Federal affordable-housing mandates were a major factor in the mortgage crisis, fueling the housing bubble and the subsequent collapse of the housing and financial markets, which helped bring down the economy.  Even the liberal Village Voice has admitted that.  Who drafted those awful mandates?  ACORN, reports the Washington Examiner, in “How ACORN Destroyed the Housing Market.”

How did ACORN cause the “housing bubble” and “financial collapse”?  ACORN lobbyists drafted “affordable-housing” mandates to pressure the mortgage giants to buy up more risky loans and mortgages…

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The federal government has no problem paying exorbitant sums of money to people who head failed government agencies like Freddie Mac. Its CEO will receive compensation estimated at $5.5 million. The Federal Housing Finance Agency took direct control over Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored enterprise, after it ran up tens of billions of dollars in red ink buying risky mortgages, without adequate capital reserves. At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac is now running up $30 billion in losses to…

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George Mason University Professor Ilya Somin explains how the Obama administration is expanding the awful policies that caused the mortgage crisis, like having taxpayers effectively underwrite risky-mortgage loans by bailing out GSEs at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.  Now, the administration is stepping up Federal Housing Administration subsidies for risky, junky mortgage loans that are likely to default in large numbers.

(The Obama administration doesn’t seem to have learned history’s lessons overseas, either.  White House Communications Director Anita Dunn cites as…

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President Obama is now pushing financial regulations that reinforce the worst features of the status quo.  They would actually increase regulatory pressure on lenders to make the risky, low-income loans that helped spawn the financial crisis.  At the same time, they would worsen the credit crunch by shutting down banking operations in retail outlets like Target, known as “industrial loan corporations,” that are convenient for consumers.  Earlier, Obama backed a new law that is wiping out many credit-card rewards programs and rebates, and leading…

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The mortgage crisis was caused largely by the reckless government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and by federal affordable-housing mandates. But Obama’s proposed financial rules overhaul does absolutely nothing about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, admits Obama’s Treasury Secretary, tax cheat Timothy Geithner, even though he admits that “Fannie and Freddie were a core part of what went wrong in our system.” Worse, Obama’s plan is “largely the product of extensive conversations” with two lawmakers responsible for the corrupt status quo, Chris Dodd and Barney…

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AIG Financial Products CEO Gerry Pasciucco wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Che Guevara — the Cuban “revolutionary” and henchman of Fidel Castro who tortured children and called himself “Stalin II” (after Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator who tortured, murdered and starved to death more than 20 million people). Maybe it reflects his ideological leanings. Pasciucco has given a lot of money to liberal politicians — $2300 to Obama, $2000 to Chris Dodd, Connecticut’s ethically-challenged senior senator, $1000 to the Democratic Senatorial…

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Ironically, by getting rid of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, the Obama Administration has made it even harder for it to demand the painful changes needed to make the company competitive — meaning that the billions of additional dollars the Administration plans to dump on GM will likely be wasted (the way that England’s attempt to bail out its automakers failed, wasting billions). As Mickey Kaus notes,

“After visibly defenestrating GM CEO Rick Wagoner, and moving to replace the board of directors, won’t Obama…

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In the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover raised marginal tax rates to 63%, and went on a deficit spending binge. He also signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which helped turn a recession into the Great Depression by triggering a trade war with other countries.

Obama is on the same path. His deficit-exploding $800 billion stimulus package blocked 97 Mexican truckers from U.S. roads. That NAFTA violation “caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade.” The CBO admits…

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Yesterday, liberal lawmakers, after publicly blasting the multi-million dollar AIG bonuses as undeserved and excessive, privately voted down GOP proposals to limit them. (AIG is a major donor to liberal politicians, such as Obama, who received more than $100,000, and Chris Dodd (D-CT), who received $280,000. AIG’s contributions over the last 6 years have gone mostly to Democrats).

Today, however, they are pushing legislation to impose a 90 percent tax on bonuses, not just at AIG, but also at other, healthy banks that received federal…

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It’s not just AIG, being bailed out for $170 billion, that’s using taxpayer money to give fat bonuses to its employees. The same thing is happening at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the fraud-ridden “Government-Sponsored Enterprises” that helped spawn the mortgage crisis, and now are being bailed out at a cost of over $200 billion.

Before publicly blasting million-dollar bonuses at AIG, the Obama administration privately signed off on those very bonuses, and included language in the economy-shrinking “stimulus” bill to protect those bonuses. (AIG gave over…

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In response to public outrage, Obama is belatedly criticizing the millions of dollars in bonuses that AIG, which is being bailed by taxpayers at a cost of $170 billion, is paying to its executives. But his criticism is hypocritical and dishonest, both because his administration had known about the bonuses long before they became public, and because the stimulus package he himself signed contains language specifically designed to shield those bonuses.

Who put that provision there? Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), who received $280,000 in campaign…

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This week, host Cord Blomquist and co-host William Yeatman, along with guest commentator Ryan Young (Richard Morrison is off this week) take a whiff of the bank nationalizations floating through the air, and say they stink. Sen. Chris Dodd’s dodgy dealings in real estate come under scrutiny. Rep. John Murtha has a few multi-million dollar skeletons hiding in his own, heavily gilded, closet. Climate czar Carol Browner declares war on the economy. While favoring immigration in general, our hosts question…

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I have an article on that very subject over at NRO today. Check it out!

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Liberal Congressional leaders have apparently reached a deal with the Bush Administration on the principal elements of a $700 billion bailout of the financial system.  What this means is that the already costly bailout has now gotten even more expensive, with new tax breaks for politically-connected businesses and delinquent debtors, and limits on foreclosure that will make it harder for the taxpayers to ever get their $700 billion back.  Although it is being sold as a “bipartisan” — a buzzword often used to push bad policies – Republican House members…

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The $700 billion bailout of the financial system just got worse, thanks to a rewrite by Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd.  If the government loses money on all the “bad debt” it’s buying, the taxpayers will pick up 100% of the tab.  But if markets rebound, or the government makes money on any of its individual purchases, taxpayers won’t keep the money.  Instead, at least 20 percent of it will go into a housing slush fund that will benefit the left-wing group…

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