Obama Praises 3 GOP Votes on Financial Regulatory Reform

Why can’t they do this today????????????????

Some reform, is better than none. At least this won’t be as disastrous as ObamaCare.

“And this bill doesn’t even touch Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which was one of the major facilitators of the housing bubble which we are still working through after almost two years.”
Correct. We are on the hook for bailing them out to the tune of about $1 TRILLION over the next few years.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were also exempt from Sarbanes-Oxley, which would have revealed the $10.6 BILLION accounting fraud that occurred there. Although the perps who committed fraud at Enron and WorldCom went to prison (the catalyst for Sarbanes-Oxley), nobody at Fannie/Freddie did. Frank Raines and Jim Johnson are currently living lives of luxury as millionaires.
So how’s that whole federal regulation thing working for you?

Mary | Jul 13, 2010 1:58:08 PM…..Its not guilt or innocense that matters for Frank Raines and Jim Johnson ; it party affiliation.

Mr President
, I disagree. I think the repeal of Glass/Steagall Act and Clinton’s intentional falure to regulate financial derivatives (CDS,CDO,etc) were the greatest reform since the great depression.

Unlimited bail outs and no reform for Fanniw and Freddie. This is a bad bill, so of course, liberals love it

Section 342 of the bill will establish Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion in at least 20 federal financial services agencies. These offices will be tasked with implementing “standards and procedures to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the fair inclusion and utilization of minorities, women, and minority-owned and women-owned businesses in all business and activities of the agency at all levels, including in procurement, insurance, and all types of contracts.”

All of this legislation that needs to be rushed thru without a concensus is another recipe for disaster. Not sure where these politicians get their confidence from other than they don’t pay the price until election time of course.

Hurray for those 3 brave Republicans who are turning aside from their parties knee-jerk reaction to say no to any idea, bad or in this case, very good. The idea of a completely free market in banking was and is a recipe for disaster. After the Great Depression lawmakers put Glass-Steagal in place to prevent runaway greed, Republicans years ago dismantled it.
Let’s put these reforms in place now to prevent another world-wide economic collapse.

Posted by: Lydia | Jul 13, 2010 3:50:20 PM
Lydia, look up Glass-Stegall act of 1933 again.
Part of it was removed under the Carter administration with the help of the Democrat controled senate and the Democrat controled house in 1980 (Depository Insitutions Deregulation and Monetary Control act of 1980).
Part of it was removed under the Reagan administration with the help of a Republican led senate and a Democrat led house in 1982(Garn-St. Germain Depository institutions act of 1982).
Part of it was removed under the Clinton administration with the help of of Republican led houses and senate in 1999 (Gramm-Leach-Biley Act of 1999).
Oh and such Republican giants such as Steny Hoyer and Charles Schumer, oh sorry Democrats rather, were instrumental in passage of those as two bills, and signed on as co-sponsors of the one in 1982.
Yes I think that Glass-Stegall should be reinstated, but check your facts before you try to blame one political party when both share significant blame for where our economy is today.

Lydia: “The big banks would lend to anyone because they didn’t hold the loans but falsely repackaged them as A+ securities, then sold them around the world and to pension funds here.
I sincerely hope the new reform disallows this practice. That one crazy idea led us to the recent economic melt-down around the world.”
That’s a very simplistic view. Loan originators had no reason to worry about risk because they could offload it to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which they encouraged.
Fannie/Freddie provided a service called guarantee services, where the agencies provided insurance on a pool of mortgages. These “insured” pools of mortgages were not subject to the same types of rules as conforming loans.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began to provide guarantee services for pools of riskier mortgages such as Alt-A and subprime mortgages from originators in large quantities starting in 2005 and peaking in 2007 (Democrats such as Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were providing “oversight” of those companies at the time).
It was these “insured” pools of mortgages that were at the root of the housing problem, and by ripple effect, the financial crisis.
In other words, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ENABLED the conditions for the crisis through the backing of these risky mortgages. Even though they played a large part in the financial crisis, they were exempted from the “reform” bill promoted by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. I wonder why that is.

“In other words, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ENABLED the conditions for the crisis through the backing of these risky mortgages”
Whenever a right-winger says “in other words” they really mean “in Righty words”
Freddie and Fannie are corporations, not regulatory agencies. If anybody enabled the the conditions for the crisis it was the FED by relaxing its oversight duties over banks and lending institutions. And like any corporation Freddie and Fannie were under pressure to protect their profitability and market share in the face of a blizzard of wild speculation in the housing and other markets. It’s funny, when a corporation tries to rip-off its customers in favor of its shareholders right-wingers cry fiduciary responsibility but when Freddie and Fannie allegedly lower their standards to better compete in a very over-inflated market on behalf their shareholders it has to be a diabolical plot by Barney Frank.

Skip: “Freddie and Fannie are corporations, not regulatory agencies.”
Correct. However, it is well documented that they blocked efforts by regulators to examine their books. The perps? Their executive leadership along with Barney and pals.
In 2005, John McCain stated:
“The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.”
Skip: “If anybody enabled the the conditions for the crisis it was the FED by relaxing its oversight duties over banks and lending institutions.”
The Federal Reserve was also part of the problem and Greenspan admitted it. However, it was the federal government that pushed banks to relax lending standards for minorities. To sweeten the deal, Fannie and Freddie promised to back the subprime and Alt-A loans. Jim Johnson received a bonus when the portfolio hit $1 TRILLION in subprime loans.
Democrats who were responsible for Congressional oversight as part of the Financial Services Committee assured us that regulation was sufficient at Fannie/Freddie and that their financial situation was solid.
As Barney Frank stated, “These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
If a Republican had said that given all that has happened since, he’d likely be in prison. Oddly, NOBODY at Fannie/Freddie went to prison, despite a $10.6 BILLION accounting scandal that eclipsed Enron and WorldCom (which resulted in prison sentences for their execs).
Taxpayers are currently on the hook for up to an estimated $1 TRILLION in bailout costs through 2019.
And yet, despite a long history of corruption, fraud, and cronyism, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were EXEMPTED from Sarbanes-Oxley and they are EXEMPTED from this “reform” bill. Ask yourself why.

Fannie and Freddie.. are they corporations, government entities, black holes.. they seem to be a gray area.. they may be the worst example of government interference in the free market system..ever.. well.. there is the defense department..

“Democrats who were responsible for Congressional oversight as part of the Financial Services Committee assured us that regulation was sufficient at Fannie/Freddie and that their financial situation was solid.”
In 2005, the GOP controlled Congress and its agenda.
McCain made his speech and became a cosponsor of a bill that never went to the floor for debate and was basically dead. The GOP just shuffled it from committee to committee just as they had done in 2003 when it was first proposed.
I guess Terri Schiavo was more important.