Politics

Lying For Wall Street

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg surprised many when he stooped to the level of Rush Limbaugh to push the Big Lie, that it was the government that caused the mortgage crisis. Bloomberg claimed that “It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and to give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.” Bloomberg added that members of Congress “were the ones who pushed Fannie and Freddie to make a bunch of loans that were imprudent, if you will.”

Fannie and Freddie don’t make loans. Whom does Bloomberg think he’s fooling?

 

Matt Taibbi referred to the speech as Bloomberg’s Marie Antoinette moment, his own personal “Let Them Eat Cake” line. Taibbi went on to write:

Well, you know what, Mike Bloomberg? FUCK YOU.

The Big Lie has been shown false so many times, and Bloomberg’s persona as a pragmatic technocrat has been so carefully crafted, that Taibbi’s frank language is not only understandable, but refreshingly honest.

More than 84% of the subprime loans were issued by private lending institutions. Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders was directly subject to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

The Occupy Wall Street movement must be worrying the 1% if Bloomberg is willing to embarrass himself by spouting falsehoods. It was the greed of Wall Street that created the demand for riskier loans. Mortgage Backed Securities were a hugely profitable financial monster with an appetite for more and more mortgages. More mortgages required more borrowers and hence, risky and even fraudulent lending practices.

As we have discussed, here, the Obama administration has proposed a settlement with major banks that would restrict the ability of prosecutors to investigate wrongdoing with regard to bundling of loans into mortgage securities. Taibbi’s frank statement need not be reserved for Bloomberg.

H/T: Mike Konczal, McClatchy, Barry Ritholtz, NYTimes, Center for Responsible Lending (pdf).

91 thoughts on “Lying For Wall Street”

  1. Have not read about the bank deal since August. What is currently going on with it? The banks could wait and get a better deal from Romney.

  2. The Big Lie being pimped by the 12th richest man in American in defense of the 1%. A man who clearly went Independent because neither the DNC nor the GOP were greedy enough to suit his ideals. A guy who has tried to rig the law so he can be the Mayor of NYC for life as long as he can buy the votes. It’s not funny, but it is the height of irony watching a Jewish American deploy a tactic perfected by Nazis in defense of thieves and apparently expect not to be called on it.

    “Well, you know what, Mike Bloomberg? FUCK YOU.”

    Mr. Taibbi summed it up quite well and I concur without reservation.

  3. S.M.,

    The reality is this: Obama, by oath of office and our rule of law needed to immediately commence investigations into criminal financial wrongdoing. Not only did he fail in this task, he appointed to his cabinet and chose as his advisers the very people who were instrumental in allowing the fraudulent activity which crashed our economy. Further, he continues to allow fraudulent activity to occur with his full knowledge.

    What either the right or left says about Obama cannot take away these facts. So let’s not get sidetracked from what is happening. That’s why today’s protest is so important. It’s shinning the light on the fucked up deal Obama is making on behalf of the banks to screw the people.

    While it’s important to be honest that Obama is the person cutting the deal, what’s much more important is that the deal must be stopped. It is a massive injustice and it harms millions of people. So whether it is Scott Walker or Obama who cuts the deal, the deal is bad for our nation and our fellow citizens. It must therefore be stopped!

  4. The Loan Arranger

    Claim: Barack Obama filed a lawsuit to require banks to “make loans to poor people.”

    Status: False.

    Origins: This item seeks to dump much of the blame for America’s current economic woes on Barack Obama by claiming that as a young lawyer, Obama filed a lawsuit requiring financial institutions to lend money to “poor people” and “others who could not show proof that they could pay the money back.” Although there is a (very) vague element of fact underneath this politicking, the piece quoted above is woefully wrong in all its particulars.

  6. I find it quite amazing that according to polls the country is ready to turn to the ultimate Wall St. insider, Romney. He has a small lead over Obama.

  7. bdaman, Doesn’t the right say Obama sued citibank and forced them to make loans to ACORN supporters?

  12. David, they use New Math to figure that out. Don’t try to do it yourself, it will just give you a migraine. We must be good little automatons and do what we are told. The overlords have spoken.

    On another subject, another veteran was assaulted by police in Oakland yesterday. This time it was the owner of a local bar who was walking home from work. He ran into a line of police who told him to move out of the way. When he asked where he was supposed to move to (they were blocking the sidewalk) he was attacked and arrested. In the beating he had a lacerated spleen, an injury which causes unbelievable pain. He did not get any medical attention whatsoever for eighteen hours despite his obvious agony. He has since undergone surgery and while still in very serious condition, will survive. As I observed last night, if Oakland PD keeps this up, their insurance carrier is likely to drop them.

    Veterans groups around the country are getting restless, which is not going to be a good thing for people like Bloomberg. For vets, buddies come first. It does not matter if you have never met the other vet, they regard themselves as brothers and you do not assault a brother without paying some sort of penalty. If not now, eventually.

    http://elcerrito.patch.com/articles/elevation-66-co-owner-seriously-injured-by-police-news-report-says

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/04/1033346/-Vet-Oakland-Cops-Almost-Killed-Owned-Brew-Pub+Disturbing-Interview-With-Sister-(UPDATEDx2)

  13. Nal,

    I’m glad you posted this as well. Even supposing we enter Bloomberg’s well financed fantasy, all those bad mortgages alone couldn’t have crashed the economy.

    It was first the bundling of the mortgages which were then rated by noted free speech advocates, rating agencies, who free speechfully admitted they would rate a cow if asked to do so, who then gave bundles of crap a AAA rating. Next companies like AIG insured those bundles while companies like GS bought insurance on the products they sold–only they brought the insurance on the bundles to fail. This was all done with the full knowledge of the govt. regulators. When AIG failed it was Timmy and Timmy’s boss guided by GS who demanded that GS get 100 cents on the dollar with taxpayer money.

    OWS is protesting Obama’s “backroom deal” to let the criminals of the banking industry off the hook. Their protest is today. Here’s what they write: “To help expose the looming cash-for-immunity deal between the Obama administration and big banks, there will be a march from Liberty Square to the U.S. Court House Building at Foley Square on November 5th.

    The march will gather at 2:00pm on the east side steps at Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), and will arrive at Foley Square at 3:00pm. Join the Facebook event page

    President Obama is on the brink of cutting a backroom deal that would give bankers broad immunity for illegally throwing tens of thousands of Americans out of their homes. The Administration is pressuring state attorneys general to abandon an ongoing investigation into the massive “robo-signing” fraud, in exchange for a relatively small payoff by the banks…” find the rest at occupy wall street

  15. I’m really surprised. Here with have fine upstanding citizens who have been doing something kinda questionable — maybe even REALLY questionable and then perhaps a little BIT of it was frankly wrong and perhaps a good bit of it was frankly wrong and wrongful and then probably some other fine upstanding citizens backed them up and covered up and the whole thing kept going and going and they were all covering for each other and…
    and…
    and…
    NOW they don’t want to tell the truth about it? Oh NO what IS this world coming to?
    It’s really terrible! They’re trying to blame SOMEONE ELSE for what has happened!
    Wow, I have to think about this a minute. It might have all sorts of implications.

  16. The Government can’t force them to give up their mega bonuses so how come they can force them to give out bad loans?

    This does not make sense.

  18. Nal,

    Maybe you could change the title to be reflective of the trend….Pimpin’ for the Dough….

  20. And he is Mayor…and head of a global conglomerate…….Fuck em….He is a Pimp….they are the Hos and we are the ones getting screwed….I have some bank stock that I’d be happy to sell him for what I paid….

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