please vote and comment at site on my 158th ltte re : Gramm and the foreclosure crisis

[w8liftinglady]

our letters are "graded" by most read,most comments,and highest rated.Help me get all three..the neocons have monopolized the pages this week.Thanks
http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2008/09/27/opinion/doc48dd057349090511341223.txt
To the Editor,

As President Bush stared into the television camera and announced “Our entire economy is in danger!” I had to wonder ... what and or who is really behind this crisis? One individual stands behind several pieces of legislature that have affected our nation's economy.

John McCain’s self-admitted economic guru, Phil Gramm, is at the root of the foreclosure crisis that is driving this catastrophe. On Dec. 15, 2000, Gramm introduced the 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act as part of a $384 billion Omnibus spending bill.

The act, he declared, would ensure that neither the SEC nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products and would thus “protect financial institutions from overregulation” and “position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century.” Betting on the risk of any given transaction became more important “and more lucrative” than the transactions themselves. There was more betting on the riskiest sub-prime mortgages than there were actual mortgages. Gramm then blithely retired from the Senate to become an executive with UBS — surprise — a Swiss investment bank that benefited from this legislation.

The federal government has now-belatedly — decided to become involved in this legal gambling operation ... not to regulate it, but to bail it out. The beneficiaries will be the lenders, not those who were affected by their unscrupulous lending practices. There should be no blank check delivered to Henry Paulson or any of his associates who allowed this crisis to occur while their golf buddies got rich. The CEOs should be prosecuted and their assets used to resolve this crisis.

[rainy]

1. Is this your whole letter because you have to be a member to see it at the link?

[w8liftinglady]

2. the first/only comment...

ellisprzr wrote on Sep 26, 2008 4:16 PM:

" You must live your life with your head in the proverbial sand. Dems like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are going to take a large part of this shame for their part in influencing private mortgage policies. It is no surprise Ms. Dawson milled another hack letter supporting her partisan views.

This is way bigger than pointing a partisan finger at one component of this complex problem. Borrowers who bit off more than they could chew, lenders propagating and regulators allowing ''no doc.'' verification loans (yes there is actually plenty of regulation existing already), 3 year arms and ''interest only'' loans to uncreditworthy participants, ridiculous value run-ups and equity prospecting and hopping (on the east and west coast) are just a beginning. Lack of personal responsiblity when signing a contract to repay a debt (all in the name of keeping up with the Jones family) is detestable to me.

And behind door number two is the casino environment of Wall street, the impact of minority housing initiatives and legislation, ACORN, equity default swaps, etc., etc. Too much to fast.

Golden parachutes should be completely retracted for every player starting with Franklin Raines. Demands that Frank and Dodd relinquish their Chairmanships should follow.

The fact is that something must be done to capitulate investor and consumer confidence or we will all be living on crackers and mayonaise. Commodities and futures are not the root problem but are merely effect and contributing factors. Out of control fuel prices can also shoulder the blame for destabilizing our economy and not just one selective piece of Commodities legislation demonized by the author. "