McCain’s principle economic advisor is Phil Gramm, who is an exec of UBS. This Swiss bank has billions on the line in US subprime exposure.

Which is precisely why McCain needs more econ-advisers with real-world experience like Phil Gramm: USB has a vested interest in getting Americans back on solvent ground – it’s the only way they’ll recover their past investments and it keeps the American market open to them for future investments.

lgm said:
Look for the candidate with the least conflict of interest, that’s Obama. Not no conflict, but much less.

put the crack pipe down and back away slowly lgm.

Look for the candidate with the least conflict of interest, that’s Obama. Not no conflict, but much less.

American Energy Production Act- this bill would produce up to 24 billion barrels of new oil if enacted

There is support for the effort by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, to force the Senate to debate new energy legislation. McConnell, backed by Cornyn and other Senate Republicans, introduced the American Energy Production Act, S. 2958, as an amendment today to separate legislation currently before the Senate.

If enacted, the legislation would lead to the estimated production of up to 24 billion barrels of oil — enough oil to supply America for 5 years with no foreign imports. It was introduced last week as a stand-alone bill by Sen. Cornyn and his colleagues.

The legislation will strengthen domestic energy production by exploring in ANWR, additional outer continental shelves, shale areas, and provide for increased refinery capacity.

Specifically, the American Energy Production Act:

I was one of his constituents when the Dems gerrymandered Georgia in the early 90’s. I lived on the South Side of the city where the majority were solid middle class types who worked at the airport. The Demo-restructuring put Newt in a very affluential part of the North Side of Atlanta (deeper pockets are indicated). No big deal except the same restructuring created the now infamous “Octopus” district that allowed for a 10 mile wide corridor 200 miles long that ensured Cynthia (sure Saudi Arabia, I’ll take your money) McKinney would be elected over and over again. Newt never whispered a peep in opposition.

Newt (other than his climate stupidity of late) has been a reasonably good Anti-Commie but I just can’t forgive him for sitting on his hands so he could get bigger campaign contributions.

XBlade #32, noted that hag comment. Newt took a beating for that and had to come out a few time to state why he did it. I think the hag even broke campaign finance rules for taking money for that ad while she’s running for office.

Signed it. Thank you. We need to bludgeon Congress over this.

On June 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pm, Barry F. said: John, I must be a little slow on the up take this evening. I see the image on the front page of Newt’s site but I don’t see where I can order the sticker. Do you have a direct link to the sticker?

If you haven’t found it yet try this.

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay less. sticker

Who’s Vetting the Vetter? from Marc Ambinder notes that there are some questions about Jim Johnson, chief of Barack Obama’s veep vetting squad that don’t jive with Obama’s new populist message of not trucking with political insiders. Cognitive diss…

And I’ve been passing the word. Over 10,000 more since I signed the petition.

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less

http://www.americansolutions.com/

Countrywide was more than a subprime lender – it was perhaps the largest seller of loans to Fannie Mae. In other words, Fannie Mae was a Countrywide customer and Countrywide was a Fannie Mae customer. The more loans Countrywide sold to Fannie Mae, the more money they made. And the more loans Fannie Mae bought from Countrywide and packaged up and resold, the more money Fannie Mae made.

It is not just the terms of Johnson’s personal loans that are at issue ($7 milion reported to be at below market rates is one hell of an exposure for Countrywide), but also the terms of the loan sales from Countrywide to Fannie Mae. And with that goes the issues of whether the loans purchased by Countrywide performed relative to other Fannie Mae sellers and whether Countrywide was required to repurchase loans that went into default under the same terms as other sellers.

Accepting loans on preferential terms was apparently a violation of Fannie Mae’s internal policies, but it may also have been a violation of federal law. I am not certain to what standards officers of Fannie Mae are held, but officers of banks and mortgage companies affiliated with banks are subject to federal criminal laws, including the following:

§ 215. Receipt of commissions or gifts for procuring loans
How Current is This? (a) Whoever—
(1) corruptly gives, offers, or promises anything of value to any person, with intent to influence or reward an officer, director, employee, agent, or attorney of a financial institution in connection with any business or transaction of such institution; or
(2) as an officer, director, employee, agent, or attorney of a financial institution, corruptly solicits or demands for the benefit of any person, or corruptly accepts or agrees to accept, anything of value from any person, intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection with any business or transaction of such institution;
shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or three times the value of the thing given, offered, promised, solicited, demanded, accepted, or agreed to be accepted, whichever is greater, or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both, but if the value of the thing given, offered, promised, solicited, demanded, accepted, or agreed to be accepted does not exceed $1,000, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
[(b) Transferred]
(c) This section shall not apply to bona fide salary, wages, fees, or other compensation paid, or expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual course of business.
(d) Federal agencies with responsibility for regulating a financial institution shall jointly establish such guidelines as are appropriate to assist an officer, director, employee, agent, or attorney of a financial institution to comply with this section. Such agencies shall make such guidelines available to the public.

It is hard to imagine with all the banking regulations and protections on the books, that Fannie Mae would be given a pass on standards applicable to many of their customers. Be that as it may, Countrywide did and does have a federally insured bank in the mix, and the terms of a preferential loan made to a “government official” could certainly raise suspicion that the loan was an attempt to influence Fannie Mae.

You may also recall that Countrywide was the subject of perhaps the first “bailout” on the mortgage side, having inked a deal to be acquired by Bank of America prior to what appeared to be its impending bust. Countrywide’s woes did not go unnoticed, and its top officers are now the subjects of criminal investigations by the federal government as well as SEC inquiries.

Fannie Mae’s issues have been relatively quiet as of late. But they too are looking at some fairly massive losses. It will be interesting to see if any of Fannie Mae’s problems arise from its relationship with Countrywide, and if so, to what extent.

This bit of news could not come at a worse time for Countrywide. While the Federal Reserve recently approved its acquisition by Bank of America, the deal is not yet done. If any more guano hits the proverbial fan, BofA just may decide to walk from the deal.

The Johnson loan is just a very small tip of a very large iceberg. And Obama’s relationship with Johnson is but another sign that Obama’s judgment is anything but Presidential.

On June 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pm, DesertLover said:

aj

I still wonder how much our oil and gasoline usage would go down if we got rid of the 12-20 million illegals that are here on our roads and using our electricity …

And, lest we forget, how much carbon dioxide are they producing? The sky is falling!