It's Fashionable (and Convenient) to Bash The Wall Street Bankers

Congress and the White House are so ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT BASHING WALL STREET BANKERS IN ORDER TO TAKE ATTENTION AWAY FROM DEMOCRATS WHO WERE THE INITIATORS AND THEN COMPLICIT IN THE BUILD UP TO THE BANKING-MORTGAGE MELTDOWN.

The huge bonuses in banks that received TARP bailouts are unethical even if the loans were repaid. But, it's not just the Wall Street bankers that deserve bashing.


HERE ARE SOME FACTS!

1. Jimmy CARTER and Congress passed the COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT OF 1979 which was the foundation for the subprime loan failures.

2. Rep Barney FRANK, Congress and Bill CLINTON from 1994 to 2000 gave the authority to, and encouraged, HUD to PRESSURE BANKS , Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to SET UP HIGH RISKY LIMITS for the amount of loans to go to " affordable housing" for poor people and minorities who could not qualify for normal loans; these became the "SUBPRIME" loans with higher rates for the risk.

3. Bill CLINTON and Congress REPEALED THE GLASS STEAGALL ACT in 1999 to allow companies to be involved in insurance, commercial banking and investment banking, thereby TAKING AWAY SOME OF THE REGULATORY SAFETY NETS in each industry.

4. DEMOCRATS in Congress, LED BY Barney FRANK and Chris DODD, BLOCKED Bush in 2003 when he attempted to get legislation for "SIGNIFICANT REGULATORY OVERHAUL of the housing financial industry". Barney Frank assured Congress that there was no problem with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac while Sen. Chris Dodd was getting low interest personal loans from Country-Wide Mortgages.

5. DEMOCRATS in Congress again BLOCKED the "Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005" to REGULATE FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC. Frank and Dodd sang the same obstructionist tunes.

6. Timothy GEITHNER, as head of the New York Federal Reserve in 2008, APPROVED AIG BONUSES while advocating the huge bailout of AIG which continued under Obama.

7. The bank executives ought to be held accountable for their part and huge bonuses for those who received TARP money are outrageous EVEN if the TARP loans were repaid because the TARP loans allowed these banks to survive and become healthy again. But, it was GEITHNER AND OBAMA WHO DID NOT HAVE THE FORESIGHT TO PUT RESTRICTIONS on future bonuses.