OMG. You ate her alive. She didn't have a leg to stand on after you blasted eeevvvery one of her points. Luved it.

ramon

The Congress needs to investigate this plunge of Fannie and Freddie -- not just bail them out with no questions asked! Because really, was there any LEGITIMATE reason for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go under? These two former public entities did not deal in the subprime and risky loans!

I repeat, Fannie and Freddie did not deal in risky mortgages; they were NOT being threatened by a wave of defaults on subprime loans.

Where's the investigation into the real cause of Thursday's stock market plunge on Freddie and Fannie???????

It looks too suspicious to me. A ONE DAY EVENT ending in a PLUNGE, followed by further panic the next day. Even the TIMING of it on a THURSDAY.

If there is a bail-out, it should be in the form of nationalizing the institutions so that they can be truly regulated and monitored.

The Freddie and Fannie stock market problem this week was bizarre and without an timely investigation the cause will remain in the shadows.

Freddie and Fannie have owned and guaranteed the SAFEST MORTGAGES. They were NOT part of the subprime problem. The precipitous drop of historically safe stocks at the end of Thursday requires asking questions like, what preceded the drop late Thursday? Did certain parties purposely sell Freddie and Fannie stock short? Was the classic panic amongst smaller, less savvy players in the stock market predictable and triggered on purpose? Who were there parties that made the money from selling short Thursday and cleaning up on Friday?

Are there any similarities or links between the continuing mortgage mess and the oil speculation? When are the Houses of Congress going to begin dealing with these problems and the crimes involved as problems with regulatory remedies and a conclusion through criminal prosecution? Instead of that, it seems we are witnessing our Congress/Senate respond to these profiteering scenarios as if they were ACTS OF GOD that cannot be dealt with practically but only appeased with offerings and ritual sacrifices as if our representative government were no more than a religious cult?!
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How far off am I on this 'mortgage relief' stuff I'm reading about?

It looks to me like this:

The two mortgage bills now before the Houses of Congress are supposed to help those mortgagees who are still paying but 'struggling' (and the bills have nothing much to do with those ex-homeowners who were scammed by predatory lending 'practices' which were the result of poor standards and lax regulations). And these bills propose to provide 'relief' by -- hold on to your HAT! -- by ALLOWING LENDING STANDARDS AND LOAN RESTRUCTURING THAT IN THE LONG RUN BENEFIT THE MORTGAGE INDUSTRY OVER THE HOMEOWNER!

These Corporatist Predators (oxymoron?) just can't be stopped once they smell the blood of Middle Class.

Right now Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae buy almost 50% of all mortgages issued. As it stands now they are prohibited to buy the more risky subprime mortgages. And yet Freddie and Fannie are hurting, due to stock market dramatics. So it makes no sense for these bills to mandate Freddie and Fannie taking on and guaranteeing these subprime loans in risky refinancing schemes. If people are concerned about the viability of Freddie and Fannie right NOW (after the bizarre stock market plunge this past week), imagine the concerns if Freddie and Fannie load up with restructured mortgages (a new name for subprime mortgages?) and refinanced mortgages.

They can label these bills with the word "relief", but who is getting the relief? Not the Middle Class, not the taxpayers backing the Freddie and Fannie guarantees, not those folks who suffered from being marks of the predatory loan practitioners. Seems the relief is really for the Mortgage Industry. Even with these bills, looking down the road it appears fewer people will own their homes, and taxpayers will be footing the cost of bailing out Freddie and Fannie guarantees.

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The future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams.--Eleanor Roosevelt

I saw something funny the other day that bears on the free-market conservative (aka fascist) topic you were discussing.

I heard that the Barack Obama campaign was considering sponsoring a NASCAR car, but some were saying that NASCAR fans are almost all Republicans. I found that hilarious. These Republicans flock to the track to see competition that is very highly regulated and the competitors are inspected and pay heavy fines for violations of the rules.

Isn't that liberal capitalism? We believe that competition is great, as long as all of the players play by the rules. We support FAIR trade, not free (unfettered, exploitative, polluting, unfair) trade. I'd be interested in how many of these Republican NASCAR fans if the rules and their enforcement were as lax as the Bush administration and the racers got to do whatever they wanted to gain an advantage. The popularity of sports in America is based on strong enforcement of the rules to guarantee fair competition that legitimizes the victories of the winners.