Tag Archive | "mortgage"

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

LibertyWeek 35: Dodd Man Out?

LibertyWeek 35: Dodd Man Out?

Your hosts Richard Morrison and Cord Blomquist welcome back special guest co-host Michelle Minton for Episode 35 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We begin with a celebration of human achievement and a peek into the realm of secret government documents. We then investigate how the White House is going to waste another $1 trillion of your money and how the British beer tax has managed to kill off 20,000 jobs. Finally we focus on the history of the scandal-addled Sen. Dodd of…

Read the full story

Posted in CEI Projects, PodcastComments (0)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

lolprez Strikes Again

lolprez Strikes Again

lolprez and the “do-something-anything” Congress is at it again

Read the full story

Posted in Economy, Odds & Ends, Personal Liberty, Politics as UsualComments (1)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

LibertyWeek 20: The Future Is Cao?

LibertyWeek 20: The Future Is Cao?

Welcome back to LibertyWeek, where your hosts Richard Morrison and Cord Blomquist bring you the best in news and views, always from the perspective of free markets and limited government. We start this week’s episode with praise for the new look and feel of OpenMarket.org: the blog you want to read. We then move on to the most delicious edition of Scandal Watch yet — the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on federal charges of “staggering” corruption. After that we…

Read the full story

Posted in CEI Projects, PodcastComments (1)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Feds to Flush Billions More Down the Toilet, Destroying Jobs

The Treasury Department wants the federal government to effectively buy up all mortgage loans in America, by selling treasury bonds to buy up mortgage-backed securities. In exchange, lenders would have to charge a ridiculously low interest rate of 4.5% for a 30-year mortgage, which is lower than inflation in many years, and way lower than people with even perfect credit receive now.

The Treasury proposal will put taxpayers on the hook for tremendous potential losses if borrowers default, with little upside,…

Read the full story

Posted in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & RiskComments (12)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Investing in Communal Failure: The Current Economic Crisis as a Result of Regulation

Unfettered greed is the suspect many point at to explain the current economic crisis. To some extent, they are right, but it isn’t irrational greed on the part of bank managers or fat cat CEOs. It is the unwieldy bank regulations that forced the entire industry to walk the proverbial plank and then blame it for drowning.

Critics have alternately claimed that over-regulation and under-regulation are the causes for the current crisis. I believe one specific regulation, the Community Reinvestment Act…

Read the full story

Posted in Bailout Watch, Economy, Precaution & RiskComments (11)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Bailout Threatens Economy, Shreds Constitution, Rips Off Taxpayers

The stock market sank as the Bush Administration capitulated to liberal demands that its proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system be expanded to add more costly give-aways, like “systematic” limits on foreclosure, that would allow irresponsible borrowers to remain in their homes at taxpayer expense.   The bailout is so extreme that it is unconstitutional.

Because of rigid federal accounting regulations that require Enron-style “mark-to-market accounting,” the bailout could actually deepen the financial crisis.  The bailout will reduce economic growth over the long run, and is logically inconsistent.

The bailout rips off people who lived within…

Read the full story

Posted in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, SanctimonyComments (11)

Tags: , , ,

Clinton Pressure to Promote Affordable Housing Led to Mortgage Meltdown

The current mortgage crisis came about in large part because of Clinton-era government pressure on lenders to make risky loans in order to make homeownership more affordable for lower-income Americans and those with a poor credit history,” the DC Examiner notes today.   “Those steps encouraged riskier mortgage lending by minimizing the role of credit histories in lending decisions, loosening required debt-to-equity ratios to allow  borrowers to make small or even no down payments at all, and encouraging lenders the use of floating or…

Read the full story

Posted in Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & RiskComments (52)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Washington Post Blames Private Sector for Government Failures

On the front page of the Washington Post, writer Steven Pearlstein contradicts himself by writing that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being “rescued from the harsh discipline of markets and the consequences of their own misjudgments,” undercutting arguments for “privatization, deregulation, and a faith in free markets.”

But the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is hardly an indictment of the free market: Fannie and Freddie are “Government-Sponsored Enterprises,” not products of the free market or the…

Read the full story

Posted in Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & RiskComments (9)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are Reporters Financially Illiterate? Fannie and Freddie Are Called “Government-Sponsored Enterprises” for a Reason

Right now, the federal government, at a huge cost to taxpayers of perhaps $100 billion, is bailing out the two government-backed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the so-called GSEs.  “GSE” stands for Government-Sponsored Enterprise.  But some reporters are financially-illiterate, because if you point out the obvious — that the GSEs are going to cost taxpayers billions — reporters will condescendingly “correct” what you said, by insisting that they are completely “private sector” entities (false) that have yet to cost taxpayers a dime (false).   (Back in July, the predicted cost to…

Read the full story

Posted in Economy, LegalComments (32)

  • Popular
  • Most Comments
  • Most Emails