A Barney Frank question

[onlyadream]

Please don't flame me (I'm not a freeper) - My whole family is Fox watching, Limbaugh loving republicans, so we are always getting into heated debates. One thing that I'm having trouble with is why Barney Frank said this past summer that Fannie & Freddie were in good shape. Please help me out on this one, thanks!

[emilyg]

1. I won't flame you

I don't like or trust Frank.

[Clear Blue Sky]

2. Can't argue with you. He did say that and he was quite wrong.

[grantcart]

3. Starting in June we had several waves of bank runs in the US

They went largely unreported. For example the FDIC came in on Friday morning took over Washington Mutual (largest retail banker in the US) and sold it in the afternoon for peanuts.

What was not widely reported was that Washington Mutual had lost over $ 50 billion in withdrawals in June and July (close to 40%). Many public figures were aware of this. Schumer raised a question about a bank and the bank was gone in a week. I think a lot of feel good statements made in the summer were done in order to stop a full fledged national bank run. I suspect that Frank's statements might have been in that vein.

[Deja Q]

4. I agree with the others; and to be frank I don't like or trust Frank's claim of 2004 either.

Or why I'm supposed to by default.

[Mass]

5. Sure, he should have done like Jim Kramer and announced the country was doomed and provoke even more

of a panic.

Gosh, the man is responsible and we are questioning him for that. Come on.

[Mass]

7. You may also remember your family that this mess is not due to this sentence Frank said in October,

but because the RW insisted deregulating the banks (and democrats follow suit). Attacking Frank on what he may have seen is really focusing on a scratch on a car that is totaled. It does NOT matter. This is NOT the problem, and as long as people will play the games to focus on the details and ignore the big picture, there is no way we will get out of it.

The problem with the bank was they were able to do whatever they wanted without control. Guess what, they overreached, did foolish things, and tanked the system. Whatever Frank said in October 2008 is totally irrelevant. The damage was done way before.

[ellenfl]

6. fannie and frediie might have been in pretty good shape

at that time. that was before the big guys threw in the towel. alternatively, would you rather frank had run around yelling "the sky is falling!"?

ellen fl

[vaberella]

8. The above poster is correct.

He did say that but at the time he had reason...and I mean viable reason. When McCain had made his claim Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers had already collapsed and IndieMack had went under. So McCain was totally wrong and there was no way the economy was good when McCain made his claim.

[marshall]

9. He had a vested interest in believing it was okay

I wouldn't say he way covering up anything--I think he had himself psychologically fooled into believing it was okay. I can't remember the term, but I've heard that there is a thing the mind does when one has so much invested in something. The mind ignores evidence to the contrary and truly believes all is well.

[Fearless]

10. Find the quote and I'll answer it. Otherwise it is just flamebait.

[firedupdem]

11. Don't know but you could always ask them why McCain said

the fundamentals of the economy were strong when they were not!

[JayMusgrove]

12. Right ! Barney Frank and Barack Obama are the cause of

everything wrong with America's and the world's economy, and George W Bush and his Republican Congress in 6 of the 8 last years had absolutely NOTHING to do with the meltdown. It's all Barney's fault, and Obama likes Barney, so Obama must be guilty too.

Whoever these people are who believe and say this bullshit, from now on, just talk about the weather, recipes, and what they want for Christmas with them. They are like small children, with no knowledge of the facts of the last 8 years, like children who believe in the Easter Bunny and believe in the Devil and totally incapable of logical rational thought.

[onlyadream]

13. We do agree to not talk politics...

but my mother constantly brings it up (every time) - and so does my MIL. They are all over Obama now, like this is all his fault (and not 2 months in). This is the tip of the iceburg - it's coworkers, friends, etc. My husband and I are the only ones who get it. Talking to all of them is like beating your head against the wall, but I still feel that it's necessary, they have to here truth somewhere (God knows they won't get it from Faux).

[flpoljunkie]

14. Email them this McClatchy article: Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, Triggered Crisis

Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis

By David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall

WASHINGTON — As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.

Commentators say that's what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They've specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie's and Freddie's financial problems.

Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.

Subprime lending offered high-cost loans to the weakest borrowers during the housing boom that lasted from 2001 to 2007. Subprime lending was at its height from 2004 to 2006.

Federal Reserve Board data show that:

More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.

Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.

Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.

The "turmoil in financial markets clearly was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for U.S. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004 and extending into 2007," the President's Working Group on Financial Markets reported Friday.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53802.html

[Danmel]

15. Another Barney Frank Quesion

Does he have teeth? WHenver I see him speak, it appears as if he has no teeth and the tone of his speech and the noises he makes when he speaks, also sound as if he is toothless. ANyone know?

I also am not a big fan of his in general. I lived in Massachusetts in the early 80s and he was my Congressman then and he was not a particularly pleasant or accessible person even then.