Barney Frank

[VictorCharlie]

Kirk,
Frank has been a member of the House Financial Services Committee since 1991 (and is currently the chair). The HFSC is one of two government entities responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae. From 1991 to 1998, Barney Frank was in a romantic relationship with Herb Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae. I understand the housing industry collapse is bigger than this single issue but wouldn't you say he was in a position to be monitoring the housing loan industry and had a clear conflict of interests?

[Kirkland Laing]

Kirk,
Frank has been a member of the House Financial Services Committee since 1991 (and is currently the chair). The HFSC is one of two government entities responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae. From 1991 to 1998, Barney Frank was in a romantic relationship with Herb Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae. I understand the housing industry collapse is bigger than this single issue but wouldn't you say he was in a position to be monitoring the housing loan industry and had a clear conflict of interests?

Yes. But he was in no position to do anything about the deregulation of various parts of the financial system that caused the meltdown, the GOP running the committee during the formation of the bubble. F and F only played a bit part in the meltdown and if they'd never have existed the meltdown would have happened exactly the same. All the vitriol thrown at F and F, Barney Frank, Jimmy Carter etc. since the meltdown happened is because they're the only vague tangential things that can be used to blame the left or the Democrats for the financial collapse. But in reality, when you look at the facts and the evidence, they had nothing to do with it. Frank had a conflict of interest, so what. Every committee member has one, they all get campaign donations from financial firms. It's what they do on that committee when they're running it that counts. Frank wasn't running it till 2007 by which time the bubble was bursting and it was too late to do anything. You can blame him for not doing anything 2002-7 when the problem was forming and nothing was being regulated, but you then also have to blame everybody else on the committee but especially the people who ran it and had the power, the GOP members. Blaming Frank makes as much sense as the loony blaming of Jimmy Carter.

[El Kabong]

...well Carter did start the program that eventually became the monster we see today.

[killersheep]

...well Carter did start the program that eventually became the monster we see today.

The GOP had 20 years of control to do something about it, democrats had 8. Are you saying that this thing was a 28 year time bomb, please explain what the fuck you are talking about. Youtube is also not an acceptable response.

[Kirkland Laing]

...well Carter did start the program that eventually became the monster we see today.

Yes Lyle. It's all Jimmy Carter's fault.

EDIT: just to add about the IQ thing, that's not me being superior or anything, Britain is exactly the same. It looked like people were going to start paying attention on both sides of the Atlantic when the financial crisis broke and they realised they were going to get shafted for a lot of money but after a week or two they just went back to watching Pop Idol. It's a real shame we can't gt people to pay attention and actually follow what's going on, it'd make it har for them to get fucked a la Malinaggi all the time.

[VictorCharlie]

Kirk,
Frank has been a member of the House Financial Services Committee since 1991 (and is currently the chair). The HFSC is one of two government entities responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae. From 1991 to 1998, Barney Frank was in a romantic relationship with Herb Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae. I understand the housing industry collapse is bigger than this single issue but wouldn't you say he was in a position to be monitoring the housing loan industry and had a clear conflict of interests?

Yes. But he was in no position to do anything about the deregulation of various parts of the financial system that caused the meltdown, the GOP running the committee during the formation of the bubble. F and F only played a bit part in the meltdown and if they'd never have existed the meltdown would have happened exactly the same. All the vitriol thrown at F and F, Barney Frank, Jimmy Carter etc. since the meltdown happened is because they're the only vague tangential things that can be used to blame the left or the Democrats for the financial collapse. But in reality, when you look at the facts and the evidence, they had nothing to do with it. Frank had a conflict of interest, so what. Every committee member has one, they all get campaign donations from financial firms. It's what they do on that committee when they're running it that counts. Frank wasn't running it till 2007 by which time the bubble was bursting and it was too late to do anything. You can blame him for not doing anything 2002-7 when the problem was forming and nothing was being regulated, but you then also have to blame everybody else on the committee but especially the people who ran it and had the power, the GOP members. Blaming Frank makes as much sense as the loony blaming of Jimmy Carter.

I am probably guilty of singling out Frank b/c I just personally find the man repugnant but dont worry I do blame all of that committe. Our politicians seem to only fix the roof once all the furniture is floating.

[Kirkland Laing]

Kirk,
Frank has been a member of the House Financial Services Committee since 1991 (and is currently the chair). The HFSC is one of two government entities responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae. From 1991 to 1998, Barney Frank was in a romantic relationship with Herb Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae. I understand the housing industry collapse is bigger than this single issue but wouldn't you say he was in a position to be monitoring the housing loan industry and had a clear conflict of interests?

Yes. But he was in no position to do anything about the deregulation of various parts of the financial system that caused the meltdown, the GOP running the committee during the formation of the bubble. F and F only played a bit part in the meltdown and if they'd never have existed the meltdown would have happened exactly the same. All the vitriol thrown at F and F, Barney Frank, Jimmy Carter etc. since the meltdown happened is because they're the only vague tangential things that can be used to blame the left or the Democrats for the financial collapse. But in reality, when you look at the facts and the evidence, they had nothing to do with it. Frank had a conflict of interest, so what. Every committee member has one, they all get campaign donations from financial firms. It's what they do on that committee when they're running it that counts. Frank wasn't running it till 2007 by which time the bubble was bursting and it was too late to do anything. You can blame him for not doing anything 2002-7 when the problem was forming and nothing was being regulated, but you then also have to blame everybody else on the committee but especially the people who ran it and had the power, the GOP members. Blaming Frank makes as much sense as the loony blaming of Jimmy Carter.

I am probably guilty of singling out Frank b/c I just personally find the man repugnant but dont worry I do blame all of that committe. Our politicians seem to only fix the roof once all the furniture is floating.

The committee people are all just small time anyway. The real action goes on at the Fed, Treasury, White House, with bankers, banking lobbyists and the ex-bankers who generally head the Fed and Treasury. They're the guys who did all the damage.