Subprime Obama

[rodeodance]

This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080211/fraser

Subprime Obama

by MAX FRASER



Last year, forty-three states reported increased home foreclosure rates. Nevada led the way for eleven consecutive months; in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, nearly one in twenty homes is in foreclosure. Whole blocks have been foreclosed in Chicago. Nationwide, rates are nearing Depression-era highs--ravaging working- and middle-class neighborhoods that fell prey to the soft sell and outright chicanery of predatory lenders in the heyday of the housing boom. These lenders have targeted the most vulnerable--black and Latino borrowers have been twice as likely to receive subprime loans as whites; female homeowners, 30 percent more likely than male; black women, five times more likely than white men.

As the subprime mortgage debacle drives a recession that threatens financial markets around the world, the Democratic presidential candidates are pushing plans to address the crisis. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are pledging substantial federal resources to stabilize the mortgage market and intervene on behalf of borrowers. Barack Obama's proposal is tepid by comparison, short on aggressive government involvement and infused with conservative rhetoric about fiscal responsibility. As he has done on domestic issues like healthcare, job creation and energy policy, Obama is staking out a position to the right of not only populist Edwards but Clinton as well.

Edwards's plan includes a mandatory moratorium on foreclosures, a freeze on rising interest rates for at least seven years, federal subsidies to help homeowners keep up with payments and restructure loans, and explicit measures to rein in predatory lenders and regulate the financial sector. Clinton's plan is weaker--a voluntary moratorium, a shorter freeze, less commitment to new regulations--but she has promised $30 billion in federal aid to help reeling homeowners and communities.

Only Obama has not called for a moratorium and interest-rate freeze. Though he has been a proponent of mortgage fraud legislation in the Senate, he has remained silent on further financial regulations. And much like his broader economic stimulus package, Obama's foreclosure plan mostly avoids direct government spending in favor of a tax credit for homeowners, which amounts to about $500 on average, beyond which only certain borrowers would be eligible for help from an additional fund. ........

[avaistheone1]

1. Perhaps Obama can't help because he has taken so much money from Wall Street and banks

[Barack_America]

2. Nevermind that leading economists feel that these 'freezes' and 'moratoriums'

may have lasting damage on the economy.

IMO, even the feasibility of these options is in doubt, considering most of those loans have been sold to overseas banks. Somebody's going to have to foot the bill for those loans.

It's one thing to promise these things, it's another thing to actually be able to deliver.

[MethuenProgressive]

3. No mention of Pookie and Ray Ray in this thread discussing policy, so...

..it's doomed to sink.
Great thread, thanks for posting it.

[rodeodance]

4. yup. afraid it is a sinker

[goldcanyonaz]

5. You are sofa king funny.

:rofl:

I bust a gut at many of your posts, and that's a good thing.

[Maribelle]

6. Is this yet another example of the republican-lite Obama?

Or the other half of the half-African-American he has always stressed in his bi-racial insistence?

And when MSM screams out about the historical significance of electing the very first black president - do they in fact contradict Obama, in that it would be the first bi-racial?

[robbedvoter]

7. The Nation? Onlt acceptable against the Clontons.

[bunnies]

8. Not everyone is thrilled at the prospect of their tax dollars

going to bail people out of bad contracts. Tell me... what will be the reward for those who didnt buy a home because they didnt want one of these shit mortgages? Oh thats right... they'll get a big fat nothing. No actually... they'll get the pleasure of knowing their tax dollars saved someone elses home, even while they dont get to have a home themselves.