The Bushboy and the Announcement this Morning

[Sparkly]

How soon, and how conveniently, they forget.

White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire
Published: December 20, 2008

As early as 2006, top advisers to Mr. Bush dismissed warnings from people inside and outside the White House that housing prices were inflated and that a foreclosure crisis was looming. And when the economy deteriorated, Mr. Bush and his team misdiagnosed the reasons and scope of the downturn; as recently as February, for example, Mr. Bush was still calling it a “rough patch.”

The result was a series of piecemeal policy prescriptions that lagged behind the escalating crisis.

“There is no question we did not recognize the severity of the problems,” said Al Hubbard, Mr. Bush’s former chief economics adviser, who left the White House in December 2007. “Had we, we would have attacked them.”

Looking back, Keith B. Hennessey, Mr. Bush’s current chief economics adviser, says he and his colleagues did the best they could “with the information we had at the time.” But Mr. Hennessey did say he regretted that the administration did not pay more heed to the dangers of easy lending practices. And both Mr. Paulson and his predecessor, John W. Snow, say the housing push went too far.

“The Bush administration took a lot of pride that homeownership had reached historic highs,” Mr. Snow said in an interview. “But what we forgot in the process was that it has to be done in the context of people being able to afford their house. We now realize there was a high cost.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?_r=1

(Today)
Feds to Announce $26B Foreclosure Abuse Deal

Government officials are set today to announce a record $26 billion settlement with the five biggest banks related to foreclosure abuses including "robo-signing" of documents.

The Department of Justice will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. to announce an agreement in principal. (snip)

For the past year, President Obama has advocated for a mortgage relief plan with the five biggest mortgage servicers, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial, to settle an investigation of foreclosure abuses. Evidence of robo-signing foreclosure documents began to show in 2010 during a record national wave of foreclosed homes.
http://gma.yahoo.com/feds-announce-26b-foreclosure-abuse-deal-122214492--abc-news.html

(By the way, do the people complaining about this remember how many billions the Iraq war cost? What's the final tally there, anyway?)

[bullwinkle428]

1. "Dismissed warnings." "No one could have imagined." "Ya covered yer ass - now git back to D.C."

How long does it take some people to realize a fucking pattern when it's staring them in the face?

[think]

2. +1

[southernyankeebelle]

5. Sometimes I find it hard to believe these people didn't know what was going on. You know I

don't have a college degree but goodness I know what kind of a house I can afford or not afford. When we bought our house we based it only on my husband's salaries just incase something happened. We qualified for more because I was working but we knew better and am glad we didn't go over our heads. The banks shouldn't of tried to let you bite off more then you could. I blame both the customer and the banks. But more the banks because they saw dollar signs. They should of helped them by telling the customer the truth.

[LiberalEsto]

3. This is patherically small

when you consider the number of people left homeless and robbed of what little equity they might have had.

[rfranklin]

4. Yet, the right wingers claim that Bush was all over Fannie Mae about subprime mortgages...

They were, according to Heritage Foundation legend, were the primary cause of the financial meltdown.

President Bush Tried to Rein In Fan and Fred
Some critics blame Mr. Bush because he supported broadening homeownership. But Mr. Bush's goal was for people to own homes they could afford, not ones made accessible by reckless lenders who off-loaded their risk to GSEs.

The housing meltdown is largely a story of greed and irresponsibility made possible by government privilege. If Democrats had granted the Bush administration the regulatory powers it sought, the housing crisis wouldn't be nearly as severe and the economy as a whole would be better off.

That's why some mythmakers are so intent on denying that Mr. Bush worked to rein in the GSEs. But facts are stubborn things, as Ronald Reagan used to say, and in this instance, the facts support Mr. Bush and offer a harsh judgment on key Democrats. Perhaps that explains why so many in the media haven't told the real story.

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123137220550562585.html

Rove tells the truth here-- "not ones made accessible by reckless lenders who off-loaded their risk to GSEs."
But manages to glide over it to a conclusion that is total bogus.

[Octafish]

6. Earlier than that. FBI blew whistle in 2004.

A top official warned of widening loan fraud in 2004, but the agency focused its resources elsewhere.

By Richard B. Schmitt
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 25, 2008

WASHINGTON — Long before the mortgage crisis began rocking Main Street and Wall Street, a top FBI official made a chilling, if little-noticed, prediction: The booming mortgage business, fueled by low interest rates and soaring home values, was starting to attract shady operators and billions in losses were possible.

"It has the potential to be an epidemic," Chris Swecker, the FBI official in charge of criminal investigations, told reporters in September 2004. But, he added reassuringly, the FBI was on the case. "We think we can prevent a problem that could have as much impact as the S&L crisis," he said.

Today, the damage from the global mortgage meltdown has more than matched that of the savings-and-loan bailouts of the 1980s and early 1990s. By some estimates, it has made that costly debacle look like chump change. But it's also clear that the FBI failed to avert a problem it had accurately forecast.

Banks and brokerages have written down more than $300 billion of mortgage-backed securities and other risky investments in the last year or so as homeowner defaults leaped and weakness in the real estate market spread.

CONTINUED…

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mortgagefraud25-2008aug25,0,6946937.story

The warning helped the crooks and traitors know the bubble was about to burst, so the insiders cashed out.

Like 9-11, it would've been nice if the BFEE had warned everybody else.

[Sparkly]

7. Ah yes -- and I think the whole "Home Ownership" "American Dream" push started in 2002...??

The Chimperor went on a huge campaign about that.

[Octafish]

8. Poppy Caligula showed the boy how it's done with the Savings & Loan banksters of the 80s and 90s.

"A thousand points of conspiracy."

[WCGreen]

9. You can bet that if the party's were reversed, the GOP would be investigating this....