[Rhodes22-list] Economics

[Brad Haslett]

Dave,

Our rental apartment in Beijing is currently rented, but, perhaps we could
kick the current tenant out so you can live in a socialistic fantasy land.
On the other hand, we demand the rent on time and we don't care about your
whiney ass excuses.  The Chinese are adapting to capitalism and have quit
trying to control every little nit-noy detail of  life.  That's probably a
good approach when you have 1.3 billion (billion with a B) to worry about.
You amaze me with your ability to discern every little persons needs in this
country and what they need to protect themselves from themselves.  Dave, I
feel a need for a bowel movement.  Should I wipe tonight or will the gubment
take care of that for me tomorrow? If I do need to wipe, could you give me a
heads up on the density level of paper to use?

Brad

On 3/26/07, DCLewis1 at aol.com <DCLewis1 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> Wally,
>
> While there are times I'm tempted to agree with your assessment that both
> political parties suck, I  think it's worthwhile to try  to identify the
> problem
> - and from my perspective, that leads straight to  Bush.
>
> I think there are at least 2 offices in the Dept of Treasury that have
> cognizance over mortgage lending practices: the Office of Thrift
> Supervision
> (OTS), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
> Additionally,
> there may be offices in HUD and the Federal Reserve that are  supposed to
> regulate/oversee banks, lending,  and especially mortgage  lending ( I
> think the Fed
> has an Office of Bank Regulation).  I believe OTS  and OCC issue bank and
> credit union  lending guidelines, renew charters,  request legislation,
> inspect as
> needed, and act as a bully pulpit to be sure the  financial institutions
> don'
> t get too far out of line as they try to make a  buck.  Either office
> could
> have called a conference with lending  institutions and made it clear that
> if
> lending practices weren't tightened  bank/credit union renewal charters
> were at
> risk - it's that simple.    The public (you and I), and hence I assume OTS
> and
> OCC,  have known of  NoDoc, NINA, negative amortization, etc  loans for a
> long time.  The  OTS and OCC choose to do nothing about the sub-prime
> lending
> abuses - this is  not why they get paid.  I think Dept of Treasury screwed
> up -
> surely they  saw the problem evolving, to my knowledge they did nothing to
> stop
> it.  The  Directors of the OTS and OCC, and the Sec of the Treasury are
> political  appointees.
>
> Also, if the current sub-prime/ARM mortgage issue came out of nowhere, you
> might excuse the current administration and it's appointees for being
> blind-sided by it, but that's not the case.  The NoDoc/NINA issue
> has  developed in an
> industry that is prone to problems.  You may recall the  S&L mortgage mess
> (I
> think in the 80s?) - that cost the taxpayer many  billions of
> dollars.  Given
> the history of problems in the mortgage  industry, I'd expect a competent
> administration to be alert and actively  monitoring the mortgage industry
> to be
> sure it was following sound lending  practices - but clearly that is not
> the
> case. The current mortgage mess is  different from the S&L mess, but it is
> about
> mortgages, mortgage companies  that are chasing profits as hard as they
> can
> with "innovative" products, and  oversight agencies that are asleep at the
> wheel.  There's really no excuse  for the Bush administration not to have
> been
> aware of the developing problem,  the issues were well publicized and the
> industry has a history of  problems.
>
> I think the Bush administration should have been aware of the evolving
> problem and taken clear positive action to prevent excesses - that's part
> of  what
> the OTS and OCC directors get paid to do and it's what Sec Treas gets
> paid  to
> do.  I think this is just another example highlighting the lack of core
> competency in the Bush administration.
>
> As I recall, the S&L bail out cost we taxpayers many 10's of billions  of
> dollars.  Let's see what the sub-prime/ARM fiasco is going to cost us
> -  it may
> cost us nothing from the Treasury, it may just tank our net worth
> and  trigger
> a recession.
>
> JMO
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
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