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Monday, October 06, 2008

Who's watching the watchers?

Mortgage Crisis. Banking crisis. Stock Market Crisis. 800 Billion bailout. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And yet where did this slippery slope begin? Perhaps we're concentrating on the wrong cast of culprits?
I was watching the TV today and there was a congressional committee drilling the CEO of Lehman Brothers about how much compensation he received before the company went bankrupt. It got me thinking. The people asking the questions should also be the ones on the receiving side of the inquisition. You see, it was the US Congress that relaxed the rules on the mortgage giants called Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. This resulted in banks and lenders offering subprime mortgages to people who were clearly not qualified for the amount they requested. This in turn led to housing prices surging to unreasonable prices, defaults, foreclosures, housing slumps, and bankruptcies.
See this link...

As a result, whether for good intentions or bad, we have in effect people (congress) making business decisions that they are not qualified to make. Let me ask you...if you had a person you knew not too well, who was not steadily employed or did not make very much, come up and ask to borrow $10,000, would you lend it to them? What if they threatened to take you to court? That is essentially what the government set up the banks to do. Banks are to blame for allowing the loans but congress is to blame for putting them in a position that in order to make solid financial decisions they would have to fight lawsuit after lawsuit.
We need a whole new congress. Not just democrats, not just republicans, we need a good ol' house cleaning. The people all spoke when the bailout plan was put forth. At least 2 to 1 against any bailout yet not only did they pass it (the 2nd time around) they added PORK to the 2nd bill! How wrong was that!!! That's adding salt to the wound. By adding another 100 billion in pork to an already bad bill, they not only told the american taxpayer to stick it, they did it while giving us the finger!
I for one am going to be looking at who voted for this pig of a bill and making my decisions with that in mind this November.

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