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Sarah Reveals Her Weakness
The MSM finally pickup up on her claim yesterday that She and McCain would make Fannie and Freddie smaller and smarter--the context of her comments indicated that she assumed the two publicly traded mortgage backed security sellers were government agencies.
That is like saying she and McCain want to make GE smaller and smarter, or IBM smaller and smarter, or--maybe she and John McCain should make the USPS smaller and smarter.
Go after her--she is intellectually weak. If this was not the case she would be making the rounds of every talk show and sitting down with every newspaper in the country. She's a know nothing. Show it. Issue a formal challenge. Make her demonstrate her knowledge. Maybe Exxon Mobile has gotten too big and expensive for the taxpayers. Maybe Comcast and Verizon have gotten too big and expensive. Maybe McCain can make them smaller, too. Hammer the silly ignoramus. She's a pretender. She's a fraud. She's an imposter. Prove it!
Comments (7)
It's been a government-sponsored enterprise, yesterday the feds announced a takeover of Freddie/Fannie by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA now has power over the board and management and previous CEOs have been dismissed. The comparisons with wholly private enterprises like GE [i]et al[/i]. is unwarranted; USPS is closer to the mark, but you might want to refine your line of criticism here.
September 8, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I think it's totally valid. She doesn't have a clue what they do.
Economics 101? On the job training? She'll learn at the foot of the Master, who himself asdmits he's clueless on economic matters?
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/housing-credit-crisis-for-dumm.php
September 8, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still Demosaur, she didn't know the difference and neither does most of America. It was a takeover by govt regulators, then handed off to more banking agencies with taxpayers footing the bill. A sweet little piece of fascism in action if you ask me. Now who owns the papers on those properties?
Are you sure she didn't know that?
September 8, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
In July, when Congress gave the administration authority to take over the two mortgage giants, Paulson said he had no plans to use that power. But on Sunday, Paulson said in an interview with NPR's John Ydstie, "there's a number of things that have changed."
Freddie and Fanny have two types of stockholders, preferred and common. Most of the preferred stockholders are the Central Banks of China and Russia. Most of the common stockholders are people like you and me. You own stock in USPS?
Paulson was asked how long the government takeover will last and how officials will ensure that such a crisis involving government-sponsored entities doesn't happen again.
Asked why it was necessary to put taxpayers at risk, Paulson said, "Well, our objective here is to prevent a serious risk to the financial system which would hurt all taxpayers because our financial system is just critical to our overall economy. Anybody that wants to have a car loan, a mortgage, any kind of credit, needs a strong financial system."
"Well, [that] is the major question. It's one I focused on," Paulson said. "Because although the short-term objective is to stabilize and help us ride through this housing correction, these organizations had major structural flaws.
"In the future, we're going to need to clarify whether there is clearly a government guarantee or whether there is no government guarantee. We're going to have to decide whether we want to have government support for private profit. We're going to have to decide how to deal with systemic risks.
So, did Paulson seize Freddie and Fannie because they had grown too large--as Sarah claimed. Is the solution that Paulson is discussing to make them smaller? How is McCain going to make Fannie and Freddie smarter? Is there anything in her remarks that suggests that she is doing anything other than mouthing words projected on a teleprompter? Does McCain understand Freddie and Fanny? He didn't even know how many houses he owned.
September 8, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its not clear that Freddie and Fannie did anything wrong, it's just that they are catching all the shit from the rest of the industry. The institutional function that provide is vital and to let it collapse would be very grave.
So far all we know about Mrs. Palin is that she says she is for cutting waste like airplanes and chefs, even though the facts are that the chef is still being paid for by the taxpayers of Alaska (she's just not making food for the Palin's) and the Governor's jet was sold for a 20% loss.
Why is is not a surprise that her diagnosis of this issue is that F & F are too big and bloated and should be cut. (Why does the mortgage industry need a trained chef)Wanna bet that's her answer for everything.
The problem for the country is that this populist garbage may get cheers, but if it's turned into policy, we are all fucked.
September 8, 2008 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is one way of putting it. Fanny and Freddie took on and backed too many mortgages that have defaulted and foreclosed, relative to their assets. This painted them into a corner, and reduced their ability to make market for more mortgage transactions which the Banking community relies on to broker mortgages. Uncle Sam seizing them supplies the liquidity they need to continue to service the market. The reason they got so many bad loans has to do with the types of subprime and balloon mortgages that were written, the low equity on many properties, the inflated appraisal values of the properties. In a declining market, people end up owing more than their house is worth, and they are walking away from the loan. Also, with unemployment high, people cannot make their payments, or their loans reset and they can't pay the higher rate. But none of this has to do with the size of Freddie and Fannie. Saying Freddie and Fannie should be shrunk is like saying your electric company should be shrunk.
Given their situation, the Russians and the Chinese were dumping their bonds. The Fed takeover averted a complete catastrophe.
September 8, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is absolutely irresponsible that our country would elect two politicians that do not understand how the american economy works at a time like this. And the fact that Phil Gramm is one of McCain's main economic advisors is an example of his reckless and poor judgement. Gramm wrote the banking deregulation that got us into this housing/mortgage crisis. I think it's absolutely insane. I am suprised that there isn't a union of concerned economists banding together to protest!
September 8, 2008 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
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