WHAT ME TO BLAME?

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Remember, "People who live in glass houses should not be the first to cast stones"

Note the date on the following;
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999 (NEW YORK TIMES)
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

Don't put all the blame on the Republicans or McCain. Two days ago I wrote; In 1999 Fannnie Mae was encouraged to increase the number of loans to lower income individuals to increase house ownerships and also profits. There was a reversal of thinking in 2000, still during the Clinton years, but under Bush in 2004 restrictive lending rules were dropped and high risk loans were accepted.

Obviously all politicians are responsible. The Dems wrote the original policy, The Republican controlled Congress first enacted restrictive legislation, then under pressure probably from the lenders and Financial Banking Houses removed restrictions and did not provide oversight. The Enron lesson went unheeded.

However, the Democrats have controlled Congress the last few years, they could have written legislation which probably would not have survived a veto. They failed.

Our President never in his annual State of the Union message even suggested that there was a potential problem. ALL THE RASCALS IN WASHINGTON SHOULD SHARE BLAME.

That said the important thing is how to prevent greater damage.This will take bipartisan action, which will not be possible until after the election.