Sandhusker said:
ffff, Kola, Alice, OT, Bullhauler, do you think things would be any different now if those requested changes had taken place?
What was Obama or Biden saying at this time?
They essentially were fixed- when Fannie and Freddie consensually agreed to go from Title 33 to Title 34 Banking rules and begin reporting under them....Fannie did it- and is doing it today- but Freddie was already deeply tied up in the accounting scandal and subsequent investigation involving the former CEO's juggling of the books- and they've never got the books balanced enough to do it...
But even the greatest reporting system in the world will not work- if you have no one looking at the reports...And apparently all regulators were on an 8 year vacation...
This didn't just happen because of Fannie and Freddie- its an entire era of deregulation starting in the 70's with the gradual chipping away of the Glass-Stiegel Act-and took on fasttrack status with the passage in 2000 of the Gramm-Leach- Blilley Act--which allowed insurance companies to become lending institutions- and lending institutions to become banks and brokerage firms-- and all to deal in mortgages-- etc. etc.etc....That and the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that Foreclosure Phil Gramm snuck into a must pass budget bill at midnite- which included the now infamous "Enron Loophole" opened up wide open "secret" trading in all commodities (including Oil Futures), and these GSE's in what has been termed now by regulators looking back as a "huge casino gamble" with CEO's playing recklessly and dangerously with investors ( and what it turns out to be ) taxpayers money...
One of the problems that now they are finding was a big contributor- was Bush's failure to secure our borders and/or rid the country of illegal invaders...They are finding that over a million of these defaulted loans were taken by ILLEGAL immigrants.....
A whole era of government promoted fast buck greed- refusal to enforce laws and do oversight- government promoted borrow and spend attitude- etc. etc. led to this mess...And old GW was right in the middle...