Belly Up
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- June
- 18
I went in several visual directions before sketching up this image. Almost did an oil derrick/frame drilling into consumers/customers/victims – or whatever you call people who got shafted by the bank biz – but I thought this was a more amusing take on the “framework” motif. I really thought long and hard about putting in the “greed” label, as I really loathe labeling, but I loathe ambiguousness more, so the label stayed in.
The President’s already compromise-laced proposal to overhaul the financial regulatory system is now in Congress’ sweaty palms and will be further weakened by bank lobbyists who didn’t get their way during the White House cobbling-together session. Predictably, their only interest is in preserving the structure holding up that vast belly. My dream is to one day be able to afford my own lobbyist.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 6:51 am by Matt Davies.
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How do you like being a mouthpiece for the government? You regurgitate their talking points on command. Let’s not talk about how congressional Democrats killed Bush’s attempts to reform Fannie and Freddie, nothing to see there.
Media watchdogs are now media lapdogs.
Joe, I don’t understand. Are you for reining in the financial services industry that helped destroy the economy, or not?
Fannie and Freddie were quasi-government entities that enabled the ballooning of the sub-prime mortgage market. When some tried to rein in their loan limits in 2005, Barney Frank and other Democrats (and sadly, a smaller amount of Republicans) fought against this reform in the name of “affordable housing” arguments. They were allowed to continue buying these toxic loans from banks because of the progressive push for home ownership, even for those who really couldn’t afford it. Throw in the Fed’s loose monetary policy during this time (Greenspan) and you had easy money chasing ever inflating real estate assets. Were financial companies taking stupid risks? Yes, some were and we bail them out to this day because of the “too big to fail” moral hazard. But intrusive government also played a large role in bringing the economy to where we are today.
I don’t disagree with the call for making these banks more accountable for risk, but the way these reform are written right now, all they are doing is creating more Fannies and Freddies across more industries. The great Larry Kudlow can explain this better than I can, but that’s the base of the argument against these solutions. Reform, yes…Obama’s reform? Not so much.
@AJ: To clarify, “intrusive government” = lax oversight and regulation?
Yay, talking points. In reality, there’s plenty of blame for everyone. Actually, no, I blame banks, most, for relaxing their lending requirements (people could pretty much lie on their mortgage apps) and allowing the bubble to grow.
Oops, forgot to add this: http://mediamatters.org/research/200901080022
What I am saying is that the problem did not stem from lax regulation, it is more attributable to stupid government regulations, begun under Carter and expanded by Clinton, that forced financial institutions to loan to people who were otherwise unqualified to borrow. To blame the banks and ignore the role of the Democrats is government propaganda. I found this article to be fair and more detailed than my quick answer:
http://tinyurl.com/c44g88
What i love is the banks penalizing the people that pay their bills and dont over spend. My rates went up and my amount i can borrow was halved. This happened on my AAA visa card under BoA. I gave them an earful. then i paid off with 5 dollars extra. then cancelled my card. so they had to pay me my 5 bucks back. i wonder how that looks on their credit?
more people should cancel their cards with positive credit so the banks have to shell the money back then have to look at a lot of people with cancelled cards
Absolutely Pete, if your equation refers to the lax oversight of Fannie and Freddie. Good work!
Rich,
Banks were FORCED to make these loans under threats by the Clinton Justice Department in the mid to late 90’s. That was the whole impetus for the creation of the sub-prime mortgage market and the increased involvement of Fannie and Freddie. The funny thing was that ACORN was working both sides of this. On the one hand,they were attacking banks for not lending to these high-risk borrowers, and then on the other side of it they were lobbying Congress to increase the amount of these loans that Fannie and Freddie could buy from these banks, so that the banks could clear their balance sheets and make MORE of them.
Sorry, but the man behind the curtain in this mess is progressive liberal policies and their advocates distorting the loan market with their social engineering. Epic fail.
AJ:
Where’s your evidence?
It’s astounding how you always pin the blame for every problem this nation has on the Democrats, anyone remotely associated with them (ACORN, really?), and the “left-wing”, “liberal” media (as opposed to what, the North Korean propaganda machine?). Yet, when it comes to the Bush Administration and the terrible damage they’ve done to this nation in their eight years of occupation (with the complete backing & support of the Republican party), not a f**king peep out of you.
Do you know who conceived and established this nation, and authored the amazing documents that are our foundation?
People with LIBERAL minds & thoughts!
If you’re not part of the solution (and just bitching all the time doesn’t count), you’re part of the problem. So, pick a side.
i have to agree. its teh greed of the banks.
explain this. i received my card statement. they receieved my last payment on 6/10./ and decided to hit me with a late fee on 6/15. what?!
explain that to me please…
i know one thing if they do it again. i drop them.. I pay all my bills and as teh card carriers piss me off. i pay them down then i cancel them. already did it to 1 card which leaves me with 2. I have no qulams with having but one credit card.
Bashea,
In helping to identify the ACTUAL cause of the economic collpase, I am helping to solve it. By saying “greedy bankers” did it is a severely understated and incorrect identification of the problem. In doing that, you leave the door wide open for unaccountable politicians like Barney Frank to declare a mandate to re-write the financial rules. I never said bankers didn’t share some of the blame for this, but the chain of events all starts with GOVERNMENT intervention in the loan/mortgage market, leading to these severe disruptions in our economy. My goal is to not preotect one political side over the other, it is to correctly identify the real cause of the problem without the rush to judgement and to regulate before the American people can fully digest the ramifications of more of Obama’s “we-better-pass-this-now-or-people-are going-to-be-far-worse-off” phony urgency. Like what happened with the “stimulus” package.
AJ, explain to me how Barney Frank was running the show when his party sat in the minority from January 1995 to January 2007? Where does this power come from?
If minority members of Congress could do all that you say Barney Frank did, then the Republicans would be having their way right now. But they are not.
Government intervention the glass steagall act protected us. until alfonse d’amota and cronies broke it. once everyone could own everything thats why we are in the mess we are in …
there’s no more insurance only owns insurance. every one is a lowes or home depot.
hey come to citi your one stop shop for everything dealing with money..
there’s something to be said for variety and for being good at one specific thing ..