Comments on: Madoff Was Huge Dem Donor

By: sjelly

sjelly — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:51:37 +0000

I have no hope that you will read it, but I urge you to check out this speech by Randall S. Kroszner, one of the Governors of the Federal Reserve Board. It’s entitled
“The Community Reinvestment Act and the Recent Mortgage Crisis” and was given December 3, 2008. It fully debunks (using verifable facts, rather than emotional, and classist talking points) the lie that CRA was in any way responsible for the mortgage crisis. As I say, I’ve no real belief you’ll read it, but perhaps other, less idealogical folks will. People, facts are friendly; embrace them!

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:27:21 +0000

Stories that crib verbatim without citing Stirling should be up on the TradMed sites in 5…4…3…2…1…

By: mbayrob

mbayrob — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:12:21 +0000

Okay, be careful here. Shows bad judgment on the part of the school board, but give Yeshiva-ites some credit. Need I remind people what Yale produced?

TRUMP!

By: Stirling Newberry

Stirling Newberry — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:33:04 +0000

For someone who goes with facts, this was as close to a fact free rant as you can get. The CRA did not contribute to the problem. In fact, CRA loans, because they were monitored closely and were not useful for pumping up CDOs. As far as changing people’s nature, in some ways no. That’s why strong laws and good policy are important. Money corrupts politics, and vast concentrations of money find a way into the wrong hands.

As far as “PC has nothing to do in the marketplace,” that is also incorrect. People who are discriminated against leave the market, and don’t come back. This means less economic activity and less efficient markets.

Scandals like this one had nothing to do with making a few loans in a few economically depressed areas. Everyone involved came from the right zip codes and knew the right people.

By: jbm1955

jbm1955 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:32:44 +0000

“It is ironic, in that Madoff’s personal charity was founded to “reverse intermarriage and assimilation” among American Jews.”

This was not Madoff’s charity, It was the Robert Lappin foundation; it’s endowment was entrusted to Madoff.

Not sure what would be ironic about it anyway.

By: oMan

oMan — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:37:20 +0000

I will go for facts everytime, JTJT. The Repubs make me almost as sick as the Dems. “Always easier to blame poor people and big gubbermint…” Not quite. We’ve hardly met so I will cut you some slack. But the fact is, I distrust our nature. We are –to borrow a phrase– fallen. Those who honestly believe that a Better System will somehow solve our problem, change our nature? Please give me their names, I have a bridge to sell them. I don’t blame poor people, they are just doing what makes sense under the circumstances. The mortgage brokers were jamming this crap at all of us 24/7 and some of us, the credulous and hopeful who had been taught math in public school by teachers protected by unions so they could avoid showing these saps that they were wrong wrong wrong about reality, those people took the bait. They thought, thanks to Oprah and a million other “self-esteem” gurus, that they could actually afford a $500K house on an income of $25K a year, thanks to the miracle of interest-only liar loans. Until of course the bullet came due. And the next fool –who may have gone to Harvard for an MBA– bought that paper because it had been “backed” by some house that had no incentive not to do so, because hey, the risk had been fully diversified, the quant model said so, and God those premiums were sweet, my bonus this year depends on moving a ton of this stuff, etc.

So I am not blaming the poor people who signed the loans. I blame a lot of people. But mostly I blame those who should have known that PC has no place in the marketplace. That if somebody can’t make the payments, it doesn’t matter what color his skin is, what his creed or background is. The CRA was crap. It helped to fuel the cycle. Other traditional distortions in the market coupled to it. The regulators went to sleep. And who were they? Republicans? Not really, not many. Democrats. If I have a bone to pick right now, it’s with Chris Dodd who took a sweetheart loan from Countrywide, a company he was charged with regulating, and who allowed all those lenders to keep doing suicidal stuff just a little longer. And now he’s lecturing us about accountability? Jesus wept.

By: JTJT

JTJT — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:23:06 +0000

who respectively sponsored in the late 70’s and expanded in the mid-90’s the Community Reinvestment Act, which allowed/forced lenders to abandon prudence in lending to people who were very shaky, indeed impossible, credit risks, because, you know, they “deserved to participate in the American dream.”

I see you got your talking points from Rush Limbaugh and the Wingnut PC Patrol.
It was unsupervised mortgage brokers going after easy fees and making bad loans. Of course, it’s always easier to blame poor people and big gubbermint.
Check out Barry Ritholz for some actual facts on this. And he’s not so partisan that he won’t go after Schumer for his involvement.

By: Bluetoe2

Bluetoe2 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:20:43 +0000

Republican Democrat, the party label doesn’t mean all that much. What matters is they see themselves as Capitalists first and foremost.

By: oMan

oMan — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:07:14 +0000

Why anyone here is shocked that the Dems might be sucked into the vortex of corruption, is beyond me. Both parties play the same game. And if you’re really sorry about the current crash, you might want to take a close look at Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who respectively sponsored in the late 70’s and expanded in the mid-90’s the Community Reinvestment Act, which allowed/forced lenders to abandon prudence in lending to people who were very shaky, indeed impossible, credit risks, because, you know, they “deserved to participate in the American dream.” That PC rubbish, coupled with the bipartisan greedfest on Wall Street that created insanely-leveraged and occult derivatives, coupled also with the decision by FNMA and FMAC to make the CRA paper negotiable in the larger market (decisions made by, or defended by, Democrats such as Raines, Dodd and Frank), led to the immolation of value in which we are now basking. My point about the financial mess is not an excursion from the point about corruption. Corruption is what happens when the guardians are bought off, or begin to believe they are too smart to be tricked. Nobody is immune. The Dems have taken power on a platform of being cleaner. They have one brief chance to prove their case. Their window is closing fast, thanks to Wiliam (Cold Cash) Jefferson, Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, Charles Rangel, Rod Blagojevich. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have been at the wheel for 2 years and what have they done? If they don’t square things away by the summer of 2010, this is over. Just sayin’.

By: foothillsmike

foothillsmike — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:20:51 +0000

Seems like I recall some reformed scoundrel writing a tell all expose book and then being innundated with people wanting to follow in his footsteps. I am not casting aspersions on the school but those aspiring greedy clowns.