Setting the Record Straight

The longer this business downturn runs on, the uglier it is getting. It is affecting so many different aspects of our economy now, it is going to take longer to work our way out of it. And too many are getting the idea that they can get a piece of the bail out pie, just because it's there.

The most shameful of it all is that the entities and people involved with them that created this mess are acting like they are inocent bystanders, and that it is the Bush Administration's doing. Let's make this perfectly clear...nothing is farther from the truth. President Bush warned Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Congress in 2001 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed regulating. No one wanted to listen because they were either getting fat of the loan packages being sold, or they just didn't have a clue in the first place about how the mortgage industry worked. Some that I mentioned that were getting fat and didn't want to see regulation were, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Charles Schummer, Barrack Obama, to name a few, as well as the heads of those two government sponsored entities.

How Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got into trouble was due to the subprime loans being forced down lenders throats by the Clinton Administration, who believed home ownership is a right rather than privilege, and was dead set in seeing more people buy homes that were not ready for that responsibility.

Builders, as well jumped on that bandwagon because it helped them relieve themselves of their number one asset, their land/lots. They relieved that asset by building and selling homes with them. It was a snowball out of control. And let me remind those that read my blog, your current President warned the mortgage markets, and Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac in particular, that they were headed for a fall.

Ah, you say, why did the Bush Administration go along with bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Because it is a government sponsored entity, holding over 50% of the mortgages at any time. This is not a private enterprise, and the government, who we are all a part of, was compelled 'to bite the bullet.'

Before all this came down, the economy was generally strong. People had not started losing jobs as we now are, due to the numbers of people employed in the construction/supply businesses. The stock market was stable, and the only real negative, daily, was the cost of gasoline, which brings me to my last point about our situation and current leadership.

Crude oil and our gasoline prices have been steadily dropping since President Bush just mentioned lifting the ban on offshore drilling, back in July. Check it out. I suggest he knew very well the pain the nation had to suffer, before the public outcry to expand our own search for fossil fuels right here at home, began to be heard.

As you look back at the last few months, it hasn't been the President elect, or this very impotent Congress we have in Washington, that has been leading us through the tough choices, and necessary action. It has been your current President.

I hate to think where we would be today if the 72% of the public who disapproves of his leadership, had been making the decisions. History, I believe will treat him better.

To solve problems, you first must understand them.

All the best for 2009.