The global financial meltdown: a lesbian's to blame

I've always thought lesbians to be the saddest minority of all - no cock themselves, not interested in cocks. And of course forever freeloading on the back of events initiated and organised by gay men, such as Mardi Gras parties, since they are so dull and boring they could never do it themselves. Now we find out that a lesbian started the banks and other lending institutions towards that grand cock-up we have today, the financial mess on Wall Street. Her name is Roberta Achtenberg and she was Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Bill Clitoris. The whole sordid tale of her bullying the banks into abandoning prudential lending standards is told in this week's Spectator - http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine ... unch.thtml (http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/2189196/clinton-democrats-are-to-blame-for-the-credit-crunch.thtml)

[cottmann]

I've always thought lesbians to be the saddest minority of all - no cock themselves, not interested in cocks. And of course forever freeloading on the back of events initiated and organised by gay men, such as Mardi Gras parties, since they are so dull and boring they could never do it themselves. Now we find out that a lesbian started the banks and other lending institutions towards that grand cock-up we have today, the financial mess on Wall Street. Her name is Roberta Achtenberg and she was Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Bill Clitoris. The whole sordid tale of her bullying the banks into abandoning prudential lending standards is told in this week's Spectator - http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine ... unch.thtml (http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/2189196/clinton-democrats-are-to-blame-for-the-credit-crunch.thtml)

Obviously the bankers had no balls either!

Obviously the bankers had no balls either!If you've read the article you'll know the answer

Let's see.
We've got Bill Clinton, minorities, homosexuals, liberals, San Francisco-Lesbian-Liberals (a great 3 for 1 there), Washington Bureaucrats - have I forgotten anyone?

They're really pulling out a lot of old material to try to blame anyone but irresponsible Republican bankers and Wall Streeters for the mess.

Again, this theory is nothing more than Right Wing Horeshit that's "going viral".

I undestand Britian is having its own mortgage meltdown crisis. Is Roberta Achtenberg responsible for that too?

Damn those San Francisco Lesbians!

Damn those San Francisco Lesbians!You got that right!

[rincondog]

A timeline of events leading to the crisis
Full timeline here:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature ... eline.html (http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/where-credit-is-due-timeline.html)




Nov 1999: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act guts Glass-Steagall, setting off wave of megamergers among banks and insurance and securities companies. Driving force is Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), who has received $4.6 million from fire sector over previous decade.


June 20, 2000: Treasury and hud urge Fed to investigate subprime units of major banks. No Fed action follows.

June 26: First Union closes The Money Store, takes $2.8 billion write-down.

Dec 14: As Congress heads for Christmas recess, Sen. Gramm attaches 262-page amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill. Commodity Futures Modernization Act will deregulate derivatives trading, give rise to Enron debacle, and open door to an explosion in new, unregulated securities.

Dec 27: American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act makes it harder for consumers to get out of lender-required insurance. National Association of Realtors lobbies hard for it, spending $9 million, plus $4 million in contributions.


March 6, 2001: ftc sues Citigroup and its subsidiary Associates, nation's 2nd-largest subprime originator, charging "systematic abusive lending practices" involving 2 million borrowers; 18 months later Citigroup settles for a paltry $215 million.

April 6: Fed chair Alan Greenspan signals concern with "abusive lending practices that target vulnerable segments of the population and can result in unaffordable payments, equity stripping, and foreclosure."

July 27: "'Predatory' is really a high-profile word with no definition," Ameriquest chairman Stephen W. Prough tells Congress, urging rollback of subprime regulations.



April 22, 2002: Georgia's new anti-predatory law signed; Ameriquest helps lead campaign against it and announces that it won't do business in Georgia until law is changed. Standard & Poor's refuses to rate Georgia mortgage securities, choking credit supply to state's home buyers; law gutted within a year.

Oct 7: Swiss investment bank ubs announces that Sen. Gramm is joining it to "advise clients on corporate finance issues and strategy"; he will also lobby Congress, Treasury, and Fed on banking and mortgage issues as industry pushes to eliminate predatory-lending rules.

Dec 18: Conseco files for bankruptcy, mostly due to its purchase of subprime lender Green Tree. In all, 13 banks have failed during 2002тАФmost, according to a Fed report, because of bad loans and "improper accounting related to the securitizing of assets."


March 2003: hsbc acquires Household Finance, nation's 4th-largest subprime lender.

May 1: New Jersey's anti-predatory-lending law signed. Again, Ameriquest and other lenders launch campaign to kill it and Standard & Poor's says it won't rate certain New Jersey securities; law gutted within a year.


2004: Ameriquest employees give total of $200,000 to Bush campaign; founder Roland Arnall and wife Dawn give more than $5 million to pro-Bush pacs. Arnall later appointed ambassador to Netherlands.

Jan 7, 2004: Federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issues final rule to preempt states from applying most of their credit laws to national banks and their subsidiaries.


March 2005: Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio)тАФwho will later go to prison on corruption charges related to Abramoff scandalтАФintroduces Responsible Lending Act, billed as an anti-predatory-lending measure but in fact designed to preempt stronger state laws. Key supporters include New Century Financial, nation's 2nd-largest subprime lender, which has contributed nearly $50,000 to Ney's campaign. Consumer advocates call it "Loan Shark Protection Act."

April: Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act makes it far harder for consumers (but not businesses) to discharge debts. Chief sponsor, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), has received $2 million-plus from fire sector since 1989.

Sept 1: As housing bubble begins to deflate, administration economist Patrick Lawler announces, "There is no evidence here of prices topping out. On the contrary, house price inflation continues to accelerate."

Sept 22: Illinois Supreme Court hands mortgage lenders a victory, blowing away a 3% cap on fees for loans with more than 8% interest.

Jan 23, 2006: Ameriquest settles 49-state investigation into deceptive subprime practices for $325 million.

April 27: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledges "signs of softening" in housing market, but says a "sharp slowdown" unlikely.


July 10: Henry M. Paulson Jr. sworn in as Treasury secretary, leaving job as Goldman Sachs chairman and ceo. In 2005, Goldman securitized $68 billion in residential mortgages and $23 billion in "other assets" primarily related to cdos.

Jan 2, 2007: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) assumes chairmanship of House Financial Services Committee. fire sector tops his list of contributors, with total of $746,000 for 2005-06 cycle.

Jan 29: Paulson tells Congress, "One of the pleasant surprises I had coming to government has been the strong economy we have today."

Feb 22: hsbc's head of mortgage-lending business resigns. Its losses reach $10.5 billion.

Feb 28: Bernanke tells House Budget Committee the housing sector "is a concern, but at this point we don't see it as being a broad financial concern or a major factor in assessing the course of the economy."

Feb 28: New-home sales reported down 20.1% from previous year.

March 12: Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign announces that Sen. Gramm will join it as cochair and economic policy adviser.

April 2: Subprime giant New Century Financial files for Chapter 11 after being forced to repurchase billions of dollars of bad loans.

May 3: ubs shuts down Dillon Read Capital Management, its US subprime arm. GM's finance unit announces deep losses on subprime mortgages. sec task force begins meeting to examine Wall Street's handling of subprime loans.

June 9: In Wall Street Journal interview, former Fed governor Edward Gramlich accuses Greenspan of blocking a 2000 proposal to increase scrutiny of subprime lenders. Greenspan responds there are "a very large number of small institutions, some on the margin of scrupulousness and very hard to detect when they are doing something wrong."


July 16: Jim Cramer, host of cnbc's Mad Money, says the subprime "lending thing" is "completely meaningless...It has no relevance whatsoever." Less than 3 weeks later, Cramer will have meltdown on air, pleading with Fed to cut rates and save Wall Street.

July 19-20: In congressional testimony, Bernanke cuts growth forecasts for 2007 and 2008, blaming problems in housing market; warns that subprime crisis could cost up to $100 billion.

Aug 6: American Home Mortgage, one of the largest US independent home-loan providers, files for Chapter 11.

Aug 16: Countrywide, biggest US mortgage lender, narrowly avoids bankruptcy by taking out emergency $11.5 billion loan.

Aug 31: Ameriquest goes out of business.

Sept 14: Rep. Barney Frank in Boston Globe: Mortgage crisis "was in large part a natural experiment on the role of regulation." Sept 20: Treasury secretary Paulson tells House Financial Services Committee that "fundamental reappraisals in the pricing and appetite of risk have taken place numerous times...We are in the process of another such reappraisal."

Sept 30: ubs announces 3rd-quarter losses of $690 million.

Jim Cramer told his viewers 3 weeks ago to "buy Wachovia" - in the show where he interviewd his Old Pal, the CEO of Wachovia. Oh, and Barney Frank's a poof

[rincondog]

homintern: Oh, and Barney Frank's a poof

Thats hardly news, he has been out for years.

homintern: Oh, and Barney Frank's a poof Thats hardly news, he has been out for years.Quite, dear boy - but it adds a lovely "book-end" to a crisis over risky behaviour that was initiated by a lesbian

[rincondog]

homintern
Quite, dear boy - but it adds a lovely "book-end" to a crisis over risky behaviour that was initiated by a lesbian

I'm sure the right wingers see it as part of the homosexual agenda, of course most of them are closet cases themselves, e.g. Senator Larry Craig, Mark Foley et. al. Most are quite paranoid and believe in the homosexual conspiracy.

I'm sure the right wingers see it as part of the homosexual agenda, of course most of them are closet cases themselves, e.g. Senator Larry Craig, Mark Foley et. al. Most are quite paranoid and believe in the homosexual conspiracy.Quite possibly, but belief in conspiracy theories is rather naive, which is why they rate so highly among Americans and other ignorant people. The facts are clear:
* The Clinton Administration, through threats and inducements, encouraged the banks to lend to people who were not good credit risks
* The banks, being risk-averse, looked for ways to off-load their risk and found them in exotic derivatives dreamed up by Wall Street
If that's as far as the explanation went, the Lefties amongst us would be objecting to Saint Bill Clitoris' name being dragged in, but that's probably all. Where it gets tricky for them is the answer to the questions
* Who was the Clinton Administration's "enforcer"? (answer: a lesbian and we know her name)
* Who constituted, in the main, this new pool of credit risks? (answer: minorities)
And there you have the triggers for the Pavolovian response of the Left who see such analysis as part of the on-going Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

[rincondog]

Community Reinvestment Act did not contribute to subprime mortgage crisis, the originally quoted Spectator article is just so much conservative propaganda and typical bullshit.

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/i ... reinv.html (http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinv.html)

Community Reinvestment Act did not contribute to subprime mortgage crisis, the originally quoted Spectator article is just so much conservative propaganda and typical bullshit.I fear you are missing the point. Once the banks had had a solution for offsetting their lending risk peddled to them by the snake oil merchants of Wall Street, everyone else jumped in on the act. While the CRA may have been introduced in 1977, its aggressive use started under the Clinton Administration. To assert that something was enacted in 1977 and therefore "cannot" have contributed simply shows a lack of understanding about cause and effect. You should grasp the fundamentals of Chaos Theory before you start parroting such naivety. Chaos: making a new science and/or Butterfly Economics would be a good place to start your education. The blog you quote is typical of the economic illiteracy peddled by Business Week in almost every issue
http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Scie ... 0140092501 (http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/0140092501)
http://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Economi ... 0465053564 (http://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Economics-General-Economic-Behavior/dp/0465053564)

I note from Pressman's biography as publicised by Business Week that he has no economics degree; he is simply a journalist who's picked things up as he goes along. While his degree is said to be in history, and that's usually a good general background, I see he didn't get past an entry-level course, and seems to have spent most of his time at Columbia University running the radio station. Now, if he'd done PPE as I did then he'd have some credibility
http://www.businessweek.com/bios/Aaron_Pressman.htm

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

don't tell me..it was a militant Melbourne lesbian who called you a "bald fat old cunt" ?. You've been carrying a grudge ever since.

Are you sure she's not Lebanese as in Salma Heyek, who just told a TV interviewer she was half Lebanese and he said "so your a lesbian ?". And I don't even think he was on Fox!

Jim Cramer told his viewers 3 weeks ago to "buy Wachovia"

I watched as CNBC told its viewers to buy buy buy the new economy right into the tech bubble.

In 2000 I had the good sense to walk away from a deal using home mortgages to buy/upgrade a rather market, but way overpriced, tear-down house in a lucrative area. I was amazed how fast I got a bank loan approval (no income or suffient assets were declared). I foresaw the housing bubble, walked away for that and many other reasons, and see that those that went with it have had a 'for sale' sign on it for the past 12+ months. It really burns my butt that those banks that haven't good sense lose nothing and those stuck with a lemon might possibly get some relief from the bailout. And all this is hurting stock/mutaul investments and have me worried about my cash.

... and have me worried about my cash.They can always print some more :bounce: