Ok... it appears the coming narrative from the right is blaming the 99% via Fannie and Freddie

[Coexist]

for the financial crisis.

You silly, silly protesters... its your OWN FAULT. Its your poor neighbors fault. Don't blame the 1%. Blame THEM. The OTHER. We're your IDEAL, Its a sad, sick attempt to shift attention away from their actions - their insatiable greed, their lack of moral compass and compassion.

The 1% will fight back and try to divide us; don't let them. They sang this song before, when everything started falling apart. Poor Byron York tried it a couple years ago. Unfortunately for York, Matt Taibbi was on the other keyboard.

B.Y.: I think that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were also major factors. And I believe that many of the problems in the mortgage area can be attributed to the confluence of Democratic and Republican priorities: the Democrats' desire to give mortgages to people, particularly minorities, who could not afford them, and the Republicans' desire to achieve an "ownership society," in part by giving mortgages to people who could not afford them. Again, I believe that if you are suggesting that the financial crisis is a Republican creation, or even more specifically a McCain creation, I think you're on pretty shaky ground.

M.T.: Oh, come on. Tell me you're not ashamed to put this gigantic international financial Krakatoa at the feet of a bunch of poor black people who missed their mortgage payments. The CDS market, this market for credit default swaps that was created in 2000 by Phil Gramm's Commodities Future Modernization Act, this is now a $62 trillion market, up from $900 billion in 2000. That's like five times the size of the holdings in the NYSE. And it's all speculation by Wall Street traders. It's a classic bubble/Ponzi scheme. The effort of people like you to pin this whole thing on minorities, when in fact this whole thing has been caused by greedy traders dealing in unregulated markets, is despicable.

....

B.Y.: When you refer to "Phil Gramm's Commodities Future Modernization Act," are you referring to S.3283, co-sponsored by Gramm, along with Senators Tom Harkin and Tim Johnson?

M.T.: In point of fact I'm talking about the 262-page amendment Gramm tacked on to that bill that deregulated the trade of credit default swaps.

Tick tick tick. Hilarious sitting here while you frantically search the Internet to learn about the cause of the financial crisis -- in the middle of a live chat interview.

Yeah.

:smoke:

#occupywallstreet
#occupytogether

[fascisthunter]

1. gawd they are so stupid

[Skittles]

2. WOO!!!

STICK IT TOO 'EM! Hearty K&R!!!

[abelenkpe]

3. Yeah they've been blaming poor people and programs to help first time

home buyers for years actually. And young people, you see the young and poor well we all expect too much, bought too much home and TVs and vacations. (No not really...only in FOX news land...)

[Skittles]

4. yup - they don't follow the first rule of investigation

FOLLOW THE MONEY

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. They started with that bullshit 2 years ago. Lawrence Kudlow was...

... on CNBC the days after the mortgage market blew apart at the seams, flop sweat and all, blaming Jimmy Carter and Barney Frank.

Then a youtube video of Barny Frank (arguing against something unrelated to underwriting that PASSED in the repub controlled house) made the rounds on the right-wing noise machines.

And viola! History was revised.

Never mind the CRA was an anti-redlining legislation and the low to moderate income loan guidelines designed by Fannie/Freddie were relatively CONSERVATIVE compared to, say, all the non-agency and sub-prime loans being thrown around at the time.

[Coexist]

6. when I went to refinance, I was offered an array of loans with NO income verification

I kid you not.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. Yeah, I'm in the business.

I'll never forget the day one of the sub-prime lenders came to our office with a flyer for:

100% financing
No income No asset verif.
Non-owner occupied
520 fico

I was literally like, WHAT THE FUCK? How do you justify this to an investor?

I used to make jokes to my underwriter over little piddly things he would hassle me about on good quality agency deliverable files. I would say, "come on Steve, you act like you are loaning your own money." I had NO IDEA there were entire companies with the business model of defrauding the bond-holders. No idea.

[Coexist]

8. and yet somehow.perfectly legal

[Hissyspit]

9. Bloomberg was repeating that shit to business leaders yesterday as a way to marginalize

and marginalize the OWS protesters. He is such an asshole.