SUB PRIME OBAMA...
Friday, September 19, 2008 at 09:54PM Penny Pritzker is the person in charge of Obama's campaign finances.
As you know Obama has been speaking out against the commercial practices that have lead to the current market crisis. He's outraged!
Penny Pritzker is an interesting person. According to investigative reporter Tim Anderson, Superior Bank, FSB
of Hinsdale, Illinois, was owned by the Pritzker family until closed by
the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver.
Superior Bank was
among the original lending institutions who used their investors money
to purchase “subprime” mortgages for securitization. Pritzker banking
resources working with Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch developed
the original mortgage securitation package, putting mortgages into a
bond and then selling the bond. Like many banks nationwide, the
decision to participate and underwrite subprime business ultimately
proved fatal for their mortgage division.
So, Obama should have some REAL good insight into sub-prime greed - all he has to do is ask his key finance controller.
View Printer Friendly Version
Reader Comments (8)
"As you know Obama has been speaking out against the commercial practices that have lead to the current market crisis. "
Well technically he's been speaking out against practices that didn't lead to the crisis, and have in fact alleviated it, but which make useful scapegoats.
True Ross.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned the dolts who took out mortgages they were never going to be able to pay off? The companies that serviced those mortgages were dispicable with their % rates but it turns out that the people who took out those mortgages were no better or worse than people who willingly leech off the welfare state. The American punter picks up the cost of all that via a nationalisation programme that would make Clement Atlee's eyes water (to quote PP). Taking on a mortgage is a serious business and if you cannot afford it then don't take one out. If you do you should not default on it. I know I have had to hold off and that is without the credit rating issues or employment issues that a lot of those people faced.
"Taking on a mortgage is a serious business and if you cannot afford it then don't take one out. If you do you should not default on it."
Alison, I think that is a little bit harsh. By all means condemn those who stretch themselves to impossible levels to get a mortgage they know they will struggle to upkeep, but there are many genuine case where people take out reasonable mortgages but then later face unexpected financial difficulties which force them to default very much against their best efforts.
I was referring to sub prime only which was the issue. Not people who take on reasonable mortgages and wind up in difficulty later.
As not even the Clinton administration, with all of its affirmative action and welfare programs, could possibly afford to give the average black an income and/or a sense of financial responsibility which would make him/her capable of sustaining a home mortgage, they did the next best thing, i.e. they forced the banks to dramatically lower their lending standards. This resulted in many more home sales to blacks and other minorities which fueled the housing market demand. This increased demand was then taken up by many middle and upper class American of all races who were encouraged to maximize their mortgages (on the false assumption that housing prices would go up forever—-nothing goes up forever) by paying nothing down and then taking out home equity loans to pay for everyday items like plasma TV’s, etc.
This did require a major change in banking standards but once these were changed by the decree of the Clinton White House and congress for the benefit of blacks, the bankers’ greed got the better of them and they applied the same low standards to other mortgages as well. The result of this, the current sub-prime meltdown which we have today, did in fact originate with Clinton’s misguided intrusion of the federal government into the financial market place. So, anyone who blames the sub-prime debacle on the “free market” is fundamentally wrong. It was not the free market which initially lowered lending standards, it was the federal government that forced such policies on the banks.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306370789279709
Alison
Fair enough - I have to admit terms like 'Sub-Prime' make my brain fuzzy. I don't really understand all these financial shenanigans.
"Why hasn't anyone mentioned the dolts who took out mortgages they were never going to be able to pay off? "
You are right. Although I suppose for a politician these people are known as "Voters".