Federal Buyout.....

I don't normally deal much with political issues on my site because we all get enough exposure as it is. On top of that, I feel everyone has a right to their opinions (ok....to a point ;) But since this 'buyout' thing is a huge fuckin mess, I thought I would add my '2 cents'.

I don't know enough about the bailout plan to say one way or another. All I can answer for sure is that neither Bush, Obama or McCain are even remotely capable of coming up with a plan like this on their own...whatever 'plan' gets approved will only be approved with both parties blessing. That 'should' mean that if it fails both are guilty but neither will admit that down the road and if it succeeds both will take credit...90% of all politicians suck. It's naive to keep blaming presidents for 'bad economic cycles' or giving them too much credit when they have very little to do with success in a 4 year term.

I don't believe any one person by himself makes or breaks an economy of this size...that being said, if you insist on looking to point fingers of blame for todays real estate/banking/housing mess feel free to go back to 1977 and Jimmy Carter for his creation of CRA (Community Reinvestment Act). Without boring you with the 'details' Jimmy's creation of the CRA explicitly instructed federal and state bank examiners to assign bad CRA ratings to banks that did not 'lower their credit standards' to help the low to moderate income get approved for mortgages. "Needs to Improves" or "Poor" CRA ratings by a bunch of government geek examiners who never made a fucking loan in their life meant banks all over the country were handcuffed to grow, merge, expand by acquisition or building new branches...so what were banks forced to do by 'bad liberal minded policy from Washington'?

To get off the Examiners 'shit lists' they had to loosen their credit underwriting guidelines...so the days of 20% down payments went by the wayside and 10% down payments came about and PMI (private mortgage insurance) made up the difference for lost 'equity'. Next came 5% down, 3% down, no money down, no doc, low doc, no verification loans, interest only mortgages etc...and who was the 'buyer' of the crappy mortgages...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...oh yeah they are essentially the federal government...did I mention that Barack Obama the attorney, used to work for Fannie Mae? Did I mention that Fannie Mae's 2nd largest recipient of campaign contributions was none other than Barack Obama...so who is he beholden to? I read the CEO of Fannie Mae is fighting to have his 24 Million Dollar golden parachute retirement/severance package paid to him...for what, doing such a great job fucking with Fannie Mae? He's got bigger fuckin balls than I'll ever have.

The bottom line is their all in bed together ....stop thinking the Dem's are good and Republicans are evil. It's all about power for both parties and getting their share as long as they can. I subscribe that the Republicans general philosophy of 'less federal' government is better for us in the long haul while the Democrats liberal mindset that government should solve most or all of our problems is a false promise that continues to buy them votes with the vast majority of poor and minority voters. If the Dem's could fix public schools, poverty, health care, social security with big government what have they done with their chances over the past 50 years?

As for as the 'Bailout' goes, something needs to be done to restore order in the financial markets to put some grease (liquidity) back in the engine of the economy. Nothing is moving and that grid lock can cause the entire engine to shut down...or 'Bailout II' will occur in another few years. ..that being said, some tough medicine needs to be doled out to banks, thrifts (WAMU a huge culprit in this mess), investment firms, and government agencies like Fannie Mae that they won't be allowed to rape and plunder again...the cost to bail out Wall Street can easily exceed 10 Iraq's yet these are Americans ripping off Americans because we have become a greedy, self serving country. Today's philosophy is get all you can whenever you fucking can...and screw the other guy. The mindset to 'serve', 'do the right thing', 'be ethical' has been replaced by golden parachutes to the sum of 24 million for failing...WAMU's CEO was on the job for 17 days...I heard he'll make 18 million for brokering the deal to sell WAMU's assets to JP Morgan. Is the head of Fannie Mae or WAMU a Republican or a Democrat? I don't really give a fuck...they should be put in jail regardless, for 'stealing' from the public trust.

Now.....back to your regularly scheduled programming.