Bush: World economies shall overcome

If it requires a serious response, then, what are you doing there, President Bush ?!! The Enron Scandal, required serious responses and where were you, President Bush?!! Why didn't those pensioners and workers, receive a bailout, when Enron went belly-up !!? Mr. President, why didn't you have your zealots, ideologues and incompetents, that you have loaded our government with, why didn't you have them find a solution, that may have headed off this Banking Scandal of 2008 ?!! Could it be, because most of your contributors and supports, are the ones cooking the books and heading the greedy Corps ?!! History will judge President Bush to be, not only the most incompetent President we ever had, but he will be judged to be one of the most untrustworthy, ever to sit in the Oval Office !! The Enron Scandal could have allowed our government to put into place, regulations that would have prevented the Banking Scandal of 2008 from taking place. That is, if they, the Bush-Cheney administrations, were ever interested in preventing such scandals from ever occurring again, in our future. Well, guess what, those phony accounting tactics, from bamboozling the borrower to hiding bad loans, have caught up with the Cons on Wall Street and now, Main Street is being asked to carry the burden !! Well, Mr. President, the price we ask is high, but so are the dangers of an unbridled greed that has infected Wall Street and all of the Banking and Corporate world. Cease and desist with the deregulation !! There must be permanent and non-rescindable regulations, that do not disappear because their buddies are in the White House or Congress !! Also, Mr. President, you almost stated the problem as badly as, President Coolidge, when he said, " The business of America is business ! ". Wall Street should never affect, or dictate, to Main Street, as President Bush suggests. Main Street must be served by Wall Street, not the other way around !! That is the problem, Wall Street thinks the rest of America is there, to serve their wants and needs and that is why we have the Banking Scandal of 2008. Unbridled greed has pushed America's economy to the brink and it didn't have to be, if President Bush had his priorities right. The Enron Scandal should have been the unfortunate lesson that we could have used to ward off the ravenous greed of the Wall Streeters and the rest of the Banking Corps !! No, we continued on our gluttonous way and now look at where we are !! Now, do you believe how ill-advised you were, Senator McCain, when your economic adviser, Phil " The Whiner " Gramm, told you how " fundamentally sound ", our economy was !! I sure hope so !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

The US economy is staggering around like a sick prostitute the morning after buck night in a Texas bordello.
Heck of a job, GWB.
Afg. too.

The economy is now shot, because a bunch of useless DEMOCRATS decided to bailout a bunch of BIGWIGS on wall street from a mess made under the FANNY MAE/FREDDI MAC guidance of BARNEY FRANKS.

Here is some news for all you loser politicians that said everyone that can sign a piece of paper can afford a home, despite having no income, credit rating or financial savvy -- GOOD JOB GUYS! SEE YOU IN THE BREAD LINES.
God, I do not know how they can sleep at night.

Gee, I didn't know that Barney Frank and Congressional Democrats invented the derivatives that Wall Street got drunk on! Who knew they were so powerful! Deregulation of the financial markets? No that's not to blame! Nor is Republican idealogy! W can retire knowing that he has messed up yet another sphere of American existence.

If Wall street weren't so heavily invested in these toxic instruments, and homeowners in trouble could declare bankruptcy (which they cannot now), this would be a lot smaller crisis.

You are right.. Clinton signed it into law in 1999. The Financial Services Modernization Act. Thanx Bill! (and thanx for reminding me.)

There is a feeling among citizens that the bailout will not be good. I think that is incorrect. The way this financial crisis has unfolded has unfortunately not been good. Mr Paulson hired a company to assist in crisis management that had its own problems in this financial environment as one of the entities that created it. The Paulson plan was too focused the mortgage security market and not on the total problem.

The logical choice for an advisor would have been someone who had predicted this crisis. He would have the needed understanding to extricate the country from the situation. He would not be personally involved and could give more dispassionate advice. There are many people who could fill that bill.

My point is that by going outside the industry we can get a perspective that encompasses the needs of all members of the community including ordinary citizens. Mr Paulson and Mr Bernanke have wasted valuable time. They have been too concerned with market participants and not nearly as concerned about the banks and small businesses needing vital capital infusions and individuals facing impending mortgage foreclosures.

Leadership with a broader focus would have already initiated the needed overhaul of the financial services industry. The stock market would have stopped plummeting and the people would be more accepting of the economic plan.

Our next president needs to be cognizant of why industry insiders and lobbyists are not good as government officials. That is true whether it is the EPA, the FDA or Treasury. Our present problem all boils down to a lack of good judgment by the president in choosing his administration. John McCain’s choice of advisers says he would share the president’s problem.

I think the Republicans conveniently overlook the fact that they've had plenty of time since the reign of St. Ron to change anything about the way our financial institutions have done business. They had many years. Spare us the talk about the Democratic Congress -- for the last two years, during which time they've been faced with Republican colleagues and a stubborn president who have made it abundantly clear they weren't going to work together. And forget complaining about Bill Clinton, unless you care to also discuss the GOP Congress during those years -- remember the infamous Contract On America? Sorry, but the GOP now gets to luxuriate in the fruits of their "labor" (and completely deregulated at that) -- unfortunately, so does the rest of the world. The GOP deserves to crumble.

There's enough blame to go around for both sides on this issue. Bush, Clinton, Carter, Congress, and Greenspan. What I find compelling is that in the last ten days or so the polls have shown a dramatic shift toward Obama and at the same time a dramatic sell off in the markets. Obama's tax plan that is very fair to middle class Americans but harsh to small business and investors seems to be fueling the sell-off as it becomes clear to them that he will be the next president of the U.S. If this is indeed part the panic (Tribune's words) that is gripping the world Obama must change his economic policies to stop the downward trend in the markets or they could drop even more upon his election. What appeared to be an insignificant election just a month ago with the prospect of a socialist candiate becoming president in a minor time with little damage has suddenly become one of the most important elections since Reagan/Carter. The next four years could have more impact on our nation than the previous 232.

FACTS, people, FACTS:

1. 1999-Sep-30, the NY Times reported

"Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people...." and

"The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

President Clinton had appointed Fannie Mae's then-chairman, Franklin Raines.

2. 2001-April, the Bush administration's 2002 budget proposal, asserted that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a "potential problem," and that financial trouble in these Government Sponsored Entities, or GSEs, could "cause strong repercussions in financial markets."

3. 2003, autumn, the Bush administration pushed Congress to create a new federal agency to regulate and supervise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

On 2003-Sep-10, then-Treasury Secretary John Snow, to the House Financial Services Committee, " We need a strong, world-class regulatory agency to oversee the prudential operations of the GSEs, and the safety, and the soundness of their financial activities."

At the same 2003-Sep-10 hearing, the ranking Democrat, House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Barney Frank (who now chairs the committee) responded, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not in a crisis. The more people, in my judgement, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjur up the possibility of serious financial losses, to the Treasury, which I do not see, I think we see entities which are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios, and even if there were a problem the federal government doesn't bail them out. But the more pressure there is there, the less I think we see in terms of affordable housing."

The Bush administration legislation was blocked that day.

4. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, 2005-Sep-17, to the House Financial Services Committee, on Fannie/Freddie, "Enabling these institutions to increase in size--they they will once the crisis in their judgement passess--we are placing the total financial system of the future at substantial risk."

5. Alan Greenspan, 2006-Apr-6, "If we fail to strengthen GSE regulation we increase the possibility of insolvency and crisis."

2006-Apr-6, Democratic Senator Chuck Schummer, "I think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the years has done a good job and are an intrinsic part of making America the best-housed people in the world. If you look over the last 20 or whatever years, they have done a very, very, good job."

6. Senate floor, 2006-May-25, John McCain, "For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market... the GSEs need to be reformed without delay."

In the Senate Banking Committee, S. 190, the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, that McCain cosponsored, 100% of the Republicans voted FOR it, and 100% of the Democrats, including Chuck Schummer and Chris Dodd, voted AGAINST it. This bill that passed the Banking Committee on a straight party-line voted was blocked by Democrats from passing the full Senate. Senator Obama was silent on this legislation.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190

We now know Dodd received $133,900 in campaign contributions from Fannie/Freddie (per opensecrets.org), ranking #1 in Congress. Obama received $105,949 from Fannie / Freddie (per opensecrets.org), ranking #3 in Congress.

7. 2008-Sep-25, former President Clinton said he AGREED with Fox News assertions that Democrats are responsible for failure to rein in Fannie/Freddie--he told ABC's Chris Cuomo that for years, Democrats have been "resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

8. watch congressional testimony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related

city guy : And I don't know how YOUR PRESIDENT can sleep at night after the unconscionable treatment of the Katrina victims and all the blood on his hands of US service men and women and innocent Iraqis resulting from this ILLEGAL INVASION TO CONTROL IRAQ"S OIL!!!!!!!!!