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?

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.