Tuesday, September 30, 2008

McCain, Obama, and the "Credit Crisis"

OK. Let's review the bidding.
1977 - Jimmuh Cahtuh and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) - Encourage banks to make loans to risky clients.
Enter ACORN
ACORN is a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization with national
headquarters in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. To maintain
independence, ACORN does not accept government funding and is not tax exempt.
Since 1970 ACORN ( Association of [originally Arkansas] Community Organizations for Reform Now) has been pressuring banks to make loans to high-risk clients. In 1990, they launched the first challenge to block a merger based on non-compliance with CRA.

2004 - Republicans want to investigate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Democrats oppose.

2008 - The bad loans begin to default. Freddie and Fannie hold a huge portfolio of bad paper.

2008 - President Bush, Pelosi, Reid, etc (including both McCain and Obama) push for a $700 billion bailout which is widely opposed by Main Street America. It fails in the House and the finger-pointing begins. McCain calls it a failure to act. Congress did act. They REJECTED the bailout, as the majority of Americans wanted them to. It was Bi-Partisan, with nearly 100 Democrats voting against it. Even ACORN opposed the bailout, even though a staggering amount of the funds would have gone to ACORN (in direct opposition to their statement above).

2008-Sep 29 - The market (Dow Jones Average) falls over 770 points in one day, the largest single point loss in history. As a percentage of the Dow, however, it is about 6.5% and would not make the list of the ten largest drops.

2008-Sep-30 - The market rebounds with the Dow gaining 485 points. Meanwhile, the media and the political talking heads decry the tragedy of not getting the bailout pushed through.

Let's see what happens tomorrow. And visit here for more information.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found THIS quite informative.

Pat's Rick© said...

Quite good post. Thanks for the link.

Hawkeye® said...

It's all so depressing. I'm losin' money, man. My retirement may be cratering with the economy.

Best regards...