[MikeNY]

A Black friend of mine has an interesting thesis, that ACORN and the Democrats set up Minorities to fail in the Housing & Credit Crisis to keep them both captive inside the Democratic Party, Socialize, Impoverish and Destroy the US Economy. He noted that Minorities were targeted by the Democratic Community Reinvestment Act and tricked into getting Subprime Loans with teaser rates, and he noted that 90% of the Subprime Loans that are in trouble went to minorities http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_...8f93230289965d Plus he noted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will need $5 Trillion Dollars in the end plus private US Banks are expected to cost a further $5 Trillion; add to that Foreign Banks also lost money adding further trillions to the pile.

He added that since minority homeowners are going to take the hardest hit and lose everything they own, who profited? That both Home Builders & ACORN made $Billions packaging subprime loans and other Civil Rights Groups profited to the tune of hundreds of $Billions.

At first I dismissed this but he added Madoff is a major Democratic Player and Wall Street made $Billions/Trillions too in this whole mess. One telling point is he said every Democratic Program to help Minorities seems to have the unintended (or intended) consequnce to hurt minorities, and that does seems true. He tells me that many of the Home Budiling Companies are owned and controled by Democrats and it looks like they made money hand over fist; and the people hurt the most are minorities. Makes me wonder.

What do you guys think? Could this be possible? My buddy says use Occam's razor, the simplest solution is usually the right one, noting if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and has feathers it is a duck.

[Free]

I don't find this a stretch to believe. This also fits with the general idea that both parties are very much the same, and perhaps are in cahoots to transfer power back and forth, pretending that they are vying for our vote, by promising different things.

[MikeNY]

Free your point is well taken, it does seem like both Parties are two sides of one Liberal coin. Follow the money does seem to point to who won and who lost in the game. It also was surprising that McCain didn't use the information on the CRA and ACORN that was appearing in the newspapers like the NY Post and IBD in his campaign against the Democrats. My friend thinks McCain was picked by the Republicans to lose and the Republican Insider's sabotaged him at every oppertunity. Divide and Conquer still works.

The frightening thing is this makes sense, just like Obama's plan to save the economy seems better designed to keep the US Economy from recovering. I've thought for awhile the US was corrupt, they fooled me I thought the Election was a real event. The US Insiders do look a lot like all the Politcal Crooks that rule most countries,

[Andy62]

There is no doubt that power players are more interested in leveraging their bets than in specific political parties or specific issues. Martin Mayer, the well known economic consultant who is author of both editions of "The Bankers" which were published 20 years apart and other economic books, says,"Eventually all markets become insider markets" and Joe Kennedy used to say that ,"In the end everybody does business with everybody." Business and other interests hedge their bets by supporting both parties. Political parties like large financial instutions and countries themselves are subject too economic cycles and other major trends that are out of their control. I think I am right in saying that no party in the White House, at least in modern times, has been able to maintain their power in a current election when the economy was in a down cycle. The Bush Administration enjoyed an economic boom in the first 6 years and things went against them in the last 2 years. In addition to the national economic cycle there were major changes going on in the world that are now effecting all governments including deleveraging of credit assets that have been building for the last 30 years and falsely stimulated all economies in the world. It is a highly complex situation and there are many factors involved that neither the Bush Administration or the current Obama Adminsitration are going to be able to control. Let's not forget terrorism. Things will recover,but consumption and life styles in all of the mature economies of the world are going to decline. I personally believe that The Republicans didn't try that hard to win and they probably couldn't have won whatever they did. In Governments as in major corporations or other large bureaucracies no one can stop the momentum of a major trend once it is under way and you have to play the momentum. As Tolstoy said, "Leaders don't change history they see where it is going and run ahead of it," It is also true that in a large organization or Government in a time of great change sometimes you can have more control "playing off" of the leader than actually being the leader yourself. Sometimes retreat is a valid military strategy and as the old corporate games goes," If you want to run with the ball -here is the lateral." I don't think that here was any definite conspiracy,but pumping up the housing supply made some politicians look good to their various constituencies- sort of like free tickets to the Circus Maximus in Ancient Rome.

[MikeNY]

Gordon I have noticed and even seen in the Newspapers that Repuublicans in trouble usually hire Democratic Lawyers and Democrats in trouble hire Republican Lawyers; that seems a incestous pattern. At the local level the two Parties do seem very close behind the scenes, who knows at the national Level.

The Nation is facing a serve recession, let's hope that the Obama Team is able to end it ASAP but it does seem that his stimulus package is more pork that plan, and the pork will be shared with the Republicans. That Obama was the author of much of the Bush Bailout seems forgtten by the News Media, and I noticed Bush did not press that case either. I think my friend is right, people get played, the real games are inside and the Public never sees.

[Andy62]

Mike, I agree,but we live in a bureaucratic and large organizational world where entities playoff of eachother. It is not just Democrats and Republicans; it is also the management and unions in the auto industry and seemingly adversarial entities in all types of large organizations including Governments that are hostile to eachother. Martin Mayers quote,"Eventually all markets become insider markets" extends to all types of power entities with various goals and not just financial markets. The power seeking personality's objective afterall is his or her own personal power. It is just and extension of the old corporate "Mutt and Jeff" routine.

[MikeNY]

Gordon you know what makes me mad? We have Groups like ACORN making Billions, Wall Street making Trillions and some Businessmen like pigs at the trough, and the poor people that were "suckered" and pushed into these subprime liar loans are losing everything! Really ACORN, Wall Street and the crooked Builders beat up the helpless poor and the US Tax Payer was robbed too. My bet is Congress will never, ever investigate this or even investigate Madoff.

Jesus didn't want the poor abused and manipulated!

[Andy62]

Mike, The fault with these programs are their political nature. Unfortunately public housing programs sponsored by Washington have been a disaster for most poor people. Housing, has been a political football in Washington and the fragmented and local nature of the industry which is controlled by a multitude of special interest groups and local laws and customs makes it very hard to standardize on a central basis. In the 1970s when George Romney was secretary of housing he tried to streamline the process with his operation "breakthrough" which was a dismal failure. There has been nothing like CRA ,however, which was a total ripoff and which will effect our economy for decades to come.

[MikeNY]

Gordon the Taxpayer's will survive, there were Gangs of Organized Criminals milking the CRA and the Left still has not changed the CRA and will not; so it will happen again. The real victims in all this are the poor that will not recover, lost what little they have and were tricked and duped by Political Conmen that manipulated them for political purposes. I doubt we shall ever see our Congress lift one finger to investigate this or even care. Congress is the best politicans money can buy, and they'd are in the game for themselves not for anyone else at all.

[Andy62]

Mike, I agree. It is not just CRA; it is Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The politicians do not want to investigate themselves. In the early 1970s I went to work for want was then the third largest mortgage company in the US and owned by a major bank. I was hired to start a new Income Property Loan department for one of their divisions. The company had been built on federal housing programs and they hired me and several other income property people to help them diversify. While I was with the company I noticed that they had very high delinquency rates in their Government Mortgage Loan Portfolios. This did not affect their operation for a long time as they had an extensive Government Lobbying Operation in Washington DC. That has always been the problem with Government sponsored programs as they lobby the members of Congress directly and go around The President and the regulatory entities. If any litigation comes from CRA excesses it will have to come from outside of the Govenment.