Archive » Subprime crisis

At the annual American Banking Association conference this weekend in Chicago, the SEIU army spearheaded an angry mob protest against major financial institutions who have taken federal bailout funds. It was the usual left-wing Kabuki theater. If the protesters were sincerely mad about the government bailouts, they’d be yelling on Capitol Hill and in front [...]

Whenever I have noted illegal alien mortgage fraud over the years, I’ve been smacked with the RAAAAACIST card. Wonder if the Inspector General for Tax Administration is going to get mau-mau-ed by the open borders lobby, too. Shhhhhh: The rush to implement a tax credit for first-time home buyers opened the program up to potential [...]

Oh, crikey. I’m cramping up. From. Laughing so hard. Ouch. Ow. Stop the pain! The administration’s new two-pronged initiative, operating under a law passed by Congress last year, will consist of a bond purchase program to support new lending by these agencies, and a temporary credit and liquidity program to boost agency access to credit [...]

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me: President Obama on Wednesday attempted to preempt the announcement that Social Security recipients will not get an increase in their benefit checks for the first time in three decades, encouraging Congress to provide a one-time payment of $250 to help seniors and disabled Americans weather the recession. “One-time [...]

The Naked Emperor revisited.

There is no such thing as a temporary entitlement. There is no such thing as a temporary entitlement that ever costs less than the government estimates. To wit: Here is yet another shining example of Obama “efficiency” that tells you all you need to know about Obamacare projections and promises: When Congress passed an $8,000 [...]

“Reckless.”

Last year, I introduced you to self-proclaimed bank terrorist and housing entitlement shakedown artist Bruce Marks of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA). Reminder: Over the years, as part of his permanent campaign to browbeat banks into giving fair loans to low- and moderate-income people, Marks and his yellow-T-shirted followers have swarmed shareholders’ meetings [...]

Egad, hasn’t he done enough damage already? Apparently not. Via the Boston Globe, Rep. Barney Frank can’t wait to meddle even more in the marketplace. Keep an eye on the grabby hands: As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank is busy assembling a complex bill to give the federal government unprecedented control over [...]

The nutroots were quite upset with George Stephanopoulos for inviting me on his This Week roundtable. They piled on him on Twitter. And even Paul Krugman tried to stir up lefty ire. God forbid a non-establishment, non-Beltway-certified “acceptable” conservative have a voice in a mainstream forum! Unlike Matt Lauer, Stephanopoulos wasn’t compelled to play “beat [...]

Regular readers are familiar with Democrat deadbeat Rep. Laura Richardson. (See here for all previous posts.) She’s the Democrat congresswoman who defaulted six times on her home loans and has left a trail of unpaid bills in her wake. Well, finally, finally, her Sacramento foreclosure scandal is now the subject of a House ethics probe. [...]

Of course, it’s all Bush’s fault: The U.S. economy is not only shedding jobs at a record rate; it is shedding more jobs than it is supposed to. It’s bad enough that the unemployment rate has doubled in only a year and a half and one out of six construction workers is out of work. [...]

Reader Stanley e-mails that Wells Fargo is suing itself, and has hired two different law firms to do so. Details from Dow Jones columnist Al Lewis: You can’t expect a bank that is dumb enough to sue itself to know why it is suing itself. Yet I could not resist asking Wells Fargo Bank NA [...]

GOP members of the House Oversight Committee have put out a report analyzing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s role in the housing meltdown. The Hill summarizes: “The housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to a financial crisis can be traced back to the federal government intervention in the U.S. housing market intended to [...]

Beware the grubby paws (hat tip – Will Amos): House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has a plan to funnel income from the government’s $700 billion bailout fund toward the housing sector. The powerful Massachusetts Democrat last week quietly introduced legislation that aims to use $1 billion in dividends paid by the recipients of [...]

I don’t know about you, but the idea of anyone in Washington fuming about fine print while they ram thousand-page bills through Congress that no one bothers to read is, well, triple-snort-worthy: President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to create a new agency to police the fine print on consumer products like credit cards [...]

The WSJ broke the news on Friday about Obama’s new “pay czar,” Kenneth Feinberg. His official title as executive-pay-limiter-in-chief: Special Master of Compensation. Can’t wait to see his logo. Next up: Obama appoints the… …Distinguished Overlord of Oxygen Intake (to limit individual human carbon emissions); …Royal Captain of Calorie Consumption (to limit weight gain and [...]

Photoshop credit: George at Elegant Memories There have been several interesting and informative blog posts published recently on the Chrysler dealership closure “hit list.” Posts by Joey Smith, Doug Ross, and on Free Republic shed light on the campaign contributions of the targeted dealers — who happen to lean Republican. Is Obama capable of such [...]

Photoshop: Doug Powers Hey, remember that bullcrap about how if we forked over billions in tax dollars to bail out the auto companies, we’d not only get our money back, we’d actually make a profit? Yeah. Never mind: General Motors Corp’s (GM.N) plan for a bankruptcy filing involves a quick sale of the company’s healthy [...]

Your lunchtime must-read from Steven Malanga in the City Journal: Obsessive Housing Disorder. Bottom line: Ultimately, the goal should be to end subsidies that amount to a government project to direct homeownership to places where Washington believes it should be taking place. That kind of political meddling in this vast marketplace has wreaked havoc time [...]

Washington can’t meet the Cheerios Standard by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2009 I think it’s time we applied the same advertising standards to Washington’s legislative products that the feds apply to breakfast foods. The Food and Drug Administration rapped General Mills this week for making misleading claims about the benefits of Cheerios. The food [...]

Hey, the amorphous TARP bailout program has been used for everything else under the sun, why not as a cover for debt-laden California? Barney Frank thinks it’s a peachy idea: California Treasurer Bill Lockyer on Wednesday formally requested federal help to backstop a wave of short-term borrowing the cash-strapped state will need to undertake this [...]

The fraud-ridden money pit known as Fannie Mae needs more of your money. Who among the Fannie-kissers in Congress will say no? Say goodbye to another $19 billion: Fannie Mae (FNM.P), the largest provider of U.S. home mortgage funding, said on Friday it needs more capital from the U.S. Treasury after a $23.2 billion loss [...]

Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson is back from her Congressional Black Caucus rendezvous with Fidel Castro, but her head is apparently still in the clouds. She continues to neglect one of the many homes she has defaulted on — and her neighbors are getting sick and tired of it: Known as much for her house troubles [...]

David Kellerman, 41, the chief financial officer of troubled government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac, reportedly killed himself sometime last night or early this morning. Family members contacted police before 5 am after discovering the body in his Fairfax VA home. Lots of speculation and wild-eyed conspiracies already taking off. Yes, Freddie Mac is in financial meltdown. [...]

BamWow!

Yes, Virginia, the Obama administration is still living in fantasy land — and wants to rope you into it, too. Here’s a coffee-spurting headline for you this morning. Turn your head away from your computer screens upon reading: U.S. Imagines the Bailout as an Investment Tool Wait, wait. It gets better: During World War I, [...]

Gulp.

Wah.

There was a big dog-and-pony show earlier today led by Tiny Tim Geithner, who announced bold new initiatives to crack down on mortgage scammers and shut down irresponsible lenders cooking the books. Speaking of mortgage scammers who cooked the books, when will they shut down Fannie and Freddie and go after their enablers in Congress? [...]