Sunday Open Thread

Please don't overlook the stuff that went up Saturday night when I was supposed to be distracted by a ball game.  But let's Open Thread it.  Now, just to threadjack my own blog, let me reprise this old neuroscience post from 2006 - I can't imagine it will ever be on topic but I stumbled across it while looking for something else and it still makes me smile.

Comments

[peter]

Can anyone recommend a good kitchen timer? I just broke my favorite Acu-Rite Rotary timer-- a discontinued model.

[Melinda Romanoff]

peter-

We've had no problems with the LUN.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oh, and Good Morning!

It's 26 degrees here! Boy am I glad I brought the hoses in...

[clarice]

That's that global warming for you, Mel--Yesterday I commented I'd probably overstayed my welcome on earth because I could not imagine such dregs as these in the WH--Today someone reminds us in one article of the backgrounds of these people--maybe I'm not alone in thinking this more remarkable than the media would have us believe:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/ship_of_fools_obamas_intimates.html

And Cashill has more Ayers links to Dreams:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/a_closer_look_at_obamas_odysse.html

[Captain Hate]

I'm watching Jennifer Granholm on FNS and am just astounded at the stupidity of what Michigan has running their state. 15.5% unemployment and she's talking about how much the stimulus has helped. I knew she was clueless but the level of it is just staggering; whoever is advising her and promulgating the myth that having her spar on television with people who are successful at creating jobs and wealth couldn't be more wrong.

[clarice]

I still like this TM:The "cold reasoning" regions of the cortex were relatively quiet.

This is what keeps my town humming and our pockets full of your cash.

[Gmax]

Can late 2010 hurry up and get here already? I dont like the movie we are watching at all.

[Gmax]

dont remember the post TM but you asked then, I answer now the burning question "why no women?".

Clearly they knew they were measuring emotional responses and were using highly sensitive and very expensive machinery. They simply did not not want to bury the needle on emotional responses and have to replace the whole damn machine! I cant believe that did not come to you before now! ( Now I duck, cover and roll into fetal position !).

[narciso]

Remember she's the beauty pageant winner that went to Berkeley, and she's on the economic advisory team. Gmax, you know the
pitchforks and the pikes, will get through
so why risk it,

[Extraneus]

Clarice's link to the vipers, locusts, rats & roaches in the WH.

[clarice]

Thanks, Extraneus. I just realized it was cut off.

[Extraneus]

But on a cheerier note, Harry "The Body" Reid, at under 50% approval, would be beaten by either of two potential challengers if the election were held today.

[Rick Ballard]

Cap'n,

Granholm is referring to the jobs being saved and created by moving Hummer assembly to China. Or maybe the jobs saved by closing Pontiac and Saturn. That's bound to strengthen sales for GovMo WidowMakers, right? Don't forget the Your Bammiedollars At Rest signs either. They don't paint themselves.

[Jack is Back!]

And down here on the First Coast of Florida we are breaking all records for temps. Friday afternoon, I went to play 9 holes at 4:00pm and the temperature was 94 F. Thank God for ice towels and ice water. Hottest October on record. And we are on the ocean. Got close to 100 in Orlando.

[clarice]

My mom says it's boiling hot on the southeast coast of Fla, too, Jack.

[Soylent Red]

70 F here in central Virginia yesterday. Back in Nebraska? Snowed yesterday. Heh. I almost called my parents to rub it in.

Going out to stomp around in the woods and enjoy the turning leaves today. This is absolutely my favorite time of year, and moreso now that I am in a place with actual foliage.

[PaulL]

"This plot is so absolutely rich, so thoroughly cinematic, that the literary gatekeepers refuse to believe it is true."

Cashill says the exact opposite of what he means to say here, does he not?

Shouldn't it be "refuse to believe it is not true."

[Captain Hate]

Rick, what you're saying is what she runs the risk of somebody asking although she did mention that cars are being built in Ontario because of the Canadian health care system as if that's the only consideration to make in a decision to relocate a production facility; she said that near the end when nobody could refute her. Michigan people must love misery because they continue to elect her and her ilk despite massive evidence that what they do doesn't work and they're incapable of changing course.

[narciso]

No, I think he means the actual story, not the Potemkin front.

[Captain Hate]

It's been unusually chilly in NE Ohio for the last 3 weeks with high temps in the 50s which is about 10 degrees cooler than average. You'd think that would take some of the edge off the Glowbull warming nutjobs but their dogmatic zeal in refusing to process actual data just causes them to dig in harder.

[narciso]

No one wants to live in Detroit, it has become the place that RoboCop parodied twenty some years ago. Ontario of course, looks like a better place.Hope Hoekstra has a chance as Governor.

[clarice]

No, Paul, I think Cashill said it correctly--he is talking about the actuality being unbelievable esp. to the press.

[narciso]

Sorry, PD in Detroit, about that.

[sylvia]

JMH and Bgates I was doing a little googling and just saw this:

http://www.phil.frb.org/publications/annual-report/2008/no-evidence.cfm

"No Evidence of CRA Role in the Crisis"

In looking for causes of the subprime mortgage crisis, some people have contended that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) pushed banking institutions to make high-risk mortgage loans in lower-income communities and that such lending led to the crisis. In a November 2008 study, Federal Reserve economists Glenn Canner and Neil Bhutta analyzed mortgage-related data to assess such arguments and found no empirical evidence to support the claim that the CRA was a major contributor to the subprime crisis.

Enacted by Congress in 1977, the CRA requires bank regulators to encourage insured depository institutions, such as banks and thrifts, to help meet the credit needs of their entire community, including low- and moderate-income areas. The CRA encourages financial institutions to extend mortgage, small business, and other types of credit to lower-income neighborhoods and households. It also encourages them to provide investments and financial services to businesses and people in low-and moderate-income areas. The law, however, does not set targets or goals for lending, investment, or services. What's more, the law states that banks and thrifts should make loans and investments consistent with safe and sound banking practices. The CRA does not cover independent nonbank lending institutions, such as mortgage and finance companies.

In a December 2008 speech, then-Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner (pictured right) specifically rebutted the claim that the CRA was a major cause of the subprime crisis, drawing on the 2008 staff analysis as well as earlier work done by Fed staff. According to Kroszner, "We have not yet seen empirical evidence to support these claims, nor has it been our experience in implementing the law over the past 30 years that the CRA has contributed to the erosion of safe and sound lending practices." He commented on two reports prepared by the Federal Reserve for Congress: the 1993 "Report to the Congress on Community Development Lending by Depository Institutions," and a 2000 report, "The Performance and Profitability of CRA-Related Lending." These reports analyzed the performance of lending to lower-income borrowers and neighborhoods under the CRA. In the speech, he stated:

"These studies found that lending to lower-income individuals and communities has been nearly as profitable and performed similarly to other types of lending done by CRA-covered institutions. Thus, the long-term evidence shows that the CRA has not pushed banks into extending loans that perform out of line with their traditional businesses."

[narciso]

How many houses were in the sample, why aren't the 1995 revisions to the CRA mentioned, this seems the sort of accounting
that told us that AIG was on sound footing.

[Rocco]

Forty years ago today, during the Days of Rage riots, Weather Underground member Brian Flanagan attacked and kicked Chicago city attorney Richard Elrod viciously, breaking his neck and paralyzing him. Later, Bernardine Dohrn led a celebration of Elrod's paralysis by leading her comrades in a parody of a Bob Dylan song, "Lay, Elrod, Lay."

Lay, Elrod, lay,

Lay in the street for a while

Stay, Elrod, stay

Stay in your bed for a while

You thought you could stop the Weatherman

But up-front people put you on your can,

Stay, Elrod, stay

Stay in your iron lung,

Play, Elrod, play

Play with your toes for a while

[sylvia]

The article goes on as well with more evidence that the middle class was just as or more responsible for the crisis. Seems to be a good article because it includes a lot of specifics.

See you guys got your information from some right wing blog that stated the maxim that the crisis was caused by the CRA. You, as loyal conservative readers, accepted that maxim without question because of processes similar to what Tom alluded to above. However, did you ask to see the proof for this maxim? Did this article or articles you read include the proper stats and studies to support this maxim? Usually from what I see on these types of websites they provide incomplete or misleading data support to make you think what they want you to think.

However, most people do not question the ideas and go along with it. And if someone comes along who questions the ideas as being unsupported or not making logical sense, then the loyal thinkers start castigating them as being a person who is unreasonable or who makes assumptions. They do not then provide statistics that the maxim is true, they merely keep repeating the maxim. And if the questioner persists in presenting them contradictory information, their brain gets so overloaded they begin to just ignore the information, because they just can't handle it. It's the typical human response. Like the article said, you have to use a little mental discipline to rise above that primitive group think response, but most people are not up to it.

[sylvia]

Narcisco, I just came across the article, so I don't know the answers to that yet, but it seems well supported to me. I also came across articles of different variations, but this one seems to have the most statistics and facts. Again, you have to study it and take each article with a grain of salt and use a variety of sources to make up your mind. I don't think there is one answer or cause anyway, it's usually a variety of causes.

[narciso]

You want to ignore any role caused by the CRA revisions, you also want to ignore the
impact of 18 consecutive interest hikes, on rate sensitive derivatives. I was expecting
something authoritative, the fact the Fed doesn't even address factors under it's own aegis, makes it suspect

[Captain Hate]

Bernardine Dohrn led a celebration of Elrod's paralysis by leading her comrades in a parody of a Bob Dylan song, "Lay, Elrod, Lay."

The compassionate radicals. To his credit, Dylan has never agreed with these idiots on anything and has regularly refused to be co-opted by them and their ilk despite their fascination with his songs.

[clarice]

Dohrn really seems beyond redemption, doesn't she?

[narciso]

Sadly so, they still hold the hatred against this country, that they did forty years ago, their signal failure was to transform this country into the land my family fled, Unfortunately they are still too far ahead in that objective for confort.

[Danube of Thought]

Seventy degrees in Coronado. But then it's always 70 degrees in Coronado, except when it cools off in the evening.

[sylvia]

"You want to ignore any role caused by the CRA revisions, you also want to ignore the
impact of 18 consecutive interest hikes, on rate sensitive derivatives. "

Well I don't know about those, they could be a factor too. What I also think was a factor were the too low mortgage interest rates after 9/11 which combined with loser lending laws was a prescription for loan disaster. Like I said, it's usually a variety of things.

[narciso]

Even a blind squirrel catches an acorn in the LUN

[narciso]

Wrong LUN, here, you don't think effectively
doubling the interest rate, in two years had an impact. Consider this, what do you think will happen when the next set of rates
spike and the remaining sub prime mortgages
go critical

[sylvia]

Narciso. your LUN is on Afghanistan. But either way, I don't know, I am not a financial expert. I would have to look up a response for you.

[narciso]

Different topic, in keeping with the thread,
commercial real estate is also likely to fail for some of the same reasons. And the
same people who let it happen are in the
control of the House and Senate, and they
are recommending steering into the iceberg
yet again!

[Pagar]

The CRA LUN comes from the Phil FED. Does anyone really think that the Fed is going to announce that they caused the disaster. In the thousands of failed leftist policies has any leftist ever admitted they caused the mess. I would expect an announcement that the CRA caused the financial disaster to be published right after John Kerry announced that the US and South Vietnam would have won the Vietnam War except for him and his friends helping North Vietnam.

[ROA]

My understanding is that the reason the CRA helped cause the crises is that during the Clinton administration regulators stated that differences in rejection rates by race was evidence of discrimination. Therefore mortgage companies relaxed, or practically eliminated, qualification verification. Anyone could walk in and claim to have whatever income it took to qualify for a loan. Mortgage companies were afraid to check because if they disqualified too many people they would be branded as racists and face penalties.

The people who abused these provisions may not have been lower income, but the reason credit checks were relaxed was due to the way the CRA was implemented under Clinton and Bush.

[The Democrats did it. They even blocked regulation and worsened it.]

Check out the Boston Fed study, sylvia. I believe Ross McKitrick, of Hockey Stick fame has done a takedown on it, among others.
====================================

[Rocco]

In April 2006, Bill Ayers wrote in his blog...

Each letter had a logo hand-drawn across the page—our trademark thick and colorful rainbow with a slash of angry lightning cutting through it. New morning, it signified, changing weather. Oddly, as intense as it all looks and sounds, it was in our minds then cautious and responsible, a huge de-escalation from the apocalyptic plans of just months earlier. In any case, I loved that symbol of peace and reconciliation balanced by the hot bolt of justice.

Here's an example of that symbol from iOwnTheWorld. Those three rainbow stripes, sure look like the stripes in the O logo. And take a look at "the hot bolt of justice" from The Jawa Report. Notice the bolt of lightning thru the center of his logo. Coincidence?

[narciso]

True, Pagar, it's their lack of pretense in putting forth the lie, that shouldn't surprise. put that with the TARP funds successfully tracked through the system.

Just like that legal opinion, by the Honduran Court, which waits to the last paragraph, to say they acted illegally but doesn't say how or why.

[Rick Ballard]

I don't see the problem. People will be able to pay off their entire mortgages with a couple of wheelbarrows of Uncle Ben's Bammiebucks. That's what the states are planning on doing. After all, there just aren't any new jobs being created. Not even Bammie 'lean on a shovel' make work. Lots of new Bammiebucks though. And lots and lots more to come.

[sylvia]

"Does anyone really think that the Fed is going to announce that they caused the disaster."

You pretty much only need the right stats to make an informed assumption on this. And the main stats you need are a breakdown of mortgage defaults by income level. Preferrably listed in a chart showing it year to year. And if the stats are somewhat reliable, the proof is in the pudding. The Philly article seems to provide some of those stats.

[narciso]

Yes, Rick, that worked so well in Weimar Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, wait that's
not what you meant at all, right

[Old Lurker]

"My understanding is that the reason the CRA helped cause the crises is that during the Clinton administration regulators stated that differences in rejection rates by race was evidence of discrimination. Therefore mortgage companies relaxed, or practically eliminated, qualification verification. "

Not just mortgage companies, but banks and S&L's as well were accused of redlining using those same statistics. That evidence was then used to deny those bank permission to open new branches and other regulated business opportunities causing them too to succumb to the bullying from Clinton's regulators. As always, the willing press did the dirty work, notably WaPo going after several previously well connected institutions.

[sylvia]

Rocco, I don't see the lightening bolt in the second link. Am I missing it somewhere? And I am confused in the first link - are they mixing and matching the logo in the second column?

[Uncle BigBad]

Sylvia, you left out the part about how court-supervised lending added unqualified borrowers to the mix; about ACORN swarms at banks to force lending to borrowers unable to repay, all sponsored by the CRA.

You seem to have stumbled on a report that says lending to people who cannot repay cannot possibly be responsible for the housing meltdown.

[sylvia]

Okay Rocco where it says "Weather Underground Logo Printed on Blue Circle" - what does that mean? Did the WU do that for one of their logos, or did someone else just do that for comparison?

[Old Lurker]

Oh, Rick, there you go again picking on the states. Why just the other day, CA fixed all their problems.

Or did I read the Bloomberg LUN incorrectly?

[SWarren]

Never thought I'd say kudos to Thomas Friedman but this op-ed is stellar. He writes the Nobel acceptance speech that Obama should (won't) give.

......“So for all these reasons — and so you understand that I will never hesitate to call on American soldiers where necessary to take the field against the enemies of peace, tolerance and liberty — I accept this peace prize on behalf of the men and women of the U.S. military: the world’s most important peacekeepers.”

LUN

[clarice]

Whatever got into him, SW?

[sylvia]

"You seem to have stumbled on a report that says lending to people who cannot repay cannot possibly be responsible for the housing meltdown."

There was an effect from that, but the question is, how large was the effect? Was it the main cause?

Blacks make up a smaller portion of the population, and with the lower income blacks, they buy unwanted cheaper properties that probably didn't inflate in value as much. And how large was their default rate? Was it only maybe a little greater than the middle class or a lot greater? If it wasn't all that much greater, if you add up all the cost from the defaults from that, it is probably still not the big money. The big money is still in the middle class.

[Rocco]

In the second example, the lightening bolt is under the birds left wing pointing towards 11 o'clock.

Yes, they're mixing and matching logos in the second column to show the similarities.

[narciso]

Blind man and squirrel, again with Thomas Friedman. He did acquaint us with Hama rules, but then said we should deal with Syria. Except if we ship terrorists over to
Damascus, because then it's our fault, and so on, and so on,

[Old Lurker]

Proof that Rick is being too harsh on states' management of their balance sheets, I think they all plan to use the excess earnings in their pension plans to cover whatever hiccups they are having in their budgets while waiting for the Bambibucks. Surely you know they have all those excess pension funds waiting to cover the bills, don't you, Rick.

Damn. Or did I misread the attached WaPo LUN on that story too?

[Gregory Koster]

Sylvia, the Philly Fed looks at lending "the height of the subprime lending boom" in 2005-06. Not surprisingly, they find subprimes were only 6% of the total.

But that's the wrong question. The Right's contention has been that CRA got the process rolling, by pushing loans to unqualified borrowers, and then when Fan/Fred stepped in to take these hunks of junk, the process roared to destruction. Given that, the relevant time frame would be 2003-04, when the nation was out of the 2000-01 recession. Not surprisingly, this wouldn't get the Philly's ax sharpened enough, which is why the original study did not cover the relevant time period.

Next, who can believe the second answer the Philly Fed gives:

"That is, subprime or Alt-A loans made in lower-income neighborhoods (which would be the focus of CRA-related lending) did not perform worse than when such loans were made in higher income neighborhoods."

So income levels have nothing to do with how a loan performs? So much for two thousand years of banking. A clearer way to say it would be that small bad loans made to poor folks don't perform any worse than big bad loans made to richer folks. But that doesn't cover enough Fed rump, hence the obfuscation.

So far, nothing new. There may be material that supports your contention. This for example, which should make you feel better.

[sylvia]

Very interesting Rocco. I saw the subtle lightening bolt. Yes Tthere are some similarities, the stripes, the semi-circle. The fact that a subtle lightening bolt under the bird was added seems odd. Why add it at all if you are going to make it so subtle? Seems like a hidden message. Although the site confused the matter with the cut and pastes. They should have left it as is.

[Rick Ballard]

From OL's link:

“Revenues more than $1 billion under estimates and recent adverse court rulings are dealing a major blow to a budget that is barely 10-weeks old,” Controller John Chiang said in a statement. “While there are encouraging signs that California’s economy is preparing for a comeback, the recession continues to drag state revenues down.”

That's it! The economy is obviously just pining for the fjords for a moment!! I'll bet it'll be back on its perch faster than you can say Bammiebuck.

[RichatUF]

What would we do without sylvia?

See, a graph published by the Phily Fed says the CRA wasn't the problem. So it is written, so it is done. Was the CRA some sort of theme in Moore's new agit-prop?

From the Phily snowflake: With regard to the first question, the staff analysis focused on lending activity during 2005 and 2006, the period that corresponded to the height of the subprime lending boom.

Wow 2 years of data on a law that is now 32 years old and a significant basis for the Federal Reserve's powers? And those last 2 years would have also corresponded to the top of real estate prices in most markets-most places in the inland empire of California would qualify as "high income areas", which doesn't tell us anything about the income of the borrower or ability to repay.

[Pagar]

"And the main stats you need are a breakdown of mortgage defaults by income level."

I think there is more to the CRA disaster than mortgage defaults by income levels.

What is critical is how many of theses bundles of mortgages that were sold to investors had no income, no credit check, mortgages in them along with good mortgages. It is my understanding that lenders had no way of knowing where the no credit check mortgages ended up and therefore the entire industry of selling bundled mortgages became suspect. At that point all holders of bundled mortgages had no way of determining what there bundles were worth and could find no market for what they held, bring down the entire financial industry.

[sylvia]

Okay now I am tired on the subject. I can only blog for so long at one time. But maybe later on I will try to do some rebuttals.

[Jim Ryan]

re: Friedman, I don't know but years ago Vodkapundit used to diagnose that he was genius about detecting problems and an utter moron about solutions.

By the way, the current NRDT is good. That's two issues in a row better than average.

[Jim Ryan]

No CRA, MBS, CDS/CDO, no crisis. No government interfering too much in market no CRA, MBS, CDS/CDO.

Sure there were stupid and immoral businessmen involved. There always have been and always will be stupid and immoral businessmen. That's human nature. But central planning and government over-interference are optional.

[clarice]

Well, we know there are never any stupid and immoral businessmen, don't we?

[Pagar]

All America needs to know about why we are in a financial mess.

Link

FDIC critical of bank that has no bad loans.
FDIC apparently thinks banks are not doing a good job unless they are welling to throw away shareholder money. Now remember, this is not taxpayer money which no on actually expects the FDIC to care about, this is shareholder money they want thrown away.

[narciso]

Which begs a question, are they stupid or evil, to come to this conclusion. I konw it's in keeping with everything else they do.

[hit and run]

Interesting...

Why would Earache Boehlert & MediaMutters4Bulgaria help cover up a hate crime? http://tinyurl.com/m6s5u2

That's Andrew Breitbart's tweet just now.

The link is to a Media Matters discourse on how Kenneth Gladney's beating was an exaggerated story practically invented by the right.

What does Breitbart have on Media Matters (who he's been hammering on for a while) and the SEIU?

[bolitha]

Isn't there a song "Who is Sylvia, who is she?"

[PeterUK]

Does anyone remember the particulars of Chuck Schumer's letter which set the house of cards tumbling?

[peter]

Most Muslims want to fight terrorism, just like all of us. at LUN

[hit and run]

PUK:
Does anyone remember the particulars of Chuck Schumer's letter which set the house of cards tumbling?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27505>Jun 26, 2008

Schumer, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, who used his position of authority to communicate to the OTS and the FDIC that he was "concerned that IndyMac's financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers," and that IndyMac "could face a failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly."

Everything might have been fine had Schumer stopped there, but Schumer (being Schumer) took the additional step of releasing the letter to the press.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27505>Jul 11, 2008

IndyMac Regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision: "The OTS has determined that the current institution, IndyMac Bank, is unlikely to be able to meet continued depositors’ demands in the normal course of business and is therefore in an unsafe and unsound condition. The immediate cause of the closing was a deposit run that began and continued after the public release of a June 26 letter to the OTS and the FDIC from Senator Charles Schumer of New York. The letter expressed concerns about IndyMac’s viability. In the following 11 business days, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion from their accounts.”

[Charlie (Colorado)]

All America needs to know about why we are in a financial mess.

There's one of those sentences that's pretty well guaranteed to be wrong.

[PeterUK]

H&R,Thanks.
Jun "6 2008 ,a very important date in the Ascension of the One.If somebody had a nasty mind,they might conclude that just over four months to an election was somewhat beyond happenstance.
After all,if the Democrats were willing to lose a war to gain power,what price the economy? Remembering that the left believe that crisis is the motor of change.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

but ust to be fair and balanced, Sylvia, when you say you're not a finance person but, and then post a couple of excerpts from a Fed document, that makes the probability of your being wrong pretty high too.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

PUK, you realize that you're seriously suggesting that Chuck Schumer is sufficiently bright to be able to cause a collapse of the financial system on command with one letter?

[PeterUK]

Charlie.Yes I realise how serious accusations of intelligence are,but he probably has wealthy and nimble minded friends who thought nobody will suspect Chuckie. The shooter is always a patsy.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

You guys are free to argue over the CRA and the subprime mortgage issue forever. You will literally argue about this forever. The facts support both sides of the argument.

The real reason we have a banking crisis is because the Fed is not independent. It cannot be. It's dual missions to control interests rates and achieve full employment create a conflict by which they have to create necessary bubbles in any industry they can find. Be it the financial services industry or the housing industry or the S&L industry the common denominator is the creation of temporary jobs.

How do you get Home Builder X to start investing? You lower interest rates. But wait. You cannot just lower rates. You cannot just build homes, that will hire new laborers, without people to buy them. So Home Builder X also has an interest in increasing the size of the buyer pool. Few in the market are buying homes with cash and the investors that are buying in cash do not have near the political capital to protect their assets as a giant conglomerate then they would if they were a giant conglomerate with a securitized collection of voters with interest equity of key interest to politicians. You know, mortgage holders.

So what do you do? Well the Bush team knew what had to be done. They had to start the walk back through reforming Fan/Fred in 2005. They had already secured their election that is accurately predicted in 20th century American politics. 2nd terms are all predicated on a growing economy. If you don't have one then you're Taft'd, Hoover'd, Carter'd or Bush'd.

One problem here. What if voters are buying two, three, or more houses each with their own mortgage?

And that's where we are today. The government cannot untie this knot. The mortgage owners are doing what they can. They're divorcing, they're moving in relatives, they're calling their retired parents. They are trying to change owners to someone they know in order to qualify for the government rescue.

[hit and run]

PUK:
If somebody had a nasty mind,they might conclude that just over four months to an election was somewhat beyond happenstance.
After all,if the Democrats were willing to lose a war to gain power,what price the economy?

Indeed. Thursday will mark the one year anniversary of http://thevimh.blogspot.com/2008/10/whatever-it-takes.html>this post.

A nasty mind is a terrible thing to waste.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Does anyone remember the particulars of Chuck Schumer's letter which set the house of cards tumbling?

Indymac was a junk bank anyway. It's Florida operations were never going to hold up. There is no way you can refinance 100,000 dollar residential properties for 250,000 when they have no basements.

I imagine the bank examiners looked at Indymac's books and just started questioning the sanity of its operators.

We need to pressure China to allow the Yuan to float. Beijing should be getting the same love letter from every Central Bank in the world.

"We love you. But we're just not that into you. Lets just be friends. You can't fall in love with everyone."

I wonder if "Going Rogue" will say anything about this. Norman Ornstein seems to think Mrs. Palin should shut the hell up on matters relative to the US Dollar.

[PD]

Frost on the windshield the last two days in Madison.

[bgates]

Sylvia links to a page headlined, "No Evidence of CRA Role in the Crisis".

How much evidence? "None". Zero. A "Sylvia's understanding"'s worth of evidence.

According to the title, how much of a role did the CRA play? Again, none. A "value of one's time in talking to Sylvia"'s worth. Zilch.

One paragraph later, we learn that the Philly Fed says they cannot support the claim that the CRA was a major contributor to the subprime crisis. "Major"? Why throw that in there? It's an admission that the CRA played a role buried under a smokescreen - how big is "major"? Is it a synonym for "indispensable"? We don't know; they don't say.

the CRA requires bank regulators to encourage insured depository institutions....
How do you suppose bank regulators "encourage", Sylvia? Gold star stickers? They have life-and-death power over these businesses. The effect of bank regulator "encouragement" is..."major".

The law, however, does not set targets or goals for lending, investment, or services.

No, the CRA statute does not - which means it is left to the discretion of the regulators to define targets and goals, which is how a law passed in 1977 did not effect much of how banks did business until Clinton-era regulators started to interpret the law in a way that required more of the banks.

What's more, the law states that banks and thrifts should make loans and investments consistent with safe and sound banking practices.

So take that, wingerz - Congress did not pass a law which stated unambiguously that "banks and thrifts should make loans and investments that are guaranteed to crash and burn and cost us all trillions of dollars". Congress said "consistent with safe and sound banking practices" - with the determination of what fit that vague, happy definition, sufficient only to impress Congress, small children, and the Sylvias of the world, left up to the regulators.

The Fed assures us that only 6 percent of all higher-priced loans to lower-income borrowers or neighborhoods were made by CRA-covered institutions or their affiliates. If these bright minds had gone into military history, we could have learned that Pearl Harbor played a minor role in the American involvement in World War II - after all, with barely 1% of the casualties, how much of a difference could it have made? Of course (I say "of course", Sylvia, because it's obvious to everyone else), it's not the number, it's the timing. Things that happen first, which lead to other things happening later, are often deemed important. We call these first things "causes". For example (and for the hundredth time): When Clinton-era regulators interpreted the CRA to require banks (that is, "'encourage' banks, with the encouragement coming from a government agency that could shut them down) to expand lending to worse credit risks*, the banks and the regulators together pressured the secondary mortgage market (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both run by Clinton people themselves) to buy whatever junk mortgages the banks had. Once the quasi-government entities started buying this junk, it became possible for financial entities to make money selling the junk.

Something had become possible which had not been possible before.

We call the thing that makes another thing possible its "cause".

*Why "worse"? The Fed assures us that lending to lower-income individuals and communities has been nearly as profitable and performed similarly to other types of lending - which is like saying your thoughts on banking are nearly as coherent as your theory of how Malcolm X went to Cuba to seduce white women and breed a race of super-strippers who would entice college lacrosse players into sexual assault. In other words, saying something is almost as good as something that is less than worthless isn't much of a compliment.

[glasater]

We had frost this AM. The wind machines were going like crazy for the apple orchardists and vineyards.
Check out LUN for a friend's take on her twitter feed.

For Sylvia-

Can anyone remember the link to Cathyf's slideshow a year or so ago that explained the meltdown? She needs to especially the "stinky stuff" picture page.

[Janet]

Rocco - My big problem with the Obama logo is that President Obama HAS a logo. How odd is that? It's like he is a product. A logo that resonates over and above the Presidential seal.

The logo is the red,white,and blue O.
The spokesperson is Obama.
What is the product?(socialism, fascism?)...and who are the company owners?(Soros,???)?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

This Slideshow?

It's good. It could use a few more slides to explain the government side of the problem.

[clarice]

bgates:"which is like saying your thoughts on banking are nearly as coherent as your theory of how Malcolm X went to Cuba to seduce white women and breed a race of super-strippers who would entice college lacrosse players into sexual assault. In other words, saying something is almost as good as something that is less than worthless isn't much of a compliment."

Somehow, I think I owe you some $$$ for all this entertainment.

[PD]

But maybe later on I will try to do some rebuttals.

Um. Shouldn't the goal be to understand the responses you've been given, to decide whether you think they are correct or incorrect? And not to decide in advance that they require rebuttal?

[narciso]

"I find that theory intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter"

[boris]

"The facts support both sides of the argument"

Except one side was the government. Individuals may be able to buck government stupidity but when the government tells a business "do it this way", a business that wants to stay in business has to do it that way.

It sure seems a little unfair to later say "well the government didn't order business to try and make a profit doing things that way" so government isn't to blame for the mess created when business follows government orders, accepts the GSE line on risk, and says to itself "okay ... new reality ... let's make it work" ... which it did ... until it didn't.

The dimorats certainly provided most of the hot air to inflate the bubble. It is not inconceivable to me that they knew how to prick the bubble and cause enough crisis to get elected with a lotta bucks to spend spend spend so later they can tax tax tax.

[Rick Ballard]

Pssst - wanna watch the Fed pimping CRA today?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Shouldn't the goal be to understand the responses you've been given, to decide whether you think they are correct or incorrect? And not to decide in advance that they require rebuttal?

Gratuitous.

[PD]

Dear President Obama,

I know you have a busy schedule, so I've prepared an address for you that's so brief you'll be able to flit in and out of Oslo in no time at all when you accept your Nobel.

I came
I saw
I did nothing
I won

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

John McCain:

"Former Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain is openly admitting that there were tensions between his former campaign manager Steve Schmidt and those close to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s one-time White House running mate. Still, McCain calls Palin “a formidable force” in the GOP and remains open to the possibility of Palin being his party’s presidential nominee in 2012...“There are fundamental facts … that cannot be denied,” McCain adds. “When we selected or asked Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed. And she still is a formidable force in the Republican Party.”“I have great affection for her,” McCain continues. But “did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No."

[PD]

Still, McCain calls Palin “a formidable force” in the GOP and remains open to the possibility of Palin being his party’s presidential nominee in 2012.

Jeez. Like it's his decision to make.

[Pagar]

"There's one of those sentences that's pretty well guaranteed to be wrong."

I disagree! The article clearly shows that the US government, which has already established the fact that it has no interest in protecting taxpayers and their payments to the the treasury, is promoting the loss of shareholder funds in private companies. What else does anyone need to know to understand that this nation can not survive under those rules.

[PD]

Sen. John McCain is openly admitting that there were tensions

And who should have been the one to tell Schmidt, "Look pal, she's MY PICK, you need to get behind her"?

[narciso]

Yes there were tensions between that wanted to give up, like Schmidt from his April talk
at the U. Delaware, and those that were not content to do so,they should rename this thread; 'the blind squirrel' because there
are some long over realizations there.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

The dimorats certainly provided most of the hot air to inflate the bubble. It is not inconceivable to me that they knew how to prick the bubble and cause enough crisis to get elected with a lotta bucks to spend spend spend so later they can tax tax tax.

The Republicans still held a Senate Majority and a House Majority after the 2004 general. The immediate focus was SS reform. The political capital was there, but the strategy never shifted from how the Democrats aligned their defense. That defense was "no to everything". It was precisely the opposite of their response to the 2000 general and the 2002 midterm. They thought they didn't have the backing from the people to assert themselves against Bush.

They started listening to the netroots. The netroots was right on this, but only in their pursuit of power over sound policy. The Republicans haven't made the Democrats own this. It's unlikely they have the political capital to do so. However, it is out there. The Tea Parties hold the skeleton key. To borrow it you must pledge to seek significant reductions in spending.

I doubt the bond holders can allow this to happen. Although they can hold the line against a public option.

[glasater]

That's the Gabriel Sutherland:)

Thank you very much.