HOW GOVERNMENT STOKED THE MANIA

Many believe that wild greed and market failure led us into this sorry mess. What's missing is the role politicians and policy makers played in creating artificially high housing prices, and artificially reducing the danger of extremely risky assets, says Russell Roberts, a professor of economics at George Mason University.:

• For 1996, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave Fannie and Freddie an explicit target -- 42 percent of their mortgage financing had to go to borrowers with income below the median in their area; the target increased to 50 percent in 2000 and 52 percent in 2005.

By pressuring banks to serve poor borrowers and poor regions of the country, politicians could push for increases in home ownership and urban development without having to commit budgetary dollars. Another political free lunch, says Russell.

What can we learn from this, asks Russell? Beware of trying to do good with other people's money. Unfortunately, that strategy remains at the heart of the political process, and of proposed 'solutions' to this crisis...

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Where was Congressman's Henry Waxman's Oversight Committee during all this turmoil?

[HT:TS]
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives is now grilling financial company executives this week as part of an investigation of financial industry practices. One wonders what the committee, under its Chairman, Henry Waxman (D-California) has been up to during the last year or so when all signs indicated there were serious problems brewing.
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NYT obscures blame for financial crisis

A New York Times article testerday tries to spread the blame for the current financial crisis equally among Wall Street, Congress and the "White House". This blurring of responsibility is shameful.

Much of the blame, as we now know, lies with Congress, particularly Democrat members of Congress who compelled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower their standards of risk to exponentially increase loans to the disadvantaged. Those efforts are the root of this crisis.

We should also note how the reporters just write about the "White House". Which White House? Just reading the article one would naturally conclude that it was the Bush White House that played a role in the crisis.

In reality we know Bush and many Republicans, including John McCain, warned about the risks and tried to get a handle on the situation years before it became a crisis. Their efforts were stymied primarily by Democrat Congressmen.

We also know it was the Clinton White House that played a key role in causing the crisis, by their efforts to strengthen the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act to expand loans to previously unqualified borrowers, who have now defaulted on their mortgages.

Nowhere in the article is the Community Reinvestment Act mentioned -- yet that is the founding document of this crisis.

['the paper of record']

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Wells Fargo tops Paulson by $13 Billion

If the economy is so wracked with crisis that we've just gotta have the pork-ridden $810,000,000,000 economic bailout, why is Wells Fargo about to top the government-sponsored Citi Group "rescue" of Wachovia by $13 Billion -- with no government assistance?

The forced government "rescue" of Wachovia Bank (thank you, once again, Secretary Paulson and FAS 157 mark-to-marketing accounting) where Citi Group agreed, at the Treasury Department's behest, to buy "endangered" bank assets for $2.1 Billion and leave the FDIC on the hook for potential loan losses, has apparently been replaced by a totally private sector offer from Wells Fargo to purchase the identical assets for $15.4 Billion --with NO government assistance.

[yet another private-sector reaction/correction to the crisis 'only government can handle']

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'Cowboy capitalism': Free markets still preferable

There is nothing new under the sun. The United States has endured major financial panics in 1837, 1873, 1893, 1907, 1929, 1933 and now in 2008. Most of these economic events had ideological and political consequences — as well as the inevitable economic play-outs. And, if history is any guide, contrary to the hope of some and the fear of others, this is not the end of capitalism as we have known it.
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Uprising against Taliban spreads in Pakistan's tribal region

Peshawar - Pressed by military and partly disgusted by brutality exercised by Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, Pakistani tribesmen are rising up against Islamic militancy in some parts of the tribal region along Afghan border and other areas.

Three ethnic Pashtun tribes in Bajaur district - the Salarzai, Tarkhani and Utmankhel - raised a 'Lashkar,' or private army, of around 10,000 tribesmen to drive Taliban out of their area...

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[the press has found a British bureaucrat and some UN dweeb to state the the war in Afghanistan is 'unwinable' - what's meant when such is said is that those speaking can't do it. If ever there was an untenable situation, it was Iraq by the time Petraeus took command. As always the first crucial step is the intent and resolve to win.]

WHO cancels polio jabs for Afghan children after doctors killed

Polio vaccinations for over a million Afghan children have been cancelled, the World Health Organization said Tuesday after two doctors were killed in a Taliban suicide attack. "Campaigns in the southern region are cancelled," WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari told AFP.

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A day that will live in ... accommodating Islam

Blame ignorance, blame cowardice: The strangest effect of 9/11 has been, on balance, an accelerated campaign of accommodation of Islam's law in the West, a campaign boosted across the globe by the jihadist attacks of 3/11 (Madrid 2004) and 7/7 (London 2005) and many, many others. Paradoxically, such fast-track accommodation has occurred even as any and all connection between jihadist acts and Islam — specifically Islamic war doctrine — have been emphatically ruled out by our leaders, both civilian and military. It's not that they have disproven the connection.

Worse: they have chosen to ignore it.

Meanwhile, the undermining reach of Islamic law stretches across American society, from the hilltop farm in rural Vermont, where goats are now raised to be slaughtered according to Islamic law, to Wall Street, where once-mighty financial institutions, some of them having become trinkets of Islamic potentates, now adapt themselves to Sharia banking practices, to Washington, D.C., where stately government buildings have been ringed in quasi-medieval, high tech anti-jihad defenses.

It may be politically incorrect to notice this expansion of Islamic influence in the West, but it is also extremely difficult not to notice it...

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Muslim sues Tesco over alcohol

A Muslim said he is suing Tesco for religious discrimination because he was asked to handle crates of alcohol in a warehouse. Mohammed Ahmed, 32, was employed at the supermarket giant's Lichfield depot in September last year for a job that included transporting various goods on fork-lift trucks. (Snip) Tesco claimed Mr Ahmed was made aware at his induction that he would be handling alcohol, and that every effort was made to find him an alternative role in the warehouse.

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Iran Warns Against Attacks on Nuke Facilities

Tehran, Iran - Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Sunday the military would strike back against anyone targeting his country's nuclear facilities, during a parade featuring a banner calling for the end of Israel.

The military parade displayed various types of Iranian-made missiles, such as Shahab-3 and Ghadr, and included a truck carrying a huge banner saying ''Israel should be eliminated from the universe'' in both English and Farsi.

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The Best Way to Win

The "Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossiein Nozari said on Saturday that a price of under 100 dollars for a barrel of crude oil is "unsuitable."

This ‘oversupply' is a concern for Iran because US military operations are succeeding in Iraq. Iran is feeling a push and needs, in some way, to push back, and against the US petroleum is its only weapon, at the moment.

If the price of a barrel of oil, falling below 100 dollars is considered ‘unstable' to the Iranian Oil Minister, whose government is bent on world Islamic Revolution, a responsible, let's repeat that, a responsible US Congress might consider ways of keeping it that way.

[i.e., 'DBD']

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France on its own in $530bn EU bailout plan

France recently floated an ambitious plan for a E300 billion ($532 billion) bailout fund to rescue crippled banks across Europe, drawing an outright rejection from Germany and scepticism from Britain. As the world held its breath on the fate of the US's $US700billion ($890 billion) bank bailout plan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy sought in vain the backing of European leaders for his own lifeboat.

[of course. they scream that we need do something - but them?

FLASHBACK NNBrief 10-06-08: SO MUCH FOR EUROPEAN TIRADES AGAINST AMERICAN GREED re: "EU banks took on even more debt leverage than their U.S. counterparts," ...

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The Pathology of Durban II

The planners of the 2009 United Nations Durban II Review Conference, which is purportedly aimed at combating racism, have been busy crafting their anti-Semitic and anti-Western agenda. Their latest manifesto is an intergovernmental working group report which includes regional annexes from Latin America, Africa, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The report and annex materials will all become part of the Durban II Conference’s final “outcome document.”

The new UN human rights chief, Navanethem Pillay, cannot understand why the United States, Canada, and Israel have already decided to withdraw their support for this hatefest, and why other Western countries are considering boycotting the conference, as well. She gives the benefit of the doubt to the conference planners, even though their documents associate racism and xenophobia solely with Western democracies while they give a free pass to regimes who actually commit crimes against humanity... [snip]

The next president of the United States may be tempted to make some symbolic gestures of compromise in the United Nations in order to improve our country’s image in the eyes of the world. Deciding to participate in Durban II may turn out to be one of those symbolic gestures, which would be a tragic mistake.

We should not care about being popular so long as we are doing the right thing and living up to our best ideals. Participating in Durban II in order to curry some favor in the United Nations would symbolize surrender to the demopaths who want to destroy us because of our core beliefs in freedom.

[Recommended > ]

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West putting climate treaty in jeopardy, China warns

Negotiations seeking a global pact to tackle global warming are troubled and could end in disastrous failure, China's top climate change envoy warns, saying rich countries are failing to deliver on promises. China is emerging as the world's top emitter of the greenhouse gases.

China argues it is owed help to move toward a low-carbon economy...

[show of hands: who's surprised?]

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More Gore Sham Shock and Awe

Any guesses where Al Gore points the blame for the June floods and tornadoes that ravaged Iowa? Yep!

As reported by the Des Moines Register, the world's most famous Chicken Little told attendees of a Saturday night Democrat fundraiser:

"In 66 of your 99 counties, the flood damage was truly historic. No one has ever seen a flood like this."

Wrong.

Then he pulled one of his favorite lies from his quiver -- that global warming causes more and stronger tornadoes, "including the one that leveled much of Parkersburg earlier this year," adding that:

"Yes, we've always had tornadoes in Iowa and in Tennessee. But they're coming more frequently and they're stronger."

Wrong again.

The following day, meteorologist extraordinaire Anthony Watts dissected the scientific ineptitude of these capricious connections, and concluded that Gore demonstrates he doesn't understand basic meteorology, much less climate.

Meanwhile, the Goracle again stated that it's ok to lie to the little pepole as a means to an end {my empahsis}:

"Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis."

And they gave this imposter the Nobel Peace Prize. Sickening.

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Children told to record parents' 'climate crimes'

A British power company named npower is urging children to spy on their parents and record their "climate crimes" in a "challenge diary." Coming on the heels of the infamous child-exploitation video of little children singing the praises of Dear Leader Obama, the world is starting to get seriously creepy.

Of course, this is only a utility, not the actual state itself, and nobody is suggesting parents be hauled off to concentration camps if they secretly eat more than their ration of meat, but environmental hysteria is only getting started.

The attraction of certain parties to the tools of totalitarianism is disturbing, to say the least.

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Floridians Flip-Flop on Oil Drilling

Caladesi Island, Florida - The dolphins and pelicans that swim just off Caladesi Island's linen-white sands along Florida's western coast help draw almost 80 million visitors and $57 billion to the ''Sunshine State'' each year.

(Snip) After opposing offshore drilling for a quarter century as a threat to their lucrative coastline, a majority of Floridians now favor it, polls show.

[California's turn - or do we expect a multi-billion federal bailout from the rest of the nation while we ignore the huge revenue stream sitting right off our coasts?]

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Debate continues over Boulder's ‘noncitizen’ measure

If Boulder’s voters approve Ballot Question 2E this fall, city residents who aren’t eligible to vote — and who aren’t U.S. citizens — will be eligible to serve on the city’s 20 boards and commissions.

The measure would remove the charter requirement that applicants to serve on those boards and commissions be “registered electors” — that is, registered to vote. Instead, applicants hoping for an appointment from the City Council to those boards would simply have to be 18 years old and have lived in the city for at least a year.

The measure’s backers say it will help the city reach out to a broader group of people who can make meaningful contributions to city government, even if they aren’t U.S. citizens...

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California confusion...

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Mistrial declared in firefighters' gay-pride parade suit
SAN DIEGO – A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of four firefighters who claimed they were sexually harassed by their required appearance in last years's gay pride parade.
The jury of six men and six women was hopelessly deadlocked over the sexual harassment claim...
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'Bride' and 'groom' to be restored to Calif. forms
SAN FRANCISCO - California health officials say the words "bride" and "groom" will reappear on marriage license applications starting next month. (Snip) When same-sex marriage became legal in the state on June 16, new marriage forms were issued with "Party A" and "Party B" where "bride" and "groom" used to be...
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