{"id":2443,"date":"2009-06-24T19:27:20","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T23:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=2443"},"modified":"2009-06-24T19:27:20","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T23:27:20","slug":"barney-franks-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/24\/barney-franks-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Barney Frank’s Bad Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Wall Street Journal<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Back when the housing mania was taking off, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank famously said he wanted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “roll the dice” in the name of affordable housing. That didn’t turn out so well, but Mr. Frank has since only accumulated more power. And now he is returning to the scene of the calamity — with your money. He and New York Representative Anthony Weiner have sent a letter to the heads of Fannie and Freddie exhorting them to lower lending standards for condo buyers.<\/p>\n

You read that right. After two years of telling us how lax lending standards drove up the market and led to loans that should never have been made, Mr. Frank wants Fannie and Freddie to take more risk in condo developments with high percentages of unsold units, high delinquency rates or high concentrations of ownership within the development.<\/p>\n

Fannie and Freddie have restricted loans to condo buyers in these situations because they represent a red flag that the developments — many of which were planned and built at the height of the housing bubble — may face financial trouble down the road. But never mind all that. Messrs. Frank and Weiner think, in all their wisdom and years of experience underwriting mortgages, that the new rules “may be too onerous.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here we go again… Umm, congressman you do remember we how got into this mess don’t you? On the off chance you’ve forgotten it was, among other things, lowered lending standards that helped inflate the housing market to unrealistic levels.The last thing we thing we should be doing is repeating the mistakes that got us here.<\/p>\n

Simply put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are political creature and they have no better friend than Barney Frank. Congressman Frank needs to explain why he pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into underwriting loans to people who couldn’t afford them and then resisted every attempt to to tighten oversight of Fannie and Freddie.<\/p>\n

Until he’s called to account for his actions in helping to create this mess he’s free to keep pushing the same bad ideas over and over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Wall Street Journal: Back when the housing mania was taking off, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank famously said he wanted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “roll the dice” in the name of affordable housing. That didn’t turn out so well, but Mr. Frank has since only accumulated more power. And now he is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,7],"tags":[744,165,113,114,496],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-economy","category-politics","tag-anthony-weiner","tag-barney-frank","tag-fannie-mae","tag-freddie-mac","tag-mortgage-crisis","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-Dp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":587,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/02\/in-thier-own-words-what-they-said-about-fannie-freddie\/","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":0},"title":"In Their Own Words: What They Said About Fannie & Freddie","author":"Jeff","date":"October 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Wall Street Journal has a long history over covering the abuses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac today\u00a0 they're naming names and calling out the Democrats who helped cause our financial crisis. House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003: Rep. Gregory Meeks, (D., N.Y.): . . . I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"[nowides]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/nowides03202003164521.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2486,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/07\/anatomy-of-a-crisis-the-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-debacle\/","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":1},"title":"Anatomy of a Crisis: The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Debacle","author":"Jeff","date":"July 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have released a report analyzing the role of the government sponsored enterprises (GSE), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the housing meltdown. You can read the full report here, but here are the highlights: Political pressure led to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/08\/the-gaffe-that-wasnt\/","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":2},"title":"The Gaffe That Wasn’t…","author":"Jeff","date":"September 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Huffington Post is reporting that Sarah Palin has made her first gaffe: Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend. Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":332,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/09\/fannie-freddie\/","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":3},"title":"Fannie & Freddie…","author":"Jeff","date":"September 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not in a writing mood today but I hate to leave this page silent so I thought I'd share a few must reads on the Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac bailout with you. First is the Op Ed by John McCain in today's Wall Street Journal: We'll Protect Taxpayers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1096,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/11\/wsj-congress-whitewashing-fannie-and-freddie\/","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":4},"title":"WSJ: Congress Whitewashing Fannie and Freddie","author":"Jeff","date":"December 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the buzz about the Feds corruption probe of Gov. Illinois Rod Blagojevich it's easy for things like this Wall Street Journal column to be missed. Whitewashing Fannie Mae Congress begins its self-absolution campaign. Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform met Tuesday to examine \"The Role\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":664,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/06\/finally-mccain-blasts-obama-democrats-for-fanniefreddie-meltdown\/","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":5},"title":"Finally: McCain Blasts Obama, Democrats for Fannie\/Freddie Meltdown","author":"Jeff","date":"October 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: Scroll down for the video. It looks like the gloves are really off, John McCain is going to finally start talking about the economy and going after Barack Obama and Democrats for their roll in the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Our current economic crisis is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}