Brookings Study Confirms Bulk Of Housing Bubble Arose Under Solid GOP Rule

The corporate media and GOP are working overtime to try to spin the current recession as the fault of the Democrats notwithstanding the fact that the GOP controlled all three branches of government until 2007. GOP members of Congress are being interviewed by the cable networks at far greater frequency than their Democratic counterparts while the RW media is still pushing the theme that the media has a liberal bias.

When, oh when, will a major network ask the question of whether the MSM has a right wing bias? Never.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/29/economic.crisis.explainer/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

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On its face, there is nothing devious or illegal about a high interest "subprime" loan. Its simply a case of lender taking on a higher risk and receiving a higher interest rate in return.

However, nearly half of the loans made in 2006 were of the subprime variety, which increased the risk of borrowers defaulting on many banks' balance sheets.

"Prime mortgages dropped to 64 percent of the total in 2004, 56 percent in 2005 and 52 percent in 2006," the Brookings study notes.

Even so, many banks and brokerage firms continued bundling the mortgages, many of them bad loans, and Wall Street kept buying them and selling them to investors. And the people who could have put a brake on the increasing amount of risk -- the agencies that regulate the U.S. financial sector -- weren't paying attention.

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But, they chose to rate trash paper as AAA, because they made more money off rating a mortgage-backed security or asset-backed security than they did a corporate bond (and the higher they rated them, the more investors wanted them).

Why do private rating agencies get to decide what is a good investment? Why do they get so much power as to downgrade an entire country, if they so choose, with zero accountability?

that was specifically placed there by Dem nominee. No GOPs had to argue against it and no Dems had to bolster it, because newsmedia WOULDN'T DISCUSS IT. Not SEXY enough for them - neither was Kerry's call to immediately fund the 16 billion dollar project to strengthen the Gulf Coast and its levees. Gee - why would any newsmedia be interested in THAT boring subject in 2004?

Banks were too free just doling out money to contractors and investors. I see tons of empty new houses out in the middle of farm fields. In fact, I just saw one where there was a farm and butt up on two sides were housing projects. Ugly ones. We have a brand new on the Mississippi River set of town homes that have been empty for two years.

There are a number of abandoned half finished subdivisions here in Sactown, the nearest within walking distance and it was LOVELY farmland just 2 years ago. This subdivision has 8 empty models and about 50 acres of stubbed out lots surrounded by chain link fencing.

they planted the projects right in the middle of farm land. Even my elderly mother kept complaining that in Minneapolis and burbs, there was too much housing being built. That was four-five years ago.

in North-northwestern California. It had LOVELY WATER,( one of the best aquifers on the west coast! Contractor told us that putting our well was like placing a straw in the ocean). We're building a home but it will be completely independent and self sustaining. Planning on putting in a large solar array and wind power too. Will be growing our own food too.

...is going to foster a society that believes everyone should expect to have any size home they want just because their ego demands it.

In our town, not far from us are block after block of perfectly wonderful, well kept, safe city neighborhoods loaded with two and three bedroom houses of modest size that were built in the first half of the 20th Century. For many years, they were perfectly acceptable as places to raise families and see the owners through life and into retirement.

Nowadays, they are occupied by Americans in their 20s and 30s who see them as nothing more than "starter homes," places best left before the children enter middle school in order to find McMansions or sprawling ranch houses with more room than the owners can manage.

It's disgusting how different the priorities and expectations of many of these people are now.

and America's service economy he helped introduce with his blind, liaises fare eye. All those republican financial instruments, mechanisms, privatizations and all out from under regulation

Viola! The economy LOOKED BETTER, and looked good, and then backloaded a bunch of overly leveraged time bombs into itself ready to go off when either a Dem or McCain took office -- did not matter which.