Barney Frank is right about Barack Obama:
Frank worries that Obama’s evenhandedness may prove to be a political liability. “On the financial crisis, Obama said that both sides were asleep at the switch,” Frank said. “But that’s not true. The Republicans were wide awake, and they made choices to oppose regulation. They had bad ideas. He says, ‘I don’t want to fight the fights of the nineties,’ but I don’t see any alternative to refighting the fights of the nineties if we want to change things.”
Frank illuminates the president-elect’s chief weakness.
Also: Has conservative ideology been discredited by reality? Frank thinks so:
“We are at a moment now when liberalism is poised to have its biggest impact on America since Roosevelt, because the conservative viewpoint has been so thoroughly repudiated by reality,” Frank said. “Someone asked Harold Macmillan what has the most impact on political decisions. He said, ‘Events, dear boy, events.’ Events have just totally repudiated them, and we’re now in a position to take advantage of that.” He went on, “You know Hegel. Thesis: No regulation at all. Antithesis: Now the government owns the banks. What I gotta do next year is the synthesis.”
Conservatism doesn’t exist anymore. One could argue that conservatism isn’t so much an ideology, but rather a reaction to liberalism.
Conservatives do not feel obligated to offer solutions to problems. Why? Because if government is used to solve problems, then they can no longer argue (with a straight face) that government is always the problem.
Conservatives, like alcoholics, come in varieties. There are “unrepentant conservatives.” They argue from absolutist positions that have no basis in reality. There are “functional conservatives.” Bush is a bigtime “functional conservative.” No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription drug program, bailouts for businesses… While Bush’s programs have a mixed record of success, you have to give him credit for at least attempting to solve problems with government.
Historian Rick Perlstein calls conservatism “The Big Con”. I saw one talk where he stated outright that conservatism in this country always had feet of clay, there was never really much to it compared to say European-style social democracy.
Pearlstein is one of the most dedicated historians of the American right and I hope he really expounds on this “Big Con” thinking in a book in the immediate future.
are you kidding, barney frank, is anything he has to say relevant? he single handedly sunk the housing market with his determination to allow poor risk people to get mortagages, and either his incompetance or outright dishonesty about the stability of fannie and freddie.
Barney Frank is right about Barack Obama:
——————
Oh, you mean the same Barney “but I was not asleep at the switch” Frank who was said this in 2003:
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Relying on Barney Frank for your support when his own role in the crisis has been discussed time and again says you’re more than asleep at the switch.
Bawney Fwank, fudgepacker of the elite, hero
of YLB and Steve the goatherder. You go girls.
Will, I feel like your post is missing something, like a conclusion. You should have come back around and ended talking about Obama and what steps you think he needs to take.
2 – Chock full of lies
4 – Give this Republican a call:
http://wonkette.com/378379/mee.....-frat-boys
He’ll bring you out of closet (so you can stop abusing yourself with a cucumber) and he’ll even film the whole (!) thing for posterity. You go, “guy”.
it’s also sad that in recent interviews, not just by fox but also the msm, he has thrown a hissy fit when questioned. to me, and of course i’m a conspiracy nut, it’s not just incompetance, but was a concerted effort to crash the mortgage industry, which in turn dried up the credit market, put the banking industry at risk, and led to the tarp. the conspiracy is that we have no accounting of where the fisrt 350 went, so it was just stolen from the taxpayers, and of course i believe some of it left the country. and you know what country i believe it went to.
Back on topic. Obama really thinks he can reach across the aisle and gain some Republican support for hopefully progressive approaches to problems. If he’s successful, all the more power to him. Whether the policy choices he makes meet progressive expectations or not, if he’s successful in helping to turn the economy around then nobody should have too much to complain about.
The danger of too much success of course is that people will become complacent and forget about what Republicans have done to this country. After Obama’s eight years are up, we cannot afford another dalliance with the deceptive sales pitch of conservatism.
Yes I believe people will REJECT Republicans again 4 years from now.
@8
ylb, the problem with your arguement is that you’ve started from an incorrect assumption, you said “if he’s successful in turning this economy around”. he has no intention of doing this. if any of you have college degrees, start reading about how they are purposely trying to tank the economy. nafta, amero, it all makes too muc sense to ignore. dont forget, these people are smart and have staying power,they’ve been planning for years. research it, you dont read it and take anybodys word for it, you ask yourself, does it make sense and do world events unfold like these people are saying.
Man of fiction, you poor creature. Along with the rest of you wingnut clowns who insert your daily Murdoch/Limpbough/Shame Hannity/O’Really suppositories; reality is out there. Embrace it. Your lab rat existence is embarrassing.
Nope you’re wrong.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/1.....first350b/
You’re really willfully ignorant aren’t you?
Will, this may be an unusual request, but I’d like to go back and rewrite your post. It’s missing a third and final act. There’s a first act, then a second act, but you failed to tie the first and second acts together, then give us your analysis and conclusion.
Will you do that? Will you rewrite it?
Omigosh! Obama must be the anti-christ. Prepare for the tribulation. It’s been years in the making.
I’ll think I’ll hit the video store for The Omen Trilogy.
Also, I will help you rewrite it, if you like.
Interesting to hear Will say:
Before the 08 election got into full swing I saw David Brooks speaking on CSPAN to a crowd of young conservatives and he claimed that the history of conservatism was a history of ideas (linked to the Western tradition itself), where liberalism is a contemporary movement that has only ever been about policy. So it’s interesting to see the tables turn.
Neo-conservatism (the idea that God, the Family, the Military, and the Market will take care of everything) strikes me as nihilistic and intellectually lazy. Irresistible when times are good and loans are cheap, indefensible when it comes up against reality.
@13
ylb, do you think that the massive mortgage meltdown was not forseen? people are on record 2 to 3 years ago predicitng it. so, either frank and company were complicit or stupid.b
@9: What planet have you been on?
As if the republicans have not tanked the economy? We now have record unemployment, record budget deficits, record trade deficits and all the free trade the republicans and Phil Gramm wanted… you must just be one of the “whiners” Phil Gramm told us about in August when he said the economy was fine. It was the republicans who kept repeating the mantra that the “fundamentals” were sound.
Can’t you even read?
@16 Show your evidence you idiot!
I have already showed that Phil Gramm wrote and sponsored the two bills that caused this: the banking “reform” bills of 1999 and 2000. Gramm inserted the 1999 bill into the budget bill without debate so Clinton had to sign it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm
16 – Give it up man. Republicans were pretty much in charge for the first 6 years of Bush’s term and Bush really had a working conservative majority for the last two. See all the things Dems wanted to pass and they couldn’t override Shrub’s vetos.
If they (the Republicans) wanted to do something about it, they would have done it. They didn’t want to regulate finance because the housing bubble was one of the few things the economy had going for it. All the tax cuts were financing the offshoring of jobs.
@15: And the modern conservatives only philosophy is less government is good (even when it has proven to be disasterous, like the lack of regulations in the banking industry) and anything that goes wrong MUST be the democrats fault.
People are not buying the republican lies anymore. Their house of cards has come crashing down.
@17, @ 19
both you guys misunderstood. i never said it was dems vs gop. bush is just as complicit. bush has said both brenake and paulson told him if there was not a bailout we would face catastrophe. so either he believed them, or was part of it. either way, i dont defend him. dont you think/believe that these guys get elected with the money from the super rich? you thinmk they ask nothing in return? you’ve seen how ruthless a guy like madoff can be, you think he’s the only one?
Last July Barney Frank said everyting was just peachy-keeno with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Turns out he was wrong.
I still think this is a weird post. It’s like to separate posts slapped together, with no real conclusion. It started off strong, but then went in a different direction, and never addressed the original premise again.
4 days of sunny 75-85 degrees you KLOWNS.
Get a decent job and invest and you could be me. Be home in 2 more weeks.
Just thought I’d jab ya……loooooooosers.
Hey, did you hear the kids at steve’s high school let 3 goats lose in the school and numbered them 1, 2 & 4.
Steve spent all day running around the school with a boner lookin’ fer #3!!
Barney Frank is a full on buffoon. Anyone who thinks that what has happened in this country is the result of adherence to free market principles or that the Republicans even represent those principles is sadly misguided. Both Democrats and Republicans are simply two sides of the same coin. This country is doomed unless we break free of both their clutches.
Labels are dumb.
Liberals and conservative have both assembled inconsistent collections of issues that make no sense.
We have just finished eight years of no-nothing irrationalism in the name of conservatism. I hope we now will have eight years of smart government in the name of patriotism.
“Conservatism doesn’t exist anymore.”
It has never existed, except on paper. Conservatism is to government what an ornithopter is to a cliff. If you trolls believe it works, then strap it on and jump off a cliff!* Oh wait, you guys already did that and dragged the rest of us over with you …
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums.....tid=388381
* Just kidding! Don’t try this because you’ll break your fucking neck. Don’t vote Republican, either, because you’ll break the fucking economy.
hey sj–
Answer me this…
A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff..grass – . Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is???
Answer it precisely without looking it up?
Herb Moses – A senior exec with Fannie Mae, Assistant Director for Product Initiatives. Also Barney Frank’s boyfriend. A large conflict of interest, I think.
And a good reason for Frank to try (and fail) to deny any wrongdoing.
@26
I hope we now will have eight years of smart government in the name of patriotism.
seattle jew, you’re kidding me , right? what in the world makes you think we will either have smart gov, or patriotic gov? first, even if you wanted to believe that obama’s main concern is this country (for that to be true, you have to beleive he was born in this country, and then born here or not he puts this country ahead of the country of his fathers birth and obama’s heritage), he has surrounded himself with the same economic advisors that got us into this mess, on purpose or not. and besides, when has government fixed anything. what’s happening in this country, is that people who think this country was founded by people who subjugated others, ie the white , christian, male, are trying to remake this country, by destroying the power of the largely white chrsitian middle class. since you’re jewish, you dont have a problem with that. and i dont blame you, its just that the reality is you think the country would be better off with a largely poor, mixed race culture.
If you take a look at abortion just through american history in the last thirty five years, 1.5 million future taxpayers a year,Thats four thousand a week,one every twenty seconds. I would call that the killing field of America, By now the babies killed thiry five years ago would be paying income taxes and contributing to social security.
At least a portion of them.
Government said this was the choice of every american woman.So therefor the choices have been made and we will live with it and pay extra taxes taxes taxes until we die.
But whatever happened to people being responsible for thier own actions and not buying what they couldn’t afford,Just because they wanted it.
They new they coudn’t afford those houses, credit lines and vehicles,Regardless of who was in charge. Blame the people who don,t pay thier bills and new they couldn’t to begin with.
The way I see it americans have become helpless little Victims,dependant</,Covetious,And incapable of handling the messes they have made themselves,Then they blame blame blame.
John Galt said:
“…Both Democrats and Republicans are simply two sides of the same coin.”
Man, I’ve been sayin’ that for years, and you’re totally spot-on correct! We need to take care of the USA and not worry about some dipshit in North Korea or the religious war going on between the Jews and Muslims. Close the shows down all over the world and concentrate on this country only. The cost of a massive empire is just too great to bear.
@32
you’re right, but here’s the problem. take for example what you said about the war between jews and muslims. we will never extradite ourselves from that problem. first, both parties pay homage to aipac, both mccain and obama sucked up to their meetings, promising undying loyalty to israel. sesond, the majority of leaders in this country are jewish. from the pols, leiberman, schumer, frank, boxer, nadler, wexler, waxman, ackerman, feinstein, feingold, and now franken. to celebs, speilberg, etc, to finance, paulson, bernake. they are not going to allow us to leave the middle east. by the way, of course i’ll be labeled antisemitic, thats the ammunition. but, i’d say it about any other country.
@28 Maybe it has something to do with who’s fucking them and which hole they’re using. Btw, Cynical seems to have an encyclopedic knowlege of what pasture pancakes look like, which makes me wonder what he’s been doing with his time …
@30 “the reality is you think the country would be better off with a largely poor, mixed race culture”
Nope, the reality is your ilk thinks the mixed race culture is better off largely poor, and does everything you can think of to facilitate their poverty.
@33 “we will never extradite ourselves from that problem”
Why would we want to? I mean, who wants to be extradited? Most people fight extradition.
The economy isn’t the only thing wingnuts have made a hash of. They’ve spindled and mutilated the English language, too.
@36
“we will never extradite ourselves from that problem”
Why would we want to? I mean, who wants to be extradited? Most people fight extradition.
jeez, its a good think sarah palin didnt say that, then you’d have another thing to criticize her about
by the way, they dont fight extradition from tel aviv, thats where they go after they’ve been indicted.
Cynical and MOT
Your paranoia flies high!
BTW, I assume you have noted that Guv Gregoire ahs a rather long nose, Patty Murry of couse had a faith change operation, and da mayor is named after MONEY!!
But yuse should not worry, a man named Cohen will soon take over frome Boner and your new Party Secty will be AA. I guess that will make yiou guys wanna join the Dem party? Hell look we have a half white President, a Christina VEEP, and a Goyische head of our paty! Come on in .. the water is fine!
As for the questions about herbivorous turds, I will have to admit that this is an area of my enyclopedic scope that I have neglected.
Gramm inserted the 1999 bill into the budget bill without debate so Clinton had to sign it.
———————————-
Had to sign it? Clinton and fellow Dems were big supporters of financial deregulation.
GBL was not only passed by Congress, it was passed by Congress overwhelming. In the Senate the vote was 90 yes, 8 no, 1 no vote (John McCain). The Democrats voted 34 to 6 in favor including: Biden, Daschle, Dodd, Kennedy, Kerry, Reid and Schumer. See: http://www.govtrack.us/congres.....sort=party
In the House, the legislation received similar strong bipartisan support with 362 yes, 57 no, 15 no votes. The Democrats voted 151 yes, 50 no, 4 no votes. See: http://www.govtrack.us/congres.....=h1999-570.
In addition, as has been written about many times elsewhere, former Clinton Treasury Secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin were big supporters of financial deregulation, including GBL. See:
“Citigroup Saw No Red Flags Even as It Made Bolder Bets”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11.....038;st=cse and
“Deregulator Looks Back, Unswayed”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11.....038;st=cse
for example.
Bill Clinton signed GBL into law on November 12, 1999. Here’s what he had to say about it at the signing:
“You heard Senator Gramm characterize this bill as a victory for freedom and free markets. And Congressman LaFalce characterized this bill as a victory for consumer protection. And both of them are right. And I have always believed that one required the other.”
See: http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.g.....2_2080.pdf
Here’s what Chris Dodd had to say about it as recently as March 2007:
“I am proud to have had Tom’s and the Chamber’s support on some of the most important pieces of legislation with which I have been associated. Laws like the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act; the Y2K litigation reform act; the Class Action Fairness Act; the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which has helped bring our financial services sector into the 21st century; and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which in the aftermath of 9/11 has played a crucial role in keeping our economy strong.”
See: Web site: http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3779/print
Here’s what Arianna Huffington of Huffinton Post – hardly a conservative bastion – wrote regarding the Dems role in GBL:
“He (Obama) needs to start by making sure that the economic advisers he turns to extend beyond those he had on a conference call on Monday — Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Laura Tyson, and Paul Volcker. It’s great to include graybeards who have been through crises before, but he needs to go beyond the two Treasury Secretaries who were complicit in the 1990s deregulation orgy that has led to so many of the problems we are now seeing. And he needs to make it clear that the Clinton-era Democrats who put the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of Main Street are not going to be the primary voices he listens to.”
The Democrats were knee-deep in financial deregulation.
Oh man, I thought we had a live one when Man Of Truth showed up, but dang, I had no idea.
@41
lol…….it reminds of the scene in “true romance” when dennis hopper tells christopher walkin, who plays a sicilian mob boss, that since the moors conquered sicily, sicilains had black blood. hopper says to walkin “if its history, if its a fact, am i lyin?”
@40 “herbivorous turds”
You’ve been around long enough that you should at least recognize Cynical’s bullshit when you see it, SJ.
@42
BLACK bLOOD?
Sounds scary, what is that? Is it catching?
@28: cynical:
First, it is not the cow crap that I am concerned about it is the BS coming from the republicans.
Second, Deer eat plenty of things besides grass – in fact, they will eat your entire garden and all the treeleaves they can find. Grass is just not all that abundant in the undergrowth of the forest.
Third, cows have three stomachs – that makes for a different consistency than horses. Some cows are grain fed.
Fourth, horses get oats and other things besides grass.
Fifth, maybe you need to get up early on the farm and feed the horses their oats and milk the cows – but stay away from them goats (just kidding). I have never understood the fascination with goats on this blog. Personally, goats are a pain. They will eat anything that moves (or doesn’t move). Baaahhh.
“Bawney Fwank is right” HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…
Is obama white or black,Is he kenyan,Or American? So many questions.I beleive he is white, and realated to bill clinton somehow. Maybe hes really from Arkansas.I think he blackmailing Billary!What a great next four years,THE obama saga starts. Hold on for the ride of your life as his story really unfolds.
Is Bawny Fwank welated To elmew Fudd? I think they are bwothers.They tawk awike they wook awike.And bawny’s powitics suck wike elmew’s hunting.Just asking….What you think?
@48
lol…the funny thing is, obama had a white mother, so that means, according to the msm, bill clinton is more black than obama because clinton was our first black president.
barney frank is beyond description. the msm maligns sarah palin,yet they love frank. take a look at the two, listen to what they have to say, and then you’ll know who owns the msm.
@50: Yup – Palin is a moron who can’t tstring two sentences together and Frank has a funny accent but actually says things that make sense.
@48 Watchwoman
typical low level thought processes from the race obsessed. Do you have anything productive to say or are you just ruminating on your own racism?
Ha @51 just because I call obama white makes me a racist?Opinions are like buttholes every body has one. Some are just one and some are big brown ones. My thought process is this is still America,I can think how I like. Black people know they are black and white people know they are white.If I want to say that obama is white then he is white and according to his back ground I can say that.Sounds as if your the racist. As far as bawny fwank he is nothing but a duck and cover that wants to tawk cwap and blame others others for his connections to fannie and fweddy. He’s a lier you know it and I know it.He should stand up and say I made a mistake,But I don’t think he has that in his vocabulary it doesn’t have one r in it.
If he makes sense to you, Well I wont even go there
because my thought process on that matter would just make you Wook wike bawny.
Maybe I should go there:@51 Just a short note.
Barney Frank and Chuck Schumer’s Role in the Fannie Mae Failure
Below is an editorial that appeared in the New Hampshire Union Leader that talks about Barney Frank and Chuck Schumer and their roles in the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Here is the editorial in it’s entirely:
One month from tomorrow, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner. It is a coveted and high-profile role previously filled by such notables as Hillary Clinton and Al Gore. The Democrats’ choice of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank is, therefore, very revealing.
The party announced Frank as the keynote speaker on Sept. 11 — three days after the U.S. government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, costing taxpayers untold billions. That takeover probably could have been prevented had Frank not worked to thwart every attempt to limit the risks taken on by the two government-sponsored mortgage giants.
For 16 years reformers in Congress have tried to improve oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and prevent the government-chartered companies from putting the housing market and the whole economy at risk. All that time, Frank was involved in efforts to block those attempts, and in the last eight years he was a leader of those efforts.
In 2002, shortly before accounting irregularities were exposed at both companies, Frank said, “I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems,” The Wall Street Journal reported. After the Freddie Mac accounting scandal in 2003, Frank said, “I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis.”
But there was a crisis, thanks in large part to Frank, Sen. Charles Schumer and others on the leash of these companies. In Congress, they made sure there was no additional oversight, no additional limit on executive behavior and compensation, and no further restraint on the growth of the companies’ mortgage-backed-securities portfolios, among other changes.
(All of these needed reforms, by the way, have been championed for years by Sen. John Sununu.)
In fact, Frank & Co. made matters worse by pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take on greater risk. They wanted more loans to people who might not qualify for traditional bank financing. And, as The Wall Street Journal has pointed out, Frank “pressured regulators to ease up on their capital requirements — which now means taxpayers will have to make up that capital shortfall.”
Even now, after the government took the companies over (which Frank repeatedly said over the years was not a possibility), Frank opposes limits on the amount of money they can risk on mortgage backed securities — the one reform that might have done the most to prevent the current meltdown and probably would do the most to keep it from happening again.
Barney Frank is the very symbol of Washington’s deliberate refusal to prevent the collapse — the predicted collapse — of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And this is the guy the New Hampshire Democratic Party showcases at its most prestigious annual event. That ought to tell you a lot right there.
Besides their total ignorance about the troubles that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were headed towards is the fact that these two men, and other Democrats, helped to make the problem worse.
In fact, Frank & Co. made matters worse by pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take on greater risk. They wanted more loans to people who might not qualify for traditional bank financing. And, as The Wall Street Journal has pointed out, Frank “pressured regulators to ease up on their capital requirements
These companies were forced to loan money to people who couldn’t afford it in the interest of “being fair.” Rules were relaxed and money was loaned and predictably low income families defaulted on loans that they never had any business getting in the first place and now you and I have to pay for it.
Another liberal policy and another liberal failure. And now we must all pay for it. But hell, they meant well
@53: The article is long on accusations and short on FACTS. In fact, I have detailed the legislation that led to the banking crisis (as have many others). It was written, promoted and signed by Phil Gramm (and his lobbyist buddies who sponsord and pushed through the banking dregulation bills in 1999 and 2000). Frank was right that the real problem was the bad loans and the lack of transparency – Faniie and Freddie were left holding the back. As far as the corruption, who was in charge of congress over 6 opf the last 8 years while this festered….and what party got more money from bankers than any other??
Yup – the same republicans who wer for the deregulation that screwed the economyin the fist place.
You got nothin’ as usual but diatribes and no facts.
@54 “You got nothin'”
Well, he might at least have a copyright issue. We’ll see how long his post lasts.
@55 You are such an important person,ha,ha ha.Cya Water.Bawney’s boy.
@56 Are you drunk? Or do you just have some kind of mental condition that prevents you from completing a sentence?
Here ya go have some facts. I refuse to have a battle of wit with an unarmed person.
http://www.opensecrets.org/new.....eddie.html