fills people’s heads so full of sh.t with dreams of homes and futures and the possibility that they can grow up and be President!
Now you’re getting it
Is that what you’ve been trying to get through to me? Are you, alone, responsible for my enlightenment? Thank you so very much.
I sent my cousins a link to this text and they told me they truly was inspired by it…