It also can't be stated enough here, due to it rarely being stated elsewhere, that the Bush administration sought VERY early in their FIRST TERM to put systems into place which would regulate Fannie, Freddy and the absurd left-think which had stubbornly rejected ANY policy which would rebuild viable, sustainable thresholds to mortgage lending.
Why can't it be stated enough?
Especially since according to the Republican sponsor of the only bill passed (in 2005) to regulate Fannie/Freddie during the 6 years the Republicans controlled the government -- a bill the Barnie Frank and Dems joined to support -- was shot down by the Bush administration.
The critics have forgotten that the House passed a GSE reform bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis, says Mr Oxley [Then Republican Chairman of the Committee on Financial Services and sponsor of the Sarbanes-Oxely Act which provided oversight of public companies to prevent fraud after Enron], now vice-chairman of Nasdaq.
He fumes about the criticism of his House colleagues. “All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this,” he says. “What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute.”
The House bill, the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership.
Mr Oxley reached out to Barney Frank, then the ranking Democrat on the committee and now its chairman, to secure support on the other side of the aisle. But after winning bipartisan support in the House, where the bill passed by 331 to 90 votes, the legislation lacked a champion in the Senate and faced hostility from the Bush administration. Adamant that the only solution to the problems posed by Fannie and Freddie was their privatisation, the White House attacked the bill. Mr Greenspan also weighed in, saying that the House legislation was worse than no bill at all.
FT.com / UK - Oxley hits back at ideologues
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