Interesting points on snopes.com

[92bDad]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/easescredit.asp

Not only do we see the current crisis as being tied to the Clinton administration, but we see that President Bush tried to fix the problem before we got to deep...only to be blocked by Democrats, specifically Frank!!!

And we reward this effort of the Democrats by giving them more power...

Congrats to those who voted Democrat, you are getting what you voted for!!!

My compassion to those who voted against the Democrats...we tried to warn them, but at the end of the day...it was no longer about facts, but rather about feelings. Letting the emotions of hate rule the vote and ultimately provide us with some of the worst leadership this nation has ever been subjected too.

[Mavdog]

the phrase inane comes to mind when readeing your post...

first, from the article you posted:

in a nutshell the Times reported that Fannie Mae was easing its credit
requirements for home mortgage loans in response to increasing pressure from a variety of groups:
- Clinton administration officials who wanted Fannie Mae "to expand
mortgage loans among low and moderate income
people" (particularly minority groups).

- Stockholders who wanted Fannie Mae "to maintain its phenomenal
growth in profits."

- Banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies (from whom
Fannie Mae purchases loans) who wanted the company to facilitate
"more loans to subprime borrowers."

and btw that regulatory agency to oversee fannie and freddie was created.

to attempt to portray bush as someone who tried to "fix the problem" fails to pass the smell test...it seems you must have forgotten the "ownership society" that bush was fond of promoting.

lots of blame to go around on this one.

[aquaadverse]

There is enough blame for everyone to have a cup of feces on this one. No one spent any time raising the point of just how devastating the consequences would be if we continued to go down the path. I was aware there was some concern, but I figured at worst it was going to be slightly worse than several other corrections I've seen in my 50 some years in this coo-coo clock.

We had almost two years of nonstop jabbering and posturing by people with egos so big they were convinced they were the best choice to drive this meat wagon to a safe place before it all spoiled. That included someone with an over 20 year old "S&L Fiasco" tattooed on his wrinkled ass.

None of them spent any significant time on the subject. Zero. Nada. Zilch. No questions at debates. Nothing in the interviews I saw. I'm not talking about people losing their home because an ARM kicked in or some other correction that proved the rule you either discipline yourself or prepare to have others do it for you, that was covered.

Seems to me that if anyone saw the stock market evaporating a decade worth of gains in a few weeks time, financial companies that had been in business for over a century vaporizing in less than 48 hours they were rather cavalier about it. Good people who lived within their means, invested using diversification, dollar cost averaging and buy and hold for the long term without trying to time the market were wiped out.

The Bush regime and the Repugs are absolutely mostly to blame for the conditions that allowed it. But the Dems don't get to skate on this either. We seem to like to use regulate and oversight interchangeably. Bush might have been playing with matches and bumbled into setting the curtains on fire, but the Dems had the phone to dial 911 and the hand on the fire alarm.

Sorry, if I'm trusting you to check my vehicle out and make sure no conditions of catastrophic failure exist, I expect you to tell me the master cylinder is leaking from both sides. It doesn't matter if you installed it or not.

Dodd and Franks didn't come on board when they changed ownership, they got promoted from busting tires and 5 minute oil changes to service writer and final Q.C. inspector. Watching Franks blow off any responsibility made my blood boil.

We all have a responsibility for this, all that credit without any assets backing it was soaked up gleefully by all of us even if much of it was indirect.

Watching both sides jumping up and down while screaming "I don't sweat much for a fat girl" doesn't exactly make me feel confident they can oversee the stimulant money.