Dodd: Fed to use 'all tools available'

Source: Reuters

Senate Banking chairman says Fed chief Bernanke pledged to 'absolutely' do everything possible to stabilize financial markets.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A key U.S. lawmaker said on Tuesday that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to use all tools necessary to calm turbulent financial markets, but he expressed skepticism that the U.S. Treasury appreciated the urgency of the U.S. housing finance crisis.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, speaking after a meeting with the Fed chief and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, said he did not urge Bernanke to cut interest rates, saying he did not want to put political pressure on the central bank.


Senator Christopher Dodd

"I asked the chairman of the Fed whether or not he was willing to use all the tools available to him, and he said he was prepared to do that; 'absolutely' is the language he used, and I applaud that," Dodd told a news conference following the meeting.

"I asked the chairman of the Fed whether or not he was willing to use all the tools available to him, and he said he was prepared to do that; 'absolutely' is the language he used, and I applaud that," Dodd told a news conference following the meeting.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/21/news/newsmakers/dodd.reut/?postversion=2007082118

and allow those who took the loans to have some breathing room too?

Read his column from Friday

walthyfrenchman.blogspot.com

I have to admit his reasoning for not pursuing impeachment is absurd. Congress has had months now to start charting a different course but we're just getting more of the same. He says they can't pursue impeachment and fix the problems of the country at the same time, but so far they have simultaneously fought against impeachment while doing nothing to start fixing any of the problems.

Like everything else, they'll just bail out their cronies and contributors.

:argh:

I'm not sure some of us have thought through this mortgage banking crisis.

Over the past years, many people have gotten mortgages with shaky credit, and with little or no money down. Some have paid very high interest rates in order to get that dream house, figuring that they would refinance in a year or two when they improved their credit rating. Nice plan, but now the banks are tightening their credit requirements to the gills....so now, many of these folks who may have improved their credit may find out that they have not improved their credit eNOUGH for the new tighter requirements.

And who are these people? It might be easy to look down on them for being irresponsible people, but by and large the really irresponsible folks did not get loans even a couple of years ago! They come from all economic backgrounds and races, but...guess what...when this credit crunch hits, who are going to be the hardest hit? Lower-Middle income groups and minorities was your guess? Right. And many of the same group will today be turned away in the first place.

We are very likely to see a new wave of foreclosures, and as fewer people can buy a home, more will rent. The foreclosed houses will be bought by investors who will rent them out. More rental units, fewer home owners. Rich. Get. Richer.

Of course the Fed is not going to let corporate giants like Countrywide go bk....it would be such a large bk they don't even know how such a thing could be structured! So they are going to make money more available. Not because they are altruistic, mind you.

But what if they didn't do that? For one thing, this could lead to a REAL housing crisis that goes way beyond recession.

And, let's not forget the "other america" folks who would be further shut out from the American dream of home ownership.

Gotta fix the problems. Things WERE too lax. But the pendulum is swinging back the other way with a vengance. We need to find a happy medium.

Thankfully, the fed recognizes the problem and even though it is really trying to help the banks, not helping would hurt the other America hard.

broken leg.

Loose credit is a part of the problem here.

Source: Washington Post



Treasury, Urged to Act, Finds Few Tools

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 22, 2007; Page D01

As financial markets went haywire this month, Wall Street looked to one of its own, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., for help.

He hasn't given them much in return, partly because there is not much he can do.


Paulson, who was chairman of the investment bank Goldman Sachs before joining the Bush administration, has acknowledged that the downturn in the markets could damage the U.S. economy. But the Treasury Department under Paulson has taken no dramatic public moves to shore up frozen markets for home mortgages and other debt.

Yesterday, Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke met with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) as the debate over the government's response to the breakdown of markets for mortgage and other debt moved to Capitol Hill.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082100572.html?hpid=topnews

wrangle a few more no bid contracts?

competant than any of the other Shrub choices for leaders? NONe of them know what they're doing and they only have the job because of their Shrub support!

Couldn't they shift the tax cut for the upper 1% to middle income Americans? It may not help those w/ ninja mortgages, but would help middle income homeowners.

Either way, economic stimulus or bailout should be focused on homeowners as opposed to financial institutions.

have been removed. They neutered themselves with their ridiculous deregulation ideology. Just like Hoover, the republicon president who stood by and watched the Great Depression take shape, this republicon president can and will do nothing. So who else is looking for a nice little Bushville?

:eyes:

They could, like, pass some laws protecting Americans from the inevitable collapse of rule by corporate greed. Or are they still busy protecting corporations from the consequences of their greed?