Kevin at wizbang has done a yeoman's work in helping us understand the magnitude of 700 Billion!
Look at that number. It's amazing. Yet to hear our leaders talk about it, they need every penny to prop up the mortgage lenders. They don't. And I figured out how to put it in terms anyone can understand:.
At first, I saw that number and I had to ask... How many bad mortgages are there? Then after playing with that hypothetical in my head I wondered, how many mortgages are there in active in the whole country? So I looked it up. According to this 2006 pdffrom the U.S. Census, there are 33 million owner occupied dwellings with first mortgages active. (1)
Hmmm 700,000,000,000 / 33,000,000 = Over $21,000 cash the government could just give to everyone with a mortgage! What kind of stimulus would that have on the economy to hand 33 million people $21,000?....(wait, it gets better....)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered her Majority Whip, Jim Clyburn, to essentially not do his job in the runup to the vote on Monday for the negotiated Wall Street bailout plan, according to House Democrat leadership aides.
"Clyburn was not whipping the votes you would have expected him to, in part because he was uncomfortable doing it, in part because we didn't want the push for votes to be successful," says one leadership aide. "All we needed was enough to potentially get us over the finish line, but we wanted the Republicans to be the ones to do it. This was not going to be a Democrat-passed bill if the Speaker had anything to say about it.".......
Emanuel, who served as a board member for Freddie Mac, one of the agencies that precipitated the economic crisis the nation now finds itself in, had no misgivings about taking a leadership role in tanking the bill. "He was cheerleading us along, mothering the votes," says the aide.
Further, according to House Oversight Committee staff, Emanuel has received assurances from Pelosi that she will not allow what he termed a "witch hunt" to take place during the next Congressional session over the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the economic crisis.
Emanuel apparently is concerned the roles former Clinton Administration members may have played in the mortgage industry collapse could be politically -- or worse, if the Department of Justice had its way, legally -- treacherous for many. MORE....
Jerry Bower has neatly (and with some humor) summed up the current mess:
No wonder nobody wanted to hold politically tainted paper. Owning a mortgage-backed security in this environment is like owning a pointy hat and a black cat in colonial Massachusetts.
These securities, which the government invented (through Fannie Mae(nyse: FNM - news - people )) and foisted upon the banks (through the Community Reinvestment Act), now has regulatory cooties. Own it and you'll get sued. Sell it and you'll get sued. Keep it and the regulators will force you to write it down to panic-level prices--and then you'll get sued. Try to foreclose and state and local government will refuse to enforce the contract. Try to get private equity investment to keep your balance sheet alive and you find the door barred by 80-year-out-of-date regulations like the Bank Holding Company Act.
Government did this to us. This plan isn't a bailout--it's more like reparations.
But still, maybe we can improve it. Perhaps the mark to market regulations could be suspended before the taxpayers are forced to move in. Maybe if some of these rules are eliminated, little or no taxpayer dollars will be needed. If Congress doesn't want to put public dollars into this, it should let private equity put private dollars in.
It's a silly throwback to the 1920s, which only allowed bank-holding companies to buy a majority investment in a troubled bank. Back then, all banks were local. Now banking is an international industry. Mutual funds, private individuals, hedge funds, venture capitalists, leprechauns, unicorns…everybody should be allowed to buy bank shares. If everybody is not allowed to, I'm afraid everybody will be forced to.
Before more coercion, maybe we could try a little more freedom. The plan's getting there but there's something missing. Needs a little more liberty bell.
It's Miraculous!
This group of 5 to 12 year old's spontaneously got together and crafted a perfectly harmonized song extolling the wonderfulness of Barack Obama. Amazing!
Nah! Just more propaganda. Jeff Zucker is President & CEO of NBC. He and a bunch of like-minded and savvy folks have figured another way to donate to Obama. But this is somewhat scary. It has all the trappings of a church or synagogue recital, but it's for a questionable politician. Very creepy in it's implications and may provide greater insight to the methodology of the Obama supporters.
Here's the official Obama website story. You may need to drink some kool-aid first.
Sing for Change chronicles a recent Sunday afternoon in Venice, when 22 children, ages 5-12, gathered to sing original songs in the belief that their singing would lift up our communities for the coming election.
Sing for Change was a confluence of grassroots work, good will, and shared vision the first of which was the music itself. Inspired by ideas raised at a grassroots Obama fundraiser, a music teacher, Kathy Sawada, and the children composed and rehearsed the songs in less than two weeks. Several musicians heard of the effort and volunteered to accompany the children. Parents and older siblings designed and provided the T-Shirts and the banner. There’s a first for everything, but rarely do so many firsts come together at once: for the children and their parents, this is their first performance, first video, first banner, and first involvement with grassroots work on a presidential campaign. As Sunday approached, a neighbor volunteered a home. Production wizards got wind of the project and offered their help in recording it. The likes of Jeff Zucker, Holly Schiffer, Peter Rosenfeld, Darin Moran, Jean Martin, Andy Blumenthal, and Nick Phoenix rearranged schedules to participate. Holly Schiffer was able to get three High Definition cameras (Panasonic HVX250’s), and an AVID editing facility. When Jeff Zucker went to pick up the camera package, Ted Schilowitz happened to be there and offered a RED camera set up on a Steadi Cam.
What the children and a few adults accomplished in a few hours on a Sunday afternoon embodies the nature of the Obama campaign: its grassroots inspiration, its inclusiveness, its community building. People pitched in quickly for a cause that resonated with them. There were not many conditions: “Think this is a good idea? Want to help? Great. Sunday at 12:00.” At the heart of the project were 22 children and their music. The willingness of all involved to come together for them was a testament to our hope, unity, courage, joy and belief in the future represented by these children.
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