I Hate Republicans

[Balloon guy 158]

I totally agree!If you just throw out the mortage meltdown, Bush did a great job with the economy.If you just throw out 9/11 and the Iraq War, Bush did a great job with national security.If you throw out every time he spoke, Bush was an eloquent speaker.It's fun to throw out things.

Really?Bush is responsible for the mortgage breakdown? 9-11? Then I guess Obama is responsible for everything from January 20th, 2010 till Jan. 19th, 2014 when he leaves?

[Balloon guy 158]

If you throw out all sports but basketball, Obama seems like a decent athlete.See.

So what economic policies of Bush were so bad if you take out the effects of the housing market collapse?

[CaneBrain 95]

Really?Bush is responsible for the mortgage breakdown? 9-11? Then I guess Obama is responsible for everything from January 20th, 2010 till Jan. 19th, 2014 when he leaves?

As far as most conservatives are concerned, Obama was responsible for stuff that happened in 2008 (almost 50% of Republicans think Obama signed TARP into law).And, yes, a reckless lack of oversight and an encouragement of greed by the White House was exactly what led to the mortgage crisis (especially the harmful back end securitizations that turned a snowball into an avalanche).9/11 was just thrown in for funsies. That was a systemic breakdown where everyone was to blame.

So what economic policies of Bush were so bad if you take out the effects of the housing market collapse?

He needed to do more bad stuff? Collapsing a global economy was not enough?

[Balloon guy 158]

As far as most conservatives are concerned, Obama was responsible for stuff that happened in 2008 (almost 50% of Republicans think Obama signed TARP into law).And, yes, a reckless lack of oversight and an encouragement of greed by the White House was exactly what led to the mortgage crisis (especially the harmful back end securitizations that turned a snowball into an avalanche).9/11 was just thrown in for funsies. That was a systemic breakdown where everyone was to blame.He needed to do more bad stuff? Collapsing a global economy was not enough?

Wasn't all the TARP money paid back with interest? Thought it was.So the white house can encourage people to be greedy? And they were reckless in their oversight? So you would want the government to monitor all transactions by any lending institution and step in and refuse to allow any that don't seem kosher?But isn't it true that the government was the one suggesting the loans be made to people who couldn't afford them?And wasn't this promoted and expanded by the democrat controlled committee run by Barney Frank?

[CaneBrain 95]

Wasn't all the TARP money paid back with interest? Thought it was.So the white house can encourage people to be greedy? And they were reckless in their oversight? So you would want the government to monitor all transactions by any lending institution and step in and refuse to allow any that don't seem kosher?But isn't it true that the government was the one suggesting the loans be made to people who couldn't afford them?And wasn't this promoted and expanded by the democrat controlled committee run by Barney Frank?

a simple set of regulations that don't let people create risky investment vehicles out of thin air and then sell them to an unwitting populace with tacit approval from ratings agencies and insurance companies would be better than "monitoring all transactions" imo.

[Balloon guy 158]

a simple set of regulations that don't let people create risky investment vehicles out of thin air and then sell them to an unwitting populace with tacit approval from ratings agencies and insurance companies would be better than "monitoring all transactions" imo.

Do we have that now?

[CaneBrain 95]

Do we have that now?

We took a nice step toward it with the financial reform bill the GOP opposed unanimously.

[mk 11]

Really?Bush is responsible for the mortgage breakdown?

from the archives, in the midst of the shit hitting the fan:

In fairness, the Dems have controled the house and congress during Bush's tenure effectively limiting his ability to do much. The Rep's have put forth dozens of bills and warned of this for years but the Dem's always killed the bill or voted against it. And the Dem's started the whole mess by putting out a trillion dollars to all the people for mortgages they couldn't afford. I'm not exonerating the Rep's they have their issues but I'd lay more of it on the Dem's.

not true at all, house was R majority 2000-2006, senate was also, and in 2006 only moved to 49-49 with 2 independents. bush had a clear mandate, epic fail.

in other news, holy fucking fucksticks this market is the most insane i have ever seen.i should post some charts. massive bloodbath.

but the whole fannie mae/freddie mac/subprime mortgage thing was created and pushed through by democrats (clinton) and then was fought by republicans later in the game and defended by democrats (bunch of no name losers in both parties not worth mentioning). now the question I have is: if there were republicans who were fighting these subprimes, what became of what they were doing? was there ever anything proposed? any votes ever taken? or did they just argue and leave it at that? anybody know?

false once again. subprime mortgages were created in the 1980s along with senator gramm's deregulation of the s&l industry. i'm not saying the clinton administration is completely immune from criticism--they did put pressure on fannie and freddie to authorize loans--however, as greenspan said, it's the securitization of these loans, not the loans themselves that are the cause of this crisis.there is plenty of blame to go around...ridiculous speculation in the housing market, a complete lack of regulation of credit default swaps an asset backed securities. what i'm saying is that politically, it's a gift that obama is squandering. whether it's correct to or not, he could and definitely definitely SHOULD be saying at every opportunity that this happened on their watch, not ours. it's politics. get the fuck after them already. can you imagine if a rove candidate were in obama's shoes and the economy was imploding on the incumbent party's watch? the other guy wouldn't be able to breathe. obama should be crushing in the polls, and instead it's just a tepid increase in approval. he needs to go on the attack.

well the housing boom and the prevalence of subprime mortgages to buy houses people couldn't afford didn't really start en force until the early '00s when all the fannie mae and freddie mac loans got out there, and that was under pressure from the clinton administration, and it really couldn't be a problem if the loans didn't exist in the first place.

i mean, between 2004 and 2006 21% of all mortgage originations were subprime, from 1996-2004, 9% were. blame who you want for that increase, but the clinton administration was a distant fucking memory in 2004. ownership society, ownership society, how many times did we hear those words come out of bush's mouth? i should do a lexisnexis search.republican president, republican congress...i don't think it's a stretch to lay blame at their feet. if it were switched, the republicans would be foaming at the mouth.i almost had a heart attack about 18 times today. had lunch with some friends who are still over at my old firm, they had all lost like a gazillion dollars.

[Naked_Cowboy 0]

We took a nice step toward it with the financial reform bill the GOP opposed unanimously.

If that's all the financial reform bill was, it would have had massive bi-partisan approval. You add in stuff like the volcker rule and the bill starts devolving into nonsense.

[CaneBrain 95]

If that's all the financial reform bill was, it would have had massive bi-partisan approval. You add in stuff like the volcker rule and the bill starts devolving into nonsense.

True. No good idea exists in Washington that won't get 2 bad ideas tacked onto it. The Volcker rule, as I understand it, is really dumb. And I don't understand much about finance (though my current case is learning me fast).

[Balloon guy 158]

If that's all the financial reform bill was, it would have had massive bi-partisan approval. You add in stuff like the volcker rule and the bill starts devolving into nonsense.

In the book Biography of the Dollar, the author basically said Volcker did the right thing under Carter by raising the interest rates to the 20+% levels he did to stabilize the collapsing dollar and it caused the dollar's dominance over the rest of the world for decades.I don't know about the Volcker Rule, but it seems he is a pretty smart guy, hat am I missing?

[mk 11]

In the book Biography of the Dollar, the author basically said Volcker did the right thing under Carter by raising the interest rates to the 20+% levels he did to stabilize the collapsing dollar and it caused the dollar's dominance over the rest of the world for decades.I don't know about the Volcker Rule, but it seems he is a pretty smart guy, hat am I missing?

it seeks to stop banks from prop trading which is comically outdated thinking and wrong-headed.

[Balloon guy 158]

from the archives, in the midst of the s hitting the fan:

So you are saying the republicans caused this? Or that they were in charge during this?Seems that there is a lot of people who we could blame, but as a whole the problem lies in the facts that the government tried to influence the way things were done by offering a guarantee for loans that never should have been made. That small impact started a long line of greed-fueled transactions that resulted in what we got.Nobody at the time saw the possible effects of the government action. But now looking back we see that it all started there. Doesn't matter to me who was ultimately to blame, if it was dems, the republicans are guilty of not fixing it, if it was repubs, visa-versa with dems. Both sides had leadership positions during crucial moments in time, both sides have blood on their hands.I only defended Bush because he was being made the scapegoat. This would have happened to Kerry had he not completely blew the election of 2004

[Balloon guy 158]

it seeks to stop banks from prop trading which is comically outdated thinking and wrong-headed.

He probably has been wanting to do this since the 70s...

[strategy 4]

Senator Levin commented on the importance of that aspect: "We are also pleased that the conference report includes strong language to prevent the obscene conflicts of interest revealed in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing with Goldman Sachs. This is an important victory for fairness for investors such as pension funds and for the integrity of the financial system. As the Goldman Sachs investigation showed, business as usual on Wall Street has for too long allowed banks to create instruments which are based on junky assets, then sell them to clients, and bet against their own clients by betting on their failure. The measure approved by the conferees ends that type of conflict which Wall Street has engaged in."

hedging: obscene practice.

[CaneBrain 95]

This would have happened to Kerry had he not completely blew the election of 2004

Seriously, what a loser that ketchup-marrier is. The charisma of a school bus fire crossed with the general air of douchebaggery.

[Balloon guy 158]

Seriously, what a loser that ketchup-marrier is. The charisma of a school bus fire crossed with the general air of douchebaggery.

We should take a day and put up the scumbags of our own parties to all feel each others pain. I mean I got a guy tapping his foot in a bathroom stall in an airport on my side.It would go a long way to bringing us all together.

[CaneBrain 95]

We should take a day and put up the scumbags of our own parties to all feel each others pain. I mean I got a guy tapping his foot in a bathroom stall in an airport on my side.It would go a long way to bringing us all together.

I love Larry Craig just for the "I have a wide stance" defense. Such comedy gold.

[Balloon guy 158]

I love Larry Craig just for the "I have a wide stance" defense. Such comedy gold.

I was up in Idaho for a funeral during that time and was driving around Cour d'laine when I turned a corner and was staring straight at the biggest sign on a building that said: Larry Craig. I guess it was his political office. It looked deserted.I'm sure the Idaho boys were real happy with him.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

I'm sure the Idaho boys were real happy with him.

Well, some of them were.

[brvheart 1,759]

Except that they haven't voted Democrat. When Republicans can't get the poor and ignorant, they lose elections. Of the last 30 years, Republicans have had the presidency for 20 (Regan 8, Bush 4, Bush 8). There have been 2 giant recessions (Regan and BushJr.) and one giant economic boom (Clinton).I mean, I'm just sayin... that I don't understand economics at all, and love to draw a lot of really bad, results-based conclusions.

fyp

[CaneBrain 95]

fyp

that's a big fyp from someone who was been telling us how Barney Frank was the true mastermind behind the finacial crisis. Everything I have been reading for the last 3 months makes that look hilarious.

[Balloon guy 158]

that's a big fyp from someone who was been telling us how Barney Frank was the true mastermind behind the finacial crisis. Everything I have been reading for the last 3 months makes that look hilarious.

He's not called the banking queen for no reason.

[brvheart 1,759]

that's a big fyp from someone who was been telling us how Barney Frank was the true mastermind behind the finacial crisis. Everything I have been reading for the last 3 months makes that look hilarious.

Barney Frank was a major part of the problem, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand.

[El Guapo 8]

Do we have that now?

To my knowledge, no. There were lots of talks about creating an exchange, or a portion of an exchange (i.e. Chicago Mercantile Exchange) to regulate the trading of CDS. I don't know where this is in the process.