Though it does have its flaws, it's interesting, and it provides a lot of good pointers to do some research. Flips too fast through stuff, though, I found myself pausing a lot to read what's on the screen.
There are some good individual facts in there that're true. However, a great lie always starts with the truth...
The idea that poor people were responsible for the subprime crisis and the banks were making loans to them with guns held to their heads is just comically absurd. If that were true, shouldn't all banks be equally failing now? How would it be that some banks avoided all this mess while others collapsed completely?
The banks that are failing now are the ones that built their core business on subprime loans. Nobody forced Countrywide, WaMu, or any of the dozen other subprime lenders that failed to focus on subprime loans. They did that because they saw immense profit in it. You didn't see banks protesting Congress or lobbying for a retraction of the subprime authorization being included.
And, in fact, that's all it was, just an authorization. Notice the language of the text they quote in the video: "Part of the increase in home loans was due to lenders, like Countrywide, that do not mitigate loan risk...using the
( ... )
Well, your entire argument rests on the assumption that banks did this of their own free will, which misses some of the elements that the video points out, that banks were being pressured into it by lawyers of certain political groups, ACORN among them.
I gave one example already of how the video seems to distort "allows" into "requires". I am assuming the banks were not forced into this, and I'll continue to do so until someone comes up with better evidence that isn't "light" on independently verifiable evidence.
But really, looking back, where were the complaints from the banks on this? Where were the protests and the counter-lobbying? We're all supposed to believe the banks quietly made billions of dollars in bets they knew were bad and would ultimately destroy them because the Democrats made them?. Even now, with the implosion happening, no bank execs are coming forward and claiming they were coerced into subprime lending by legislation. John McCain, the purported hero in all of this, isn't even claiming that either.
This is a convoluted conspiracy theory patched together to work when greed is a simpler explanation. The banks that made these loans sure acted eager to do so up until about two years ago, and they had good motive to be since they were projecting billions in
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Also, I'm looking at an article in the Oct. 6 Newsweek about McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, and how he's been paid $15,000 a month from 2006 to this August by Freddie Mac for use of his firm, even though his firm did no work for them in that timeframe. This is exactly the same kind of link that video uses on one of Obama's staffers to try to link Obama to blame for this.
All I'm saying is, if you want to get into finger pointing there's plenty to go around and even McCain's camp isn't clean. There are far more important things right now than trying to find someone to pin blame on, especially with the fact that there's enough to go around to everyone--Republicans, Democrats, banks, borrowers, and most of all a complacent public that turned a blind eye to unchecked greed and corruption because it made us a more prosperous nation and that made it all okay.
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The idea that poor people were responsible for the subprime crisis and the banks were making loans to them with guns held to their heads is just comically absurd. If that were true, shouldn't all banks be equally failing now? How would it be that some banks avoided all this mess while others collapsed completely?
The banks that are failing now are the ones that built their core business on subprime loans. Nobody forced Countrywide, WaMu, or any of the dozen other subprime lenders that failed to focus on subprime loans. They did that because they saw immense profit in it. You didn't see banks protesting Congress or lobbying for a retraction of the subprime authorization being included.
And, in fact, that's all it was, just an authorization. Notice the language of the text they quote in the video: "Part of the increase in home loans was due to lenders, like Countrywide, that do not mitigate loan risk...using the ( ... )
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Something from RCP, which is a little light on googlable citations, but has some starting points, as well: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/acorn_obama_and_the_mortgage_m.html
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But really, looking back, where were the complaints from the banks on this? Where were the protests and the counter-lobbying? We're all supposed to believe the banks quietly made billions of dollars in bets they knew were bad and would ultimately destroy them because the Democrats made them?. Even now, with the implosion happening, no bank execs are coming forward and claiming they were coerced into subprime lending by legislation. John McCain, the purported hero in all of this, isn't even claiming that either.
This is a convoluted conspiracy theory patched together to work when greed is a simpler explanation. The banks that made these loans sure acted eager to do so up until about two years ago, and they had good motive to be since they were projecting billions in ( ... )
Reply
All I'm saying is, if you want to get into finger pointing there's plenty to go around and even McCain's camp isn't clean. There are far more important things right now than trying to find someone to pin blame on, especially with the fact that there's enough to go around to everyone--Republicans, Democrats, banks, borrowers, and most of all a complacent public that turned a blind eye to unchecked greed and corruption because it made us a more prosperous nation and that made it all okay.
We are all guilty, every last one of us.
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