Billy,

Are you uninformed - or just plain lying? Fannie Mae went into the subprime market in 1999 - not 2004 - and that led DIRECTLY to this crisis. Anyone can Google "September 30, 1999 Fannie Mae" and see an article which predicted - more than a year before Bush was even elected - that putting Fannie Mae into subprimes would lead to a huge bailout.

I want to thank each and every one who commented here, even the few who would deny a snake if it bit them, which it has. I am going to publich all comments on the page where this was originally posted, Data Integrity @ http://mossinterest.blogspot.com ; Thanks again and God Bless you

Nice work here obfuscating the entire issue. The reason Republicans are getting bent out of shape in this video is because they finally had a scandal without "R's" all over it. The accounting scandal in 2004 at Fannie Mae was minor (6 billion dollars over 4 years on annual revenue over 40 billion) and had nothing to do with the current meltdown. Fannie Mae didn't even start buying sub-prime mortgages until Daniel Mudd came to power. Mortgages through FHA and secured by Fannie Mae have outperformed (defaulted less frequently) than the industry average independent of borrower income level. Stop trying to blame the credit problem on poor people and Fannie Mae - they got caught up in this mess, they didn't start it.

The problem was the same as the one that lead to the 1929 crash: overleveraged investors. Bear Sterns was leveraged 35:1 - so was Merrill and Lehman Bros. Add that to AIG having no regulation on their credit default swaps (i.e. they couldn't cover their insurance obligations) and a complete lifting of commodities regulations thanks to Phil Gramm, and you had a market that was going to crash at the first hint of a problem.

Don't get me wrong, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have been regulated better, but existing regulation wasn't functioning according to existing law in 2004 - that's why there was an accounting problem, and that's why Rep. Meeks was grilling the regulator. The caterwauling of the Republicans in this hearing is pure political theater. They never liked Fannie and Freddie because they are a progressive action of government - i.e. they try to extend wealth building opportunity to lower income levels. Of course, it is possible for corruption to take place, but if the regulators had done their jobs, even the minor accounting problems uncovered in 2004 would have been caught earlier.

By the way, the accounting practices at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were industry standard even though they are somewhat deceptive.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., helped steer millions of dollars in bailout funds to a bank on whose board her husband served, the New York Times reported Thursday.The bank also didn’t appear to meet the requirements for receiving the money, the newspaper reported.Waters, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, arranged a meeting in September between Treasury officials and the chief executive of “OneUnited”, one of the country’s largest black-owned banks, which requested $50 million in special bailout funds.Treasury officials told the newspaper that Waters didn’t tell them her husband, Sidney Williams, served on the bank’s board of directors and has owned at least $250,000 in stock in the institution.OneUnited has contributed $12,500 to Waters’ campaigns (less a sign of graft, we think, than general cozyness).OneUnited has come under regulatory scrutiny before:the F.D.I.C. sanctioned the institution in October 2008 for “unsafe or unsound banking practices,” including excessive compensation for Mr. Cohee. The bank had provided him with a 2008 Porsche SUV and maintained his $6.4 million beachfront compound in Santa Monica. Calif., with views of the Pacific and a spa and pool.Barney Frank chair of the Financial Services Committee also seems to have been involved in the preferential dealing:Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was so moved by “OneUnited’s” plight that he tailored a provision in the $700 billion bill so that the bank would get special consideration for help. And Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who also sits on that committee, could be relied on to ring up the Treasury to make sure they knew just how special OneUnited was.Both Waters and Frank, of course, were reliable and staunch defenders of Fannie and Freddie (Disclaimer: while Repubs are made out to be heroes in this video, they were really more interested in channeling housing dollars to their private sect...

I have decided to repost this video which I originally posted a couple of weeks ago on this page as I have received so much feedback on the page my videos are kept. I couldn't post all comments, as this post would have used all my space up. I've never received feedback such as this before. Only two comments out of dozens were in favor of the Dems, but as you will see, they contradict themselves, naturally.

Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis. At a 2004 hearing see Democrat after Democrat covering up and attacking the regulators.

Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

MY GOD IN HEAVEN, HELP US OVERCOME THESE BAS----S THOSE DEMS I JUST SAW THE VODPOD VIDEO OF WATERS,MEEKS DAVIS FRANKAND,CLAY LYING LIKE THIEVES IN THE NIGHT.THEY ARE THE ONES,AMONG OTHERS, THAT HAVE DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY AND COST US A FORTUNE IN OUR INVESTMENTS.I AM 76 YEARS OLD RETIRED FOR 17 YEARS,AND HAVE LOST 1/4 OF MY LIFE SAVINGS,INVESTMENTS AND OTHER ASSETS BECAUSE OF THESE SOB'S. THEY SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED AND WHEN PROVEN GUILTY KICKED OUT ON THIER COLLECTIVE ASSES.ESPECIALLY BARNEY FRANK WHO IS PROVEN TO BE THE BIGGEST LIAR OF THEM ALL.A POX ON ALL OF YOU.....FRANKSFILE