Nader predicted the financial melt down years ago.

[Laine]

Ralph Nader and his associates have only predicted the eventual downfall of Fannie and Freddie for more than a decade. Republicans shouldn't be so quick to pull the trigger at the Democrats over this, both parties have failed miserably to see the risk of lack of Congressional over sight for years.

Nader's testimony to Congress in 2000:

The Nader Page

Mr. NADER. Thank you very much, Chairman Baker and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am quite pleased that you are holding this hearing, especially to receive comment on your legislative effort to upgrade the oversight regulation of the three Government-sponsored enterprises which dominate the housing finance markets.

While there are clear differences between the thrift industry and GSEs, H.R. 3703 is a reminder of what Congress failed to do to protect the taxpayers and the savings and loans a quarter of a century ago.

For years, this Committee and its companion Banking Committee in the Senate handled the savings and loan industry with soft kid gloves.

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board was allowed to carry out its functions more as a cheerleader than a regulator of financial institutions.

And so when the savings and loan industry began to fall apart in the 1980's, it was politically difficult to impose stringent regulations and higher capital standards on this industry.

Only after the failures caused staggering multi-billion dollar losses to deposit insurance funds and taxpayer funds did the Congress reform the regulatory machinery, raise examination standards, and establish mandatory criteria to trigger an early warning system and require prompt corrective action.

 

[HoleInTheVoid]

So did Bush and McCain.

 

[Laine]

Riiight and they did nothing to stop it. Earliest I recall McCain ever saying anything was in 2005, not the ninties or earlier. Nader also does not have the connections to Fannie and Freddie that McCain and Obama have, much less Bush.Maybe McCain listned to Nader decade or so ago??

 

[Caligirl]

So did Perot.

So did my husband, and my parents, come to think of it.

I've realized through this that I am in fact a fiscal conservative. This 30 fold leveraging thing is the most asinine thing I have ever heard of.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Ron Paul predicted it 5 years ago.

 

[dilloduck]

Ron Paul predicted it 5 years ago.

Jesus Christ---WHO CARES ? There's no prize for being the first one to predict it. How about a prize for the one who fixes it ?

 

[Laine]

The important note being that both McCain and Obama are inept on the issue. Some may have known about this but few have the same credentials as Nader in terms of testifying before Congress and having a hand in studies on this issue.

Maybe there is no prize for being the first to predict the melt down but, if Obama and McCain had this same record then it would be all over the media.

 

[elvis]

Jesus Christ---WHO CARES ? There's no prize for being the first one to predict it. How about a prize for the one who fixes it ?

Because people ridiculed both Ron Paul and Ross Perot as being on the fringe. If Perot had won in 1992, the country would be very different.

 

[Laine]

Reminder, Paul isn't running anymore.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Jesus Christ---WHO CARES ? There's no prize for being the first one to predict it. How about a prize for the one who fixes it ?

No one person is in a position to fix it, and I'm not sure that it could simply be "fixed." I think we're all trying to point out that there are people out there who have solid ideas about how to avoid another major crisis.

 

[editec]

Bear in mind that while this whole event was unfolding there were millions of people benefitting from it.

Obviously the bankers and financier, but also the real estate industry made a fortune, the builders did as well.

Just wanted to remind you all that the money we are all being asked to pay actually went somewhere, you know?

Of course since we cut taxes for billionaires there's like no hope of recovering most of it, is there?

But hey, let's all just continue to blame the people who were trying to buy homes, because like, you know, they are totally responsible for this mess, right?

 

[bigdaddygtr]

So did Bush and McCain.

Bush -predict????

 

[Gunny]

Ralph Nader and his associates have only predicted the eventual downfall of Fannie and Freddie for more than a decade. Republicans shouldn't be so quick to pull the trigger at the Democrats over this, both parties have failed miserably to see the risk of lack of Congressional over sight for years.

Nader's testimony to Congress in 2000:

The Nader Page

*yawn*

I predicted it too. Can I have my own thread?

 

[Mad Scientist]

Of course since we cut taxes for billionaires there's like no hope of recovering most of it, is there?
But hey, let's all just continue to blame the people who were trying to buy homes, because like, you know, they are totally responsible for this mess, right?

Contrary to popular liberal belief, billionaires don't just hoard their money and stuff it under mattresses. They invest it which means it goes back into the economy where it (Gasp!) get's taxed! Of course they should get tax cuts because they pay taxes. Poor people should not get tax cuts because they have not paid taxes. "Rebates" to that group is simply welfare or wealth redistribution.
You don't have to blame all home owners for this mess. Just the ones who couldn't afford it and took out interest only loans for homes and the agencies that sold them those loans.
People talk as if home ownership is a right, well it isn't, it's something to be earned. There are such things as apartments you know.

 

[bigdaddygtr]

So did Bush and McCain.

Thats the funniest thing I've ever read, Thanks

Bush can't even spell predict

 

[editec]

Contrary to popular liberal belief, billionaires don't just hoard their money and stuff it under mattresses.

Clearly you are not qualified to speak for liberals if you imagine they think the above.

 

[midcan5]

Lincoln saw it first. Nader may have noticed it but many others did as well. The destruction of the 'New Deal' has been in play for a long time, mostly by republicans but even democrats have bought into the notion that greed left alone leads to good outcomes. Regulatory breakdowns in a variety of areas have had great impact in business and you saw it first with collapse of major corporations. Money buys power and even Social Security was at risk, and still will be if McCain is elected.


"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." John Maynard Keynes

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." John Kenneth Galbraith

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." John Kenneth Galbraith

"It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war."

Abraham Lincoln in a letter to William F. Elkins, November 21, 1864.

 

[Dr Grump]

Jesus Christ---WHO CARES ? There's no prize for being the first one to predict it. How about a prize for the one who fixes it ?

You do this in your real life too??

 

[midcan5]

"In 1993-94, under a unified Democratic government, the House Government Reform Committee held 135 oversight or investigate hearings. In 2004-05 under the unified Republican government, Congress held just 37." from 'The Big Con,' by Jonathan Chait.

 

[editec]

A whole LOT of us understood that the price of real estate has to bear some relationship to how much money people actually make, folks.

We all knew that the price of RE was inevitably going to correct.

What most of us could NOT know is that the rating firms were LYING about how much risk bond holders were exposing themselves to by buying RE bonds.

I naturally assumed that the possibility that the real estate bubble would burst was build right into their risk assessment of those bonds

Apparently it was not.

But as to the bond holders?

Well they should have understood that the price of real estate made like NO SENSE, too.


As should the lenders, and the borrowers, too.

Q: What were they thinking?

Q. None of them were thinking, they were all blinded by GREED.

Once again, I will remind you all that contrary to the myth of the 1980's that GREED IS GOOD?

It's not.

Greed is a disease of the mind, or if you believe in a soul, it's a disease of the soul.