The Housing Bill part 1-4 by Catherine Austin Fitts

[Joanne98]

http://www.solari.com/blog/

Housing Bill, Part I
Catherine and News & Commentary,August 3, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I have had several requests to comment on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

This afternoon I read hundreds of pages of bill language. Essentially, my take on the bill is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued more debt than can be paid back, so the solution is to have the US government essentially assume responsibility for their debt until such time as the fact that the US government can not service its own debt is addressed.

This increases the national debt overnight from $9.5 trillion to $14.8 trillion overnight (that is a $5.3 trillion increase as opposed to the $800 billion increase provided for in the debt limit increase accompanying the bill). Not surprisingly, a lot of pork needs to be added to pay a lot of people to go along.

A more appropriate bill title would be the “Housing and Economic Takeover Act of 2008.” Rather than declaring the New World Order, we are apparently going to legislate it sector by sector.

Here is the bill language:

Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008

Here is a rosy summary from the Senate Finance Committee:

Senate Finance Summary - Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008

The best overview so far is from Larry Lindsey. Lindsey was one of the more excellent governors of the Federal Reserve. Lindsay had to resign from the Bush Administration in 2002 as Director of the National Economic Council when he had to the good sense to warn that the Iraq War would be expensive.

Hank Paulson’s Fannie Gamble

As Lindsay points out, the number of porky add-ons in this bill are stupefying. Bloomberg provides a review of one:

Fed Loans to Banks Made Easier By Fannie Mae Rescue

Read Parts II & III of this commentary

Housing Bill, Part II
Catherine and News & Commentary,August 3, 2008 at 5:08 pm
One of the instructive features of the housing bill is the nature of creditor politics that is a subtext on housing and mortgage politics these days. One investment newsletter this weekend reported that there are $947 billion dollars of Fannie and Freddie paper listed as being held in foreign exchange reserves worldwide, of which $100 billion was held by Russia.

That sounds low to me. However, since these are “reported” figures, we will work with them. Imagine the politics of a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bankruptcy when your largest investor also has nuclear bombs, submarines and satellites? Also, imagine the politics if they bought their Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities with IMF and other foreign engineered “bail out” loans that were arranged with a secret agreement that a portion of the proceeds be used to buy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt?

I once had a senior Russian official encourage me to switch sides, so to speak. I told him that no one ever accomplished anything betraying their country. Working inside was the best way to address policies gone off kilter. It was not until we parted company that I realized that I had been speaking with a representative of Fannie Mae’s largest investor.

Read Parts I & III of this commentary >>>


Housing Bill, Part III
Catherine and News & Commentary,August 3, 2008 at 5:08 pm
When I was Assistant Secretary of Housing - Federal Housing Commissioner, then Secretary of HUD Jack Kemp asked me to his office for a private discussion. He explained that he was concerned that I was standoffish and did not socialize with the other political appointees, the “principal staff,” at the agency.

I was surprised and noted that I had invited the principal staff to my house for cocktails or brunch five times and with one exception none had ever reciprocated. I noted, in fact, that I had invited Jack all five times and he had never once come. He looked at me with shock and said,

“I would never come to your house. Your house is bigger than my house. I would find it castrating.”

I tell you this story because it is very hard for hardworking, busy people who are subject to the discipline of market forces to fathom what is going on in Washington these days.

It is not in most people’s experience to appreciate a complete break down of financial controls that does not impair the ability to continue to finance — indeed access to more money is near infinite (see “The Military Holds the Dollar Up“) — and this state of affairs is combined with decision making driven by personal profit and sexual potency.

This can only happen when such a state of affairs serves the interests of those who are far more powerful and quite clear thinking. You can attack and take over a country. Or you can simply let it borrow itself to death in a financial coup d’etat. Recent history proves that the second is infinitely more profitable for the victor.

Read Parts I & II of this commentary >>>


Housing Bill, Part IV
Catherine and News & Commentary,August 2, 2008 at 8:08 am
The housing bill brings up a number of important questions about the risks and rewards that result from government subsidy and bail outs.

One recent market commentator pointed out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives were allowed to keep the big bonuses they made engineering the housing bubble and bankrupting the companies.

One of the examples given was Jamie Gorelick, (1, 2) who joined Fannie Mae as Vice Chairman from 1997 to 2003 after engineering the move to private for-profit prisons as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration. Gorelick’s name received national attention as a member of the 9-11 Commission and close advisor to Hillary Clinton.

Gorelick got Fannie Mae compensation and bonus payments of $26 million which she gets to keep.

However, the bill stipulates that Americans at risk of foreclosure who get a mortgage workout must share future equity capital gains with the government.

Read Parts I, II & III of this commentary >>>

http://www.solari.com/blog/

If their was a republican within physical distance of me right now, I would be going to jail for murder. We've been ripped off!

Look at this...
This increases the national debt overnight from $9.5 trillion to $14.8 trillion overnight (that is a $5.3 trillion increase as opposed to the $800 billion increase provided for in the debt limit increase accompanying the bill). Not surprisingly, a lot of pork needs to be added to pay a lot of people to go along.

And this...
One of the examples given was Jamie Gorelick, (1, 2) who joined Fannie Mae as Vice Chairman from 1997 to 2003 after engineering the move to private for-profit prisons as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration. Gorelick’s name received national attention as a member of the 9-11 Commission and close advisor to Hillary Clinton.

I'm soo pissed off I could ^%$#