tagged w/ US Treasury
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In addition to throwing economic fundamentals out the window, Paul points out the peculiarities that mortgage brokers must now be fingerprinted and that credit card transactions will now be reported to the I.R.S. CONgress ≠ PROgress.
The following is excerpted from Congressman Paul's Statement on H.R. 3221:
"Madam Speaker, For several years, followers of the Austrian school of economics have warned that unless Congress moved to end the implicit government guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and took other steps to disengage the US Government from the housing market, America would face a crisis in housing. This crisis would force Congress to chose between authorizing a taxpayer bailout of Fannie and Freddie, and other measures increasing government’s involvement in housing, or restoring a free-market in housing by ending government support for Fannie and Freddie and repealing all laws that interfere in housing. The bursting of the housing bubble, and the recent near-collapse in investor support for Fannie and Freddie has proven my fellow Austrians correct. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, instead of ending the prior interventions in the housing market that are responsible for the current crisis, Congress is increasing the level of government intervention in the housing market. This is the equivalent of giving a drug addict another fix, which will only make the necessary withdrawal more painful.
The provision giving the Treasury Secretary a blank check to purchase Fannie and Freddie stock not only makes the implicit government guarantee of Fannie and Freddie explicit, it represents another unconstitutional delegation of Congress’ Constitutional authority to control the allocation of taxpayer dollars. While the Treasury Secretary has to file a report with Congress, the lack of any effective standards for the expenditure of funds makes it impossible for Congress to perform effective oversight on Treasury’s expenditures.
HR 3221 also takes another troubling step toward the creation of surveillance state by creating a Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry. This federal database will contain personal information about anyone wishing to work as a “loan originator.” “Loan originator" is defined broadly as anyone who "takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain." According to some analysts, this definition is so broad as to cover part-time clerks and real estate agents who receive even minimal compensation from "originators." Additionally, this database forced on industry will be funded by fees paid to the federal banking agencies, yet another costly burden to the American taxpayers.
Among the information that will be collected from loan originators for inclusion in the federal database are fingerprints. Madam Speaker, giving the federal government the power to force Americans who wish to work in real estate to submit their fingerprints to a federal database opens the door to numerous abuses of privacy and civil liberties and establishes a dangerous precedent. Fingerprint databases and background checks have been no deterrent to espionage and fraud among governmental agencies, and will likewise fail to prevent fraud in the real estate market. I am amazed to see some members who are usually outspoken advocates of civil liberties and defenders of the Fourth Amendment support this new threat to privacy."
(End of excerpt)
Full transcript of Congressman Paul's Statement
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2008/cr072408h.htm
For more information on H.R. 3221 please visit THOMAS (The Library of Congress)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.03221:
In addition to throwing economic fundamentals out the window, Paul points out the... more
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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, seeking to allay renewed concerns over the health of the nation's financial system, said the central bank may extend its emergency-loan program for investment banks into next year.
It's the first time Bernanke has indicated how long he'll extend the lending programs that were introduced in March in a provision of Fed credit to nonbanks unprecedented since the Great Depression.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Banks Index, a measure of 22 firms including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest sources of U.S. home financing, fell to 155.48 yesterday, its lowest level since 1996.
Mean while the Fed is using this as an excuse to extend the powers of its agency
{source}http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bernanke-seeks-new-regulatory-powers/story.aspx?guid={7DFB82A4-1E02-4F50-B445-B8E68B8E0EFD}&dist=msr_4
Congress should consider giving the Fed power to set standards for capital liquidity holdings and risk management for investment banks, as it now does for commercial banks, Bernanke said.
In March, as market conditions worsened, the Fed established two lending facilities for primary dealers of government debt. One allows them to swap a range of illiquid assets for Treasury securities. The other facility provides cash to these broker-dealers in a system that is similar to its discount window for banks.
Bernanke said Congress might give the Fed broad power to promote financial market stability.
If Congress makes this choice, "I do not think the Fed could fully meet these objectives without the authority to directly examine banks and other financial institutions that are subject to prudential regulation.
Increased power for one agency typically comes at the expense of other agencies that have their own strong alliances with powerful members of Congress.
Although Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said that he would like to see Congress give the Fed more power to ease the fallout of financial market turmoil on the economy, it is another matter for an agency to be seen as seeking power for itself.
As a result, Bernanke bent over backwards to suggest, rather than demand, that the Fed get the broad new regulatory responsibilities he seeks, though his desire for the new powers was apparent. "
Two-year note yield rose (UST2YR) 3 basis points to 2.46%.
{source}http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djhighlights/200807081013DOWJONESDJONLINE000356.htmFederal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, seeking to allay renewed concerns over the... more
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The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the current U.S. currency discriminates against the blind.
"The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features."
The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the current U.S. currency discriminates... more
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If you're interested in the 6000 people who have been blackballed by the treasury department in the name of terrorism, you can see the list yourself. There's currently a law suit against the treasury from a number of people who've been denied loans, etc. because they are on this list:If you're interested in the 6000 people who have been blackballed by the treasury... more
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leahl
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4 years ago
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Sinister outcasts from Princeton's economist Krugman - He expects the US housing market to drop 25% overall.
"I'm not one of those people who thinks the Great Depression is coming back, but there's lots of echoes. [...] I think we know more than we did then, and just the fact that we have a big federal government is a stabilizing factor. But the current problem is still pretty awesome."
At the same time, he admits that "what we're having looks like a minor-key version of the bank failures in the early 1930s. Now it's mostly not banks, it's markets that were serving the function of banks and institutions that were doing banklike stuff, and it's not as bad - at least so far. But it's a question. If we were actually having a string of bank failures, then we would know what to do. The government would essentially seize the banks and guarantee the deposits. But what do you do when you have a wave of failures of things like the auction-rate securities market, which was effectively a funny way of doing banking? If you look historically at other financial crises, they typically end up with big government bailouts. But how's that going to work in this case? We don't even know who to bail out. And part of the problem is we don't even know who owes what to whom."
I am wondering if today they really know more about troubles in the financial markets than in the 30's. The situation seems to be very different today - notwithstanding the perplexity about the economy's inner workings, which then as now seems do dominate. Not comforting, I would say...
What do you think?Sinister outcasts from Princeton's economist Krugman - He expects the US housing... more
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Xizor
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added this
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4 years ago
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According to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Not just the subprime collapse, folks, the whole goshdarned housing market.According to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Not just the subprime collapse,... more
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U.S. banks are meeting with U.S. Treasury officials to create a $100-billion fund to stave off the danger that there could be a fire sale of shaky mortgage-backed securities and other distressed assets.
great...let's reward the banks for selling mortgages and securities that shouldn't have been sold in the first place.
I don't see how this is a solution for the problem...U.S. banks are meeting with U.S. Treasury officials to create a $100-billion fund to... more
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