Brave Independent Senator

[PhilT]

Writing from the UK in the middle of the latest financial scandal -- largly as a result of the financial oligachy -- I found this wonderful outburst of "common sense" from a US senator (Bernie Sanders) a real treat to watch and listen to.
If only more politicians were like this brave independent thinker the world would surely improve very fast.

http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/...e-sanders.html

[GreyGeek]

Bernie isn't brave, he's Bernie. He has always spoken his mind regardless. He's one of the very few politicians to openly admit that they are Communists, even though the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which he helped found has, the last time I checked, 76 members, down from 88 a couple years ago. Bernie is the member from the Senate. If only more politicians were honest about their political beliefs.

Bernie fudges the truth in that video. The greedy bankers and Wall street brokers took a HUGE advantage of the housing bubble and the resulting crisis, to be sure, but they didn't create it.

NBC's Saturday Night Live got it right:
http://ubuntuone.com/6q0MaEXbF82M99QGxYJvfK
as news stories showed:

The housing bubble actually began in 1977, when Jimmy Carter signed the C.R.A (Community Re-investment Act), a name which belies its purpose, which was to create subprime lending so poor people could buy homes. ACORN called the process "Social Justice" and "Economic Justice". They picketed banks and homes of bank employees, threatening violence. When they won in Illinois they took their campaign to Congress, which resulted in the C.R.A. This CSPAN video snippet shows, in 1998, Housing and Urban Secretary Andrew Como suing, as a class action, banks which would not give out loans to people who could not afford them. They were accused of discrimination and racism if they did not.

Loans to people who did not have sufficient income to afford the monthly home loan payments as the bubble expanded, and no assets to use as collateral, became known as NIJA loans. Clinton added to the CRA by allowing Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac to back the subprime loans, and to forbid banks from doing business with the Federal gov unless they handed out subprime loans. Well, with both Mae and Mac guaranteeing the loans, and having the "full faith and credit" of the USA behind them, the bankers couldn't lose money on the deal, so they began handing out subprime loans like candy. The problem was that the subprime loan paper had to be sold (exchanged for money) but savvy investors knew they were worthless. So, wall street experts chopped up the subprimes and mixed them with triple A investments, concealing the toxic content. Then they sold the toxic mix to unsophisticated investors both here and around the world.

Before the last election this video summarizing the housing bubble rise and fall was put on YouTube, but it had no affect on the outcome of the election, and if links to it were put in everyone's mailbox it would have no effect today.

The other shoe is about to drop. The other shoe is the 2nd major devaluation of the Dollar. Because of our 15 Trillion dollar debt, combined with our massive printing of money, other countries of the world have been shifting away from the US Dollar as a World Reserve Currency. By the end of this summer no other country in the world will be using the Dollar as a medium of exchange, like they have been doing since WWII. Continued printing of money will only lead to hyperinflation, just like Germany between WWI and WWII, and several South American countries during the last four decades. There are shops on the East and West coasts of America which are now taking (and preferring) the Chinese Yuan to the Dollar! Anyone with any amount of money has moved it to other currencies or to Gold.

It is euphemistically called "Monetary Easing", but many countries consider devaluation a hostile act. Many analysts believe that the Federal government is executing policies which will deliberately devalue the Dollar. Some people are calling Argentina's debacle a decade ago a reference for Greece, but it could equally well apply to the USA.

Tough times are ahead. Here is one analysis for the next 10 years:
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/d...ion-Update.php

[dibl]

GG, that's the best-organized presentation of "what happened" that I have ever seen -- very well done!

[GreyGeek]

Thanks. Finding that SNL video was tough for a while. NBC took it out of their archives and for a while was using the DMCA takedown to remove it from the web, but that, as most know, is impossible. So, it's not like NBC and the other news outlets didn't know what the facts were, it suppressed the skit because it identified a political party they had ties to or shared political persuasions with.

I get a kick out one Congressional Progressive Caucus member, Maxine Waters, trying to back her way out of a Freudian slip:

Watching her fellow committee members roll their chairs back and cover the grins on their mouths was priceless.

But, she spilled the beans on the goals of the Congressional Progressive Caucasus.

Personally, in a free country, I believe that any person or member of a political party not connected to violence, like the Nazis or the KKK or radical Islam, should be allowed to run for office, put out their positions, and let people vote on them. Just be honest, put your goals up front, don't conceal or connive, like Saul D. Alinsky did. Aside: His book, "Rules For Radicals" makes for very interesting reading and reveals the methods used by the extreme Left. I recommend it.

I know I'd sure like to have a vote on the "personhood" of corporations and their "right" to influence the political processes of this country with their cash. The recent SCOTUS ruling re-enforces the fact that a single person or board can, with their millions, cause the enactment of legislation or influence agencies in directions that are entirely opposite to the will of millions of the people. They are a greater threat to our country than folks like Maxine Waters.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
as to the original video.

I like Bernie Sanders but he very conveniently left out the actual ROOT cause of the whole mess which was the Community Reinvestment Act.

And the simple reason for that is that it is waaaaayyyyyyy too far off into the weeds for people to understand.

In fine, the CRA was intended to stop what was called "redlining" which was where a bank, or loan instution, would put a "red line" around places which they considered to be bad risks, and the places were mostly low income and minority.

Now, one COULD argue that the reason they did it was BECAUSE they were bad risks, and Bernie himself talks about "gambling"....that is what lenders do.......the GAMBLE that the person to whom they give a loan will, indeed, repay.

Getting rid of the red line was good.

The next "basic idea" was that, since people are already paying RENT, then why not just lower the amount of "downpayment" and they could be spending the money that they put into rent into a home.

Good idea.....but..... beware the law of herd instinct and ACORN.

The herd of banks, since they were going to have things backed up by FANNIE and FREDDIE.... said.....hey....lets do this.

During the Bush years...... there was MORE BLACK HOME OWNERSHIP and BLACK BUSINESS STARTUP than at any time in history....

A simple fact sadly ignored by the media and the lefty elites. Bush ENCOURAGED the whole thing....

So.... since the banks have a bottom line and want to GROW instead of count beans and CUT.....they expanded the thing...

Unfortunately.......what NOBODY talks about is that.....

eventually the steeply rising curve of loans slowed because of one simple thing.

All of the people who could actually pull of taking a loan when they would previously not been given one dried up....

All the people who could handle a loan and WANTED a loan had the loans....

But, since the investors are continually hollering for the banks to give them MORE dividends and grow, grow, grow....

The banks then started doing the paper shuffle of bundling loans, etc. etc....

Enter ACORN.....again what was ignored by the media was that ACORN people were bussing people into cities to protest in the banks and disrupt the banks days.....the protestors were showing up at the bank presidents, etc. houses and protesting about how they were RACIST....

the lefty elite always must play the race card.

And then we have Barney Frank and his boyfiend. Barney just loves the limelight and really loves to be a powerbroker......so he basically FORCED the issue that if the banks did not lower and lower and lower the requirements for the loans that they were unpatriotic and RACIST and would be "investigated"....him and his boyfriend were deeply involved in Fannie and Freddie....

So..... the banks initially did what the original act wanted, which was to get rid of redlining, and reduced the burden of proof by the person wanting a loan that they could pay it back.

Then you had the housing bubble.....houses were being built at an ever accelerating rate...I actually knew one of the developers, he would knock a thousand bucks off the house if the person would paint the interior of the house, another thousand for putting in some sod, another and another and another.....he wanted his NEW girlfriend, a woman I had known for several years.... become his "private" secretary, and tried to get HER to sign the paperwork....she refused and left.... well the feds chased him to New York and then Texas, where he was finally caught and he is now doing some time in a federal lockup.

I mean the houses were popping up like mushrooms after a rain, ACORN is protesting and the lamestream media is "questioning" the "intentions" of people who possibly are...racist.

Barny and boyfriend are pressuring Fannie and Freddie, and through them the banks...

The stockholders are clamoring at the banks and the young turks are bundling every piece of paper into ever new types of "loans"..... and finally it all just collapsed.

To characterize the "banks" as "purely evil" completely eliminates any of the previous history.

Now, are people that run banks basically "greedy".....welll duuuhhh the reason they are doing it is a) power b) MONEY....

But..... if Fannie and Freddie, by Barney basically been FORCING the situation by continually downgrading the basic requirements so that the banks looked at it as a golden opportunity, I, personlly, think, that the whole situation would have "corrected" itself somewhere in the early nineties... there would have been a mild "recession/dip".....and the everybody would be wringing their hands over that.....but...

Here we are... and the lamestream media only plays one tune...

woodhowdryIamsmoke (for those who are under the age of fifty, that was a popular song a long time ago! )

[1spottedhog]

GreyGreek,

I love what you have put together. May I have permission to use copy this for use on a TEA Party website?

thanks in advance...

[GreyGeek]

Do as you will.

[1spottedhog]

Thanks! When I have the module fully created, I will post a link.

Thanks again!

[1spottedhog]

http://montco-in.tpsites.us/modules....=obama_housing <-- there it is...

thanks again!