McCain Says he Would Fire SEC Chairman Chris Cox

[LabRat]

McCain and Palin spoke at the Cedar Rapids airport this morning. I didn't make it to the speech, but did get caught in the traffic on my way to work this morning.

Thought some might be interested.

Link to local news stations website here has video and transcript of his speech. Palin's is supposedly coming soon.

[classicman]

Why wait - do it now!

[Clodfobble]

Well I guess we know who Chris Cox will be voting for.

[classicman]

lol

[richlevy]

Not like the good old days, when he first came on the job.

I can't find any confirmation on the web, but I'm not sure the president has the power to unilaterally fire him.

[Happy Monkey]

I'm pretty sure they can't.

[classicman]

He cannot - He later recanted and then said the head of the FEC should resign. Ugghh - not a good week for the guy. Seems like senility or old timers is comin' on.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by classicman

He cannot - He later recanted and then said the head of the FEC should resign. Ugghh - not a good week for the guy. Seems like senility or old timers is comin' on.

Y'know that's like the second time this past week that someone has confused the Federal Election Commission with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is sort of like confusing your butcher and your dentist because they both wear white.

I just hope the aides know what they really want when they say "Get the head of the FEC on the phone in five minutes!"

To paraphrase the song.

"Hammas/Hezbollah SEC/FEC, let's call the whole thing off"

[tw]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Well I guess we know who Chris Cox will be voting for.

They again forget to mention the rest of those facts. After Enron, Congress offered to double the SEC budget. The George Jr administration refused to take that cash. Republicans even during Clinton's term have been trying to gut the SEC. When Clinton tried to increase SEC enforcement, a Republican dominated Congress said it would cut off all SEC funding. So Clinton backed down.

Every SEC commissioner in George Jr's administration knows what his job was - to oppose regulation and oversight. Cox was only doing what the George Jr administration and mainstream Republicans always wanted. Why did McCain forget to mention that part? Notice who is now embedded in McCain's campaign strategy staff.

[Undertoad]

Wuh-oh

NY Times, September 11, 2003:
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

Blame enough to go around: it was a Republican Congress in 2003. Still,

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

[tw]

Appreciate a problem created (in part) by Fannie and Freddie. Their intent was to make it easier to buy homes. In theory, a better mortgage meant a home owner could afford the home he otherwise could not afford. What that theory ignored is free market principles. Lower interest rates, etc only cause home prices to increase. These games to make homes more affordable only caused housing prices to skyrocket to something between 20% and 40% excessive.

We need home prices to drop back to 'free market' prices. Prices not distorted by government interference. But that means many homeowners owe more to the bank than the value of their house. That means disruptions (massive craters) in the housing market and building industry.

So we will apply more government welfare to the problem? Unfortunately the problem gets more complex. Nobody really knows what will and will not work better. So we are doing what is politically correct. We are throwing more money at the problem.

Homeowners need no government assistance if the free market is not distorted. But we distorted the market to make politicians look better. To get back to a free market - homes bought and sold without government assistance - means homeowners must suffer now for the easy money of decades earlier. Fannie and Freddie were created to provide government welfare to those who need a mortgage. How much backbone do politicians have to phase out Freddie and Fannie completely? Probably none. And yet that is the only solution to, for example, housing prices that are too high due to government 'free money' games.

[classicman]

Ok, I tried to do a little research on this whole mess - just getting started with some google searching. I'm trying to track the money. That is my thought anyway. So far, here is what I've got. Admittedly none are very current.

Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad Tied To Countrywide Scandal

Two U.S. senators, two former Cabinet members, and a former ambassador to the United Nations received loans from Countrywide Financial through a little-known program that waived points, lender fees, and company borrowing rules for prominent people.

Senators Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, refinanced properties through Countrywide's "V.I.P." program in 2003 and 2004, according to company documents and emails and a former employee familiar with the loans.

Countrywide
financial political loan scandal

In June 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio reported that numerous Washington, DC politicians over recent years had received mortgage financing at noncompetitive rates at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered for the officeholders under a program called "FOA's"--"Friends of Angelo", Countrywide's Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo. The politicians extended such favorable financing included the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND). The article also noted Countrywide's political action committee had made large donations to Dodd's campaign.[1] Dodd also has received approximately $70,000 in campaign contributions from Bank of America, which is buying Countrywide, in the 18 months before the Countrywide Financial loan scandal broke.[citation needed] Dodd has advocated that the federal government, through the Federal Housing Administration, insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages for distressed homeowners.[2]
Franklin Raines then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae on July 31, 2002
Franklin Raines then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae on July 31, 2002

It was reported by the Wall Street Journal on 6 June 2008 that 2 former CEO of Fannie Mae: Franklin Raines and James A. Johnson, also an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, had received loans from Countrywide. [3] On July 16, 2008, The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters." [1].

On 18 June 2008, a Congressional ethics panel started examining allegations that Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd of Connecticut (the sponsor of a major $300 billion housing rescue bill) and Kent Conrad of North Dakota received preferential loans by troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. [4]

Countrywide's Many 'Friends'

Other participants in the V.I.P. program included former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. Jackson was deputy H.U.D. secretary in the Bush administration when he received the loans in 2003. Shalala, who received two loans in 2002, had by then left the Clinton administration for her current position as president of the University of Miami. She is scheduled to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 19.

Holbrooke, whose stint as U.N. ambassador ended in 2001, was also working in the private sector when he and his family received V.I.P. loans. He was an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

James Johnson, who had been advising presidential candidate Barack Obama on the selection of a running mate, resigned from the Obama campaign Wednesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that he received Countrywide loans at below-market rates.

I dunno what the hell to think - Its like chasing your tail - link to link to link... getting frustrated.

[sweetwater]

Make-Believe Maverick - a story about John McCain's record by Tim Dickinson in Rolling Stone. The date on the story is Oct 16, 2008 but you can read the future now. I did.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by classicman

Ok, I tried to do a little research on this whole mess - just getting started with some google searching. I'm trying to track the money. That is my thought anyway. So far, here is what I've got. Admittedly none are very current.

Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad Tied To Countrywide Scandal


Countrywide
financial political loan scandal


Countrywide's Many 'Friends'



I dunno what the hell to think - Its like chasing your tail - link to link to link... getting frustrated.

From the story of the 90 year old woman that shot herself.

In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit.

Over the next couple of years, Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home that she and her late husband purchased in 1970. In 2007, Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.

[classicman]

The criminal proceeding may begin....











for all these fuc*ers