Did Barney Frank just detroy housing?

No, Barney Frank did not just detroy housing.

http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/2010/03/barney-makes-hash.html

Barney Frank (D. Mass) is head of the very powerful House Financial Services Committee. Barney is the Rainmaker for the country’s mortgage agencies, Fannie and Freddie. He was the Don that blessed everything that happened for years. Without him these two dead ducks would not be the disaster they are today. And Barney Frank has no clue how our system works. He proved it several times on Friday.

He started with a stupid comment in the WaPo: "People who own Fannie and Freddie debt are not in the same legal position [as those who own] Treasury and I don’t want them to be. ”. During the day he tried to backpedal away from this dangerous assertion. But he really stuck his foot in his mouth in an interview with Maria Bartiroma.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1432846164&play=1

How Barney Frank, this disgusting mess of a person, became head of the Financial Services Committee is beyond me. How he even continues to be elected is beyond me.

Why do you say he's a "disgusting mess of a person"? I assume he continues to be elected because a majority of the people in his district continue to vote him, no?

BTW, his bio (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Barney-Frank/Stuart-Weisberg/e/9781558497214/) is a good read.

Well Barney Frank hired his prostitute as an aide, used his position to influence his prostitute's probation, used his influence to fix his prostitute's parking tickets, and allegedly let his prostitute run a prostitution business from Frank's house. That, plus that he looks and dresses like a slob, makes him a disgusting mess of a person to me. Just my opinion.

yes, LICC, it is (as is nearly everything) beyond you.

Well, can't give all this credit to one man. Mr. Frank had the help of our own Chuck and his good friend Nancy.

LICC...Thou protests too strongly to not arouse suspicion...

Barney Frank is an american hero compared to that idiot Maxine Waters. Remember at those hearings 18 months ago when she didn't know the difference between Bernanke and Paulson, thought the head of the treasury and head of the Fed was the same thing. perfect.

btw:

OP: DID BARNEY FRANK JUST DETROY HOUSING?

Was this supposed to be DETROIT HOUSING? or DESTROY HOUSING....or is it the same thing...I guess they were/are both self inflicted wounds/suicide.

You left out Andrew Cuomo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64&feature=player_embedded

Analyst Bove blames subprime meltdown on New York’s Cuomo
Email
Written by tusharm on Mar-4-10 8:27am
From: before-you-invest.com

Dick Bove, a respected banking analyst, called Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of New York, the “father of the subprime crisis.” “One of the key reasons why [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are] bankrupt today, and why the government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in supporting them, is because of the edicts pushed through by Mr. Cuomo,” said Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities. Bove also said Wall Street will be at risk if Cuomo becomes governor of New York.

Waters is an embarrassment. Try listening to her in any of the Congressional hearings. It is tough.

"How Barney Frank, this disgusting mess of a person, became head of the Financial Services Committee is beyond me. How he even continues to be elected is beyond me."

That brings up a good point: In most districts, incompetence or ethical breaches would spell disaster. But for a select few - Charlie Rangel, Barney Fwank - an ultra-liberal electorate will continue to reelect them even after they are deceased! Kind of makes you wonder if the anti-gov't kamakazis who fly planes into IRS buildings, engage in suicidal shoot-outs in the pentagon, etc wouldn't have more effect by simply taking on one of these dinosaurs.

Waters is the lefts Milton Freedman.

LICC, you may be just biassed about his lifestyle. His carefree appearance may just reflect the lack of a woman in his life. Barney Frank didn't have the option (back in the day) of keeping a spouse the way heterosexual men do. Successful men everywhere shower their wives with money, which is a major part of their appeal, and it is perfectly legal. I say if he's not a "disgusting mess" and good for him to float the trial balloon with his statement--trying to save the treasury and the taxpayer against the interest of investors who bargained that higher yielding securities issued by a failed agency would be bailed out.

"Successful men everywhere shower their wives with money, which is a major part of their appeal, and it is perfectly legal"

Are you saying that marriage is legalized prostitution?

PMG, Barney Frank is an embarrassment for reasons that have nothing to do with his preference in mate. As a representative he's an embarrassment, never admitting to positions which prove embarrassing later on and taking care of housing and gambling interests which contribute to his campaign.

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2008&type=I&cid=N00000275&newMem=N&recs=20

and by sector..

Sectors, 2007-2008

Agribusiness $1,000
Communications/Electronics $7,500
Construction $23,300
Defense $4,000
Energy & Natural Resources $1,000
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate $682,348
Health $24,500
Lawyers & Lobbyists $70,519
Transportation $9,500
Misc Business $40,000
Labor $100,000
Ideological/Single-Issue $47,869

"never admitting to positions which prove embarrassing "

I thought you weren't going to talk about his sexual preferences??

too easy.....

'Are you saying that marriage is legalized prostitution?'

Dwayne....married?
You pay prostitutes to leave and not interfere with your life.
You pay wives to be good. (big difference)
The former usually involves sexual gratification.
The latter seldom involves intimacy.

You pay lives to leave, too! Do you know why divorce is so expensive? It's worth it!

Wives, not "lives".

'Are you saying that marriage is legalized prostitution?'

I'm saying that Barney Frank didn't have the option of a sanctioned committed relationship with financial benefits, so keep the judging in perspective to his opportunities.

"No, Barney Frank did not just destroy housing."

I agree. He destroyed it quite a while ago by knowingly allowing Fannie and Freddie to make bad loans (and in fact almost forcing them to do so).

I remember when I saw an interview with Frank sometime after the big blow up, and he was asked something along the lines of "aren't there still loans being made? So how is it 'impossible for people to become owners'" and his answer was something along the lines of "sure, people with good credit and 25% to put down can still get loans, but what about people without good credit and don't have a big down payment?".

The answer, you (Frank) fucking idiot, is that THEY SHOULDN'T BE BUYING. Frank's believe that home ownership had become an "entitlement" resulted in what has happened with just about everything else which became an entitlement (welfare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc., etc.)

"That brings up a good point: In most districts, incompetence or ethical breaches would spell disaster. But for a select few - Charlie Rangel, Barney Fwank - an ultra-liberal electorate will continue to reelect them even after they are deceased! Kind of makes you wonder if the anti-gov't kamakazis who fly planes into IRS buildings, engage in suicidal shoot-outs in the pentagon, etc wouldn't have more effect by simply taking on one of these dinosaurs."

In MANY surveys, in most Americans believe that Senators and Congressmen are corrupt/corrupting the system and that we should "throw the bums out". But then later in the same survey when asked about THEIR Senator/Congressman, the same people said the THEY were good and should stay. It's because of pork (remember Al D'Amato's nickname? "Senator Pothole"?). It's not "a liberal thing", it's that everyone loves the other white meat - even Jews and Muslims - and the way they eat it is the same way Jews and Muslims eat real pork: by denying what they are eating is pork. Amusing anecdote: a childhood friend of one of my best friends is a Rabbi (I assume a Reformed one, but who knows), WOULD NEVER allow pork to even be brought into his home. But will go to Chinese restaurants and eat pork as long as in the name of the dish nor if there is a description of it has the word "pork" in it. But he knows there is pork in it, and eats it anyway.

Barney's an ass chaser like just about all the pols we see today. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with it. Spitzer and Paterson had the option of a sanctioned committed relationship with financial benefits.

So keep the judging in perspective to their opportunities, they're all ho-mongers (not that there is anything wrong with that).

What keeps politicians like Nancy Pelosi & Barney Frank in congress is that they are very good at politics. They know how to raise money, make friends, negotiate deals stand for nothing and have an innate ability to rewrite history when it suits them.

And the Kennedy's were choir boys.

Good comments, 30yrs.

Hey Falco, you say "ass chasing" like its a BAD thing! We're all here because someone chased someone else's booty...

Bacon should be its own food group and take its rightful place on the pyramid!

I have a friend who is a foodie, and I'm a bit of an ex-foodie. Whenever we have some great dish with bacon, we have this "stock"/joke discussion that "it doesn't really count, though" because "they cheated" - they used bacon. And everyone knows that anything tastes great with bacon. next comes: the same thing with braising; everything tastes great braised. in fact, you could make a dish "braised rat turds with bacon" and everyone would love it.

"Hey Falco, you say "ass chasing" like its a BAD thing! We're all here because someone chased someone else's booty..."

As long as you know what to do with it when you catch it (insert old line about dogs chasing cars here)

"As long as you know what to do with it when you catch it"

That's easy - I put my palm print on it! Sometimes when people say, "What's crackin', Dwayne", I say "Somebody's ass, as soon as I get off work!".

If Bareny Frank destroyed housing, that would make him the most powerful congressman in history. He would be more powerful than all 9 Sumpreme Court justices combined. Seriously, if Frank had as much power as you conservative wingnuts think he does, wouldn't he have used that power to push through single payer health insurance, which he has openly endorsed?

Barney's powers to do bad are limited to jawboning regulators, holding up bills or weakening key provisions. A bad health care needs more misguided congressmen to join in.

How do you know what Frank's powers are limited to? You have a direct line to the RNC or something?

Maxine Waters grilling Bernanke

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503983_162-6241870-503983.html

To understand Maxine Waters you have to realize she is an unfiltered mouthpiece of her constituency. Concepts must be spelled out in black and white. Shades of gray, nuance, mitigation and esoterica are the language of the elites. If Sarah Palin were in Congress she'd be asking the same questions. Both are symptomatic of the dumbing down of America.

on point I agree her statements must surely resonate with her constituency who probably understand adjustable rate mortgages going up , but not the difference between fed funds and discount rate.

What is it about her constituents that you find so unique?

Is it their zip code? Hmmm. The way they talk? Maybe something else. I can't quite put my finger on it. What is it about her constituents? This really is a mystery.

'What is it about her constituents that you find so unique?'

THEY KEEP ELECTING HER!!!

In its 2009 report, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) named Waters one of the 15 most corrupt members of Congress. She was also included in their 2005 and 2006 reports.

During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Waters appeared on television as a commentator. Waters said "If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion

In December 2004 Los Angeles Times showed that Maxine Water's relatives had made more than $1 million during the preceding eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters had helped. Her reply was: "They do their business and I do mine."

On February 24, 2010, in congressional hearings with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Maxine Waters, despite serving on the Financial Services Committee, revealed she is completely unaware of the difference between the Federal Reserve 'discount rate' and 'federal funds rate'

In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust law, that if he did not guarantee reduced gasoline prices in exchange for Congress allowing the oil industry to drill where it wished, she would favor nationalizing American petroleum companies. She mispoke in a widely reported gaffe: "Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing... taking over and the government running all of your companies."

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/43378

Last month, the committee that serves as the “ethics cop” for the House of Representatives launched new investigations. It’s looking into several members of Congress, including Long Beach’s Laura Richardson and L.A.’s Maxine Waters. The Richardson case involves a house that was in foreclosure. The Waters case involves the Treasury Department, federal bailout money, and a bank in L.A. In the second part of her series on congressional ethics, KPCC’s Washington Correspondent Kitty Felde examines the Maxine Waters case.

Last fall, banks in the U.S. were in deep trouble. Congress approved billions in bailout money to keep many of them from failure. That’s about the time a Treasury official said he got a phone call from Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

The L.A. Democrat wanted the people in charge of federal bailout money to meet with the National Bankers Association, a trade group for minority banks.

Maxine Waters serves on the House Financial Services Committee. At a recent hearing, she proudly said she’s an advocate for banks owned by women and minorities and for their customers.

“It seems that all of my political life I have been in disagreement with the banking and mostly financial services community because of practices that I have believed to be not in the best interest always of the very people that they claim to serve.”

Treasury officials met with the trade group for black-owned banks, as Waters asked. One of the banks at that meeting, L.A.-based OneUnited, asked for and later got federal bailout money. It turns out Maxine Waters once owned stock in OneUnited. And at one time, her husband served on the bank’s board.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is now looking into whether she used her influence as a member of Congress for personal financial gain.

Melanie Sloan, who runs the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said, “This was a particular problem because Ms. Waters failed to tell Treasury officials about her husband’s involvement in the bank and her family’s financial interest in it.” Sloan said Treasury officials say they were blindsided by this.

Waters said her financial stake in OneUnited Bank was no secret. She’d disclosed it in official filings with Congress. Those filings show she and her husband held more than half a million dollars in OneUnited stock at least as recently as two years ago. Waters said there are “no facts” that show she “acted improperly” by asking Treasury officials to meet with black-owned banks.

Melanie Sloan disagrees. “She has a financial interest in a bank that she’s helped getting bailout funds for. And that’s entirely inappropriate." Sloan said, "there is a specific House rule that says members will not use their positions to improve their own financial positions. And that’s what she was doing here.”

Danielle Brian, executive director of another Washington watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, said, “I think it’s really bad because what it does is it undermines the public’s belief – reasonably, I would argue – in the integrity of the process in Congress.”

Brian said the American public wonders why Congress asks federal officials to bail out one bank and not another. “This is what feeds a sense in the public that this is not a merit based system,” she said.

After the leak of a classified report, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct announced it was investigating the allegations aimed at Congresswoman Waters. It’s also looking into seven members of the House Appropriations Committee. They’re under investigation for securing federal money for various projects and accepting campaign contributions from those who got the money. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the legal and political fallout from these ethics investigations.

Maxine Waters is an embarrassment to her race.

The human race.

> No, Barney Frank did not just detroy housing.

Correct, he took care of that a few years back.

Someone forgot to tell Andy Cuomo that forcing banks to issue subprime loans to minorities and low income borrowers does not promote home ownership. It only promotes lending abuse , bankruptcy and more poverty.

Can't understand why Andy is so far ahead of the Republican candidate, in a decidedly ANTI-Democrat year.

This is still New York State and the A.G. office is a great office to launch from. Look at Spitzer.

Yes, Andrew Cuomo, things like "credit history" and "repayment" are bogus terms made up by whitey to keep minorities down.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0818028120100308
Barney is right, on this, but why is he begging? Probably because of the campaign contributions.

"I urge you in the strongest possible terms to take immediate steps to write down these second mortgages and allow principal reduction modifications of the underlying first liens to take place," Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said.

I love Maxine. She is my hero!

"And guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing … uh, um. … Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies. …"

--Maxine Waters to oil company CEOs, May 2008

Maxine Waters makes Sarah Palin look like an intellectual.

If we think the folks that voted for Maxine are dopes, I wonder what Americans think about New Yorkers ability to put folks that will represent us.
1.Elloit Client 9
2.Dave Magoo
4.Charlie sticky fingers/blame the staff
5.Joe Payola Bruno
Do I need to continue?
OK
6.Moserat the slasher
more?
You've had enough for now...I want you to sleep at night

Maxine Waters makes the Socialist look like an intellectual.

Eliot Spitzer contributed greatly as A.G. Regardless of his shortcomings(and he had many). He contributed mroe in his first day as A.G. than Maxine will her whole life

Yeah, the funny thing is, the worst thing that happened to us was losing Spitzer.
Yes, he needed a little nookie (don't we all), but, jeez, he was the old guy who could do anything.

And he was the dude going after subprime lenders before it became "hot"!!!

> he was the old guy who could do anything

sorry, ONLY guy who could do anything.

Elliot Spitzer is a spoiled brat thug. He should be in prison; not for visiting prostitutes but for his thuggery and hypocrisy.

Spitzer would have been awful as governor too. His first budget raised state spending by double the inflation rate. He may have been a strong regulator, but on policy he is a big government tax and spender.

Great A.G.'s sometimes make lousy governors

Poor Elloit...a career undone by his penis. Amazingly enough it could have been saved by a rusty zipper.
Poor Dave...a career undone by his brain. Amazingly enough it could have been saved with a higher IQ.
Poor Charlie...a career undone by his greed and hubris. Amazingly enough it could have been saved had he had a shred of morality or integrity.
Poor Joe...a career undone by his greed and hubris. Amazingly enough it could have been saved had he had a shred of morality or integrity. Plus he is an arrogant self serving shithead.
Poor Hirram Monserrate...a career undone by slashing his girl friend and being a traderous moron. Wait a minute...It's not over for this psycho loser.

Very telling. How do you expect a democracy to work in a country with so many functional illiterates?

Sound bites, sound bites ... and repetition ... and repetition.

A.G. = Aspiring Governor

"Very telling. How do you expect a democracy to work in a country with so many functional illiterates?"

"The best argument against democracy is 5 minutes with the average voter"
- churchill

Of course, anything else is far worse.

"I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly."

--Winston Churchill

Then there are Fannie’s friends, with whom Mr. Raines apparently spends most of his days. Rep. Artur Davis suggested OFHEO was putting Fannie in more danger with the release of the report. Rep. Barney Frank, the House Financial Services subcommittee’s lead Democrat, went so far as to charge that OFHEO was "irresponsible." Yet, how can a regulator be irresponsible simply by letting the public know it suspects foul play on the part of the regulated?"

http://fridayinvegas.blogspot.com/

October 2004 (Scion Capital Quarterly Report to Investors): "I recently watched Mr. Franklin Raines, CEO and Chairman of Fannie Mae, defend himself before a House subcommittee against allegations of fraudulent financial reporting brought by its regulator, OFHEO. I have already read OFHEO’s interim report on the matter, and you know from prior letters that I have had a dim view of Fannie Mae and its CEO for some time. My impression: Fannie Mae is unregulated, and they are very likely committing fraud.

An entity is not being regulated if it takes subpoenas and threats from the Department of Justice in order to obtain management’s cooperation in a regulatory review. Too, an entity is not being regulated if a Congressional investigation cannot be performed due to wholly inadequate knowledge of the business at issue on the part of the investigators. Watching our representatives flail at questioning Mr. Raines was rather shocking. They were in no manner capable of getting past the headline issues, and even those were covered only in superficial fashion. Remarkably, these particular representatives were members of the House subcommittee specifically charged with regulating the GSEs.

Then there are Fannie’s friends, with whom Mr. Raines apparently spends most of his days. Rep. Artur Davis suggested OFHEO was putting Fannie in more danger with the release of the report. Rep. Barney Frank, the House Financial Services subcommittee’s lead Democrat, went so far as to charge that OFHEO was "irresponsible." Yet, how can a regulator be irresponsible simply by letting the public know it suspects foul play on the part of the regulated?"

On the subject of fraud, OFHEO’s report makes clear Fannie’s intent to deceive. The report details not gray areas of accounting, but rather specific acts to manipulate earnings. Per the testimony of Armando Falcon, Jr., head of OFHEO, “The accounting violations cannot be dismissed as mere differences of interpretation in accounting rules. Fannie Mae understood the rules and simply chose not to follow them.” Time and again, the ethics of men and women have proven no match for a lucrative incentive structure.”