Trump isn't trying to drain the swamp. He is simply trying to find a new location for it.

For instance they were never taught that Columbus was a slave owner.

You know the Federal Government made the banks issue loans to people who had no business taking out a mortgage, right? The banks don't issue those loans without government backing to guarantee them.

The banks got more cautious afterwards and stopped issuing those loans after 2008. Notice how hard it was to get credit then? That's how it should have stayed. However, our noble government, unwilling to learn, decided to lower the standards so that people with 580 credit scores can take out a government backed FHA loan with 3.5% down. They made it 0% down if it's a rural development loan.

The housing crisis doesn't occur if we were limited to conventional mortgages, as it should be. When you get FHA guarantees out of there, banks only issue after serious manual underwriting since they are on the hook for the defaults.

For instance they were never taught that Columbus was a slave owner.

The government did not force the banks to issue millions of loans so that they could be packaged as securities and dumped investors. That was the game. This is basic follow the money type stuff. Who benefitted? The Federal government was forcing banks to get on this business? Come on. The banks wanted these standards because they knew there was money to be made doing this. It's incredibly naive to think that this was the result of greedy poor people wanting a home.

I posted this in the Trump thread, but it's too good not to share. If you want to know why Comey got canned, it's because Trump has an ego and he couldn't deal with the lack of support for his idiotic and baseless claims Trump Tower was wire tapped.

From the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/us/p ... &smtyp=cur

"After President Trump accused his predecessor in March of wiretapping him, James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, was flabbergasted. The president, Mr. Comey told associates, was “outside the realm of normal,” even “crazy.”

For his part, Mr. Trump fumed when Mr. Comey publicly dismissed the sensational wiretapping claim. In the weeks that followed, he grew angrier and began talking about firing Mr. Comey. After stewing last weekend while watching Sunday talk shows at his New Jersey golf resort, Mr. Trump decided it was time. There was “something wrong with” Mr. Comey, he told aides.

The collision between president and F.B.I. director that culminated with Mr. Comey’s stunning dismissal on Tuesday had been a long time coming."

Except for the fact the government did force them to issue the loans in the first place after rule chances in 1998 drafted by Andrew Cuomo when he was the Secretary of HUD. The banks were instructed to issue these loans and Fannie and Freddie were instructed to buy them up.

These were loans that would not be issued in the absence of Ferally backed mortage insurance or low minimum FHA credit standards.

The banks did screw up packaging them as securities, but the housing market crashes with high default rates even if that part doesn't happen.

The fact is the mortgage market we saw from 2008-2012 is the mortgage market we should have. Banks should be strict in lending practices. Either have 20% down, or if you only have 5-10% down, make sure you can qualify for PMI. IF you can't do either of those 2, then you should rent until you can.

Having federally insured high risk loans with the promise of a bailout (since they are Federally insured) is creating a moral hazard that ensures the housing bubble will repeat itself. If you can't either accumulate a 20% down payment or qualify for PMI, then you shouldn't own a home. Some people are better off renting. The guy who buys a home with 3.5% down and a 590 credit score (who gets FHA backing today) should rent until his situation improves. However, our noble government wants to get him a mortgage and then blame the bank when the predictable happens.

The reason there was a sudden rush to lend out homes to subprime borrowers was not because of Fannie and Freddie, but because the banks had discovered fancy new derivative tools like CDOs and CMOs that allowed them to chop up bundles of home loans and turn them into AAA-rated securities. Countrywide was not trolling the streets looking for jobless indigents to lend mansions to (this literally happened, by the way) because the government was forcing them to. It was because big banks like Goldman and JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America were letting them know that they had a virtually limitless market for mortgage-backed securities, thanks to the new derivative tools that allowed them to sell billions of subprime MBS as AAA-rated investments to suckers like German land-banks and Icelandic trade unions and the like.

But, to my mind, that view is only half-right. Yes, people got loans who had no hope of paying them back, and that was insane. But Fannie and Freddie’s affordable housing goals — which the G.S.E.’s easily gamed — were not the main reason. Rather, it was the rise of the subprime lenders — and their ability to get even their worst loans securitized by Wall Street —that was the main culprit. Fannie and Freddie lowered their standards mostly because they were losing market share to the subprime originators.

For instance they were never taught that Columbus was a slave owner.

Except for the fact the government did force them to issue the loans in the first place after rule chances in 1998 drafted by Andrew Cuomo when he was the Secretary of HUD. The banks were instructed to issue these loans and Fannie and Freddie were instructed to buy them up.

These were loans that would not be issued in the absence of Ferally backed mortage insurance or low minimum FHA credit standards.

The banks did screw up packaging them as securities, but the housing market crashes with high default rates even if that part doesn't happen.

The fact is the mortgage market we saw from 2008-2012 is the mortgage market we should have. Banks should be strict in lending practices. Either have 20% down, or if you only have 5-10% down, make sure you can qualify for PMI. IF you can't do either of those 2, then you should rent until you can.

Having federally insured high risk loans with the promise of a bailout (since they are Federally insured) is creating a moral hazard that ensures the housing bubble will repeat itself. If you can't either accumulate a 20% down payment or qualify for PMI, then you shouldn't own a home. Some people are better off renting. The guy who buys a home with 3.5% down and a 590 credit score (who gets FHA backing today) should rent until his situation improves. However, our noble government wants to get him a mortgage and then blame the bank when the predictable happens.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

Are you stoned or pissed off, or both, when you create these postings?

I'd say it was more due to the ratings agencies giving AAA ratings to the derivatives.

Not a home loan, but I did have a banker from Northern Trust cold call me back in those halcyon days to tell me that the government was forcing them to up the amounts they loaned to small businesses. He gave me 50 grand with very limited documentation.

Aha. And now we get to the nut of the problem.

Sounds like he was just making a sales call and that was his pitch. Very few people turn down access to capital. They started reducing those lines immediately in 2008 and it screwed a lot of people.

White House rocked by allegation Trump tried to shut down FBI's Flynn probe

James Comey wrote a memo detailing Trump's request, according to a friend of the ousted FBI director.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM and JOSH DAWSEY 05/16/17 06:22 PM EDT

President Donald Trump’s White House was rocked on Tuesday night by another news report, this one alleging Trump tried to shut down an FBI investigation into one of his former aides, as the administration struggles to contain a cascade of scandals.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that former FBI Director James Comey wrote a memo detailing how Trump had asked him in the Oval Office to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a request that came just one day after Trump ousted Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.


A friend of Comey’s confirmed the existence of the memo to POLITICO.

"It's very rich in detail and hopefully it will come out soon,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There are other memos about his meetings too. He wrote down every word Trump said to him as soon as he could."

The news adds to the controversy overwhelming the White House, which was already dealing with the fallout from Trump’s firing of Comey last week and his alleged disclosure of highly classified information to Russian officials.

The White House immediately pushed back against the story.

“While the President has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the President has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn. The President has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the President and Mr. Comey,” the White House said in a written statement.

But the allegation, which suggests Trump tried to interfere in a federal investigation into one of his top associates, represents some of the most serious allegations against Trump to date.

The reports also come at a critical time for Trump’s young administration, which sparked a furor last week when Trump abruptly fired Comey as the FBI is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

The initial explanation was that Trump fired Comey based on a recommendation from top Justice Department officials, but Trump later refuted this, saying he was going to fire Comey regardless and did it with the Russia investigation in mind.

The move prompted questions from both Democrats and Republicans about whether Trump was impeding an investigation into his own campaign.

Then, on Monday, news broke in the Washington Post that Trump had divulged classified information to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The White House scrambled to contain the fallout, alleging Trump had done nothing improper even while declining to say whether he had in fact divulged confidential information.

The report that Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn follows months in which Trump has defended his former national security adviser, even after asking for his resignation.

He said on Twitter that Flynn was right to ask for immunity and blamed “fake media” for their treatment of Flynn — even though top government officials have since corroborated media accounts.

There is not a damned thing wrong with people who are bull shitters.

Chaffetz ready to issue subpoena for Comey memo


Trump asked Comey to end Flynn investigation: report
TheHill.com


BY CRISTINA MARCOS

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) indicated he’s willing to issue a subpoena to obtain a memo authored by former FBI Director James Comey stating that President Trump asked the FBI to stop its probe of Michael Flynn.

Chaffetz tweeted Tuesday night that his committee "is going to get the Comey memo, if it exists. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready."


Later Tuesday, Chaffetz sent a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe asking for all memos, summaries and recordings regarding Comey's communications with Trump.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), through a spokeswoman, expressed support for Chaffetz's move.


"We need to have all the facts, and it is appropriate for the House Oversight Committee to request this memo," Ryan press secretary AshLee Strong said.

The New York Times reported hours earlier that, according to a memo authored by Comey, Trump asked the FBI stop investigating Flynn, his former national security adviser, over his ties to Russia.

“I hope you can let this go,” Trump told Comey one day after Flynn resigned, according to the memo.
Comey’s memo was part of an effort to create a paper trail documenting what he says was Trump improperly trying to influence the investigation. Trump fired Comey as FBI director a week ago.

The White House denied the contents of the memo and pointed to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, in which he said “there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”

McCabe's statement was in response to a question from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) about whether Comey's firing "in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped or negatively impacted" any FBI investigations.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called for Comey to testify in public.

"This is an explosive allegation, and it appears like a textbook case of criminal obstruction of justice,” Cummings added.

He noted that Chaffetz had asked Comey to appear before the committee 48 hours after announcing last summer no charges would be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Cummings and Chaffetz asked the White House in March for documents regarding Flynn’s payments from Russia for paid speaking engagements, but were denied. Cummings said Tuesday that the House Oversight Committee should issue a subpoena for those documents as well.

Flynn was ousted as Trump’s national security adviser after it was revealed that he misled the public about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the transition about lifting sanctions. The Obama administration had slapped new sanctions on Russia in December as retaliation for trying to influence the U.S. presidential election last year with hacked emails of Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.