SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

With all the political double-speak flowing out of Washington and permeating the Sunday Morning talk shows it is time to set the record straight relative to who is really responsible for some of our current economic malaise.

The Democrat talking heads are all pointing their fingers at President George W. Bush, but I can prove that the real problem with Fannie Mae started back in the last part of the third quarter of 1999. At that time the legendary New York Times had a revealing article printed September 30, 1999 by Steven A. Holmes.

Here are some direct quotes from that article: “Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits”. The article continues:” “Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990’s by reducing down payment requirements” said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.”

At the end of the article Holmes wrote: “In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s”.

Well it appears that the most quoted newspaper in the world (according to our major television network news departments) clearly placed the origin of Fannie Mae’s problems with President William Jefferson Clinton, and its stockholders. It is logical that stockholders want greater profits, because they invested their hard earned money in the company. I do hold the management, Clinton Administration, Bush appointed regulators, and especially the Senate/House oversight Committees for failing to provide appropriate restraint. Again we see the inter-relationship between greed and politics. While Clinton, our shamed adulterous ex-leader, struts around the world collecting exorbitant speaking fees while selling his influence he and the liberal media, as well as the current administration, continue to lie to the American citizenry.

Apparently, Obama, Axelrod and Emanuel forgot about this article, because they did not have it sealed from public viewing like they did so many of Obama’s earlier papers. Thanks to the internet there is still some degree of transparency.

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