Comments on: Presidential candidates rely on close advisers who had oversight roles at financial institutions that went bust because of subprime loans

By: Fran

Fran — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:38:38 +0000

To Rod M – If we are to believe the newspapers Penny Pritzker, Obama’s Subprime Pal, has raised over $188 million for Obama in his campaigns for Illinois office and this presidential campaign.
There’s a grave difference between managing a business and owning and masterminding a business, i.e Maggie Williams (Clinton) and Penny Pritzker (Obama). See the Chicago Sun Times article, April 28, 2008, title Obama’s Subprime Pal. Unfortunately for Barack Obama we are judged by the company we keep, i.e Jerimiah Wright, Penny Pritzker, Tony Rezko. Like Jerimiah Wright, Penny Pritzker is more than a casual acquaintance of the Obamas, see the Wall Street Journal article Money Maven. When candidates have political positions that are the same or very similar, wise people judge them by their character. One of the factors in judging character is the company a person keeps. Penny Priztker states she is proud of how her family responded to the Superior Bank failure. They agreed to pay the FDIC $460 Million over 15 years at no interest and at an escalating devaluation of the dollars owed. The Superior Bank failure will cost the FDIC over $700+ million. Does Penny mean to say she’s proud she was able to get away with stiffing the government for over $250 Million and the Superior Bank depositors of the remaining $15 Million she still owes them?

By: Moe Bedard

Moe Bedard — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:07:43 +0000

Dolce,

Your words echoed a reminder in me about writing a post about this very issue. You are so right. All the money and home stuff is superficial when compared to the emotional and relationship strains this causes.

By: Dolce

Dolce — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:54:50 +0000

It surprises me that nobody has commented on the social toll this takes on the community either. Do you think a neighborhood full of families waiting to move grows close? Do you think people strive to display pride of ownership when they are on their way out? Do parents become involved in their kids\’e2\’80\’99 classrooms when they probably won\’e2\’80\’99t be there in a few months? There is so much more being lost than money. It just breaks my heart.

By: Kevin Lamson

Kevin Lamson — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:57:23 +0000

The blame for this entire \’e2\’80\’9cMortgage Meltdown\’e2\’80\’9d can be laid upon the shoulders of all the greedy mortgage loan industry executives and the investment bankers who designed a scheme calculated to make themselves rich. Under the guise of \’e2\’80\’9chelping people\’e2\’80\’9d to realize the American dream of owning a home, these white collar fraudsters were really only concerned with creating feigned profits by quickly churning mortgage loans into securitized investments which they in turn sold to investors.

Based upon these feigned profits these executives and their cronies were able to extract large bonuses and convert stock options into personal profts. While the investors got stuck holding the proverbial empty bag. Many investors were large national banks. Ironically these same banks would have never loan money to the borrowers who\’e2\’80\’99s notes they were now holding indirectly through their investments in these \’e2\’80\’9cmortgage backed securities\’e2\’80\’9d. It is now estimated that the losses incurred by these banks may well surpass three hundred billion dollars.

There can be no argument these losses were the result of fraud from top to bottom of the mortgage industry. From mortgage lenders suchs as Countrywide, Washington Mutual, Fieldstone and Option One to secondary mortgage market makers, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Citicorp, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers etc.

This mortgage fraud created a false demand for housing in the U.S. This false demand caused an increase in home building. Now with the Mortgage Meltdown the U.S. has an over supply of new and existing homes. This over supply of homes has caused serious economic effects through every facet of the U.S. economy. Recovery will take years. The U.S. dollar has also suffered against other currencies. In April of 2003 a Euro could be purchased for $.85. Five years later in April of 2008 it takes $1.60 to purchase a Euro.

Rather than throwing themselves out of their executive office windows when their financial scandal was discovered and the billions in losses started to mount, these white collar crooks simply took early retirmenet or quietly resigned, taking with them the hundreds of millions they had EARNED for their part in the Largest financial scandal in U.S. history.

Americans should be outraged at how this went on unchecked by state or federal authorities.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:53:09 +0000

She hit the nail on the head!

By: Rod M

Rod M — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:20:35 +0000

Is there anyone out there with any background in finance NOT affliated with the subprime fiasco? All of the banks were involved, all of wallstreet and the entire global investment community profited and everyone who owned a home in america saw there value increase and promptly liquidated their equity for a plasma tv…I would like to see you write about Phil Graham, Keating 5, Long Term Capital Management, who voted to strike down the Glass-Stegall act, why the OCC isn’t acting on behalf of the American consumer, the list goes on. My take is, all politicians talk a good game, make promises for change etc. but the truth always follows the paper trail. Aside from “who” is advising the candidate, the larger question is “where” is their money coming from? McCain knows who rights his checks, which explains the 180 degree change in his political views. The Clintons have political backing since the early 90′s from heavy donors, but Obama gets $35mil a month from donors that avg $98 per donation. So who will win? The rich few or the masses?

By: erik m

erik m — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:35:13 +0000

Where is the disclosures about mccain? Media Bias???

Phil Gramm who is a discreditted corrupt GOP lobbyist and works for UBS and is mccain main strategist. Hello? He proposed a lot of policys in the 90′s that have helped lead our country into this financial system breakdown. tisk tisk.