The following story from Newsmax.com sheds some light on Rep. Barney Frank's involvement with the financial crisis now taking place. If you remember he was blaming everything on the Republicans. I especially was interested in how he went against Pres. Clinton and in turn helped to forge parts of the crisis taking place now.
Barney Frank Hit Over Boyfriend’s Fannie Mae Role
Critics are crying “conflict of interest” over Democratic Rep. Barney Frank’s live-in relationship with Fannie Mae executive Herb Moses while Frank was on the House Banking Committee.
Moses was Fannie Mae’s assistant director for product initiatives from 1991 to 1998.
He was also openly gay Frank’s live-in boyfriend during that time, while the Massachusetts lawmaker was on the committee that had jurisdiction over government-sponsored Fannie Mae, Fox News’ Bill Sammon reported.
Now that Fannie Mae is at the center of the recent financial meltdown, the relationship is coming under increased scrutiny.
“It’s absolutely a conflict,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute.
“He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
“But everyone wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard.”
A top Republican House aide told Fox News: “He writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws? No media ever take note?”
Frank and Moses met in 1987 and lived together in Washington, D.C., until they split up in 1998.
National Mortgage News disclosed that Moses “helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs.”
Critics charge that such programs led to the mortgage meltdown and the recent government takeover of Fannie Mae, according to Fox News, which noted that Fannie Mae and its financial cousin Freddie Mac “are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.”
In 1994, Frank thwarted efforts by President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development to impose new regulations on Fannie Mae.
14 years later we're paying for Barney and his boyfriend's relationship.
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4 comments:
Have you tossed around the idea that perhaps Fannie and Freddie were not the problem?
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Economist Mark Thoma et al:
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/09/it-wasnt-fannie.html
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/07/did-fannie-and.html
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/10/what-caused-the.html
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/10/barry-ritholtz.html
Of course, it's also possible that even if Freddie and Fannie or Barney and his boyfriend didn't CAUSE the crisis, they could have made it worse. That's a perfectly legitimate argument, and others have made it as well. But in all fairness Barney and friend(s) only deserve the credit (or blame in this case) where it's due.
My title was only in reaction to Frank's criticism of House Republicans who initially voted against the bailout. Especially since he failed to mention the 40% of his own party that also voted against it. As the introductory paragraph states he "helped to forge parts of the crisis taking place." I too believe there is more than enough blame to be spread between both parties.
I would not underestimate the impact of Freddy and Fannie on the rest of the system. If governmental agencies abuse the system then it only serves to encourage the private sector to do the same. I know the analogy is a little simple, but consider how drivers tend to speed up once they notice the cop that just passed them, without flashing ligts, is breaking the speed limit. I think a similar reaction took place in regards to Fred and Fan.
Another example of government encouraging adverse behavior is the aftermath of the bailout. Lobbyists are coming out of the woodwork to get their pieces of an everincreasing "dole-out" pie. These "evil special interests" that both parties always critize are simply reacting to their two-faced benefactors actions.
Maybe this is a too simplistic point of view. But I like to keep it simple. Is the article more concerned with the mortgage meltdown or by the fact that Barney is gay? I don't think that any one person is, or even could be, the cause of this problem. I am sure there is enough blame to go around.
You make a good point Bettie. The fact that Barney's gay helps to stir up a little more controversy.
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