Freedom

The Feds dropped interest rates to nothing, 0 percent! for the 8 years Obama was President. Then when President Trump’s economy took off they started raising rates again. What would Obama’s economy looked like if the Fed had keep the rates at 3 or 4 percent and had not had all the quantitative easing they had for what was it QE3 QE4 times?  They pumped trillions into the economy to support it and prop it up.

And don’t blame President Bush for the Banking Collapse because it was  Barney Franks reform that let banks relax rules to let low income home buyers get into homes that they couldn’t afford. For most of his career, Barney Frank was the principal advocate in Congress for using the government’s authority to force lower underwriting standards in the business of housing finance. Although he claims to have tried to reverse course as early as 2003, that was the year he made the oft-quoted remark, “I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation toward subsidized housing.” Rather than reversing course, he was pressing on when others were beginning to have doubts. Then Freddie and Fannie bundled them and sold them to the world markets. Bush had his faults also but it was the Democrats that lead us down the path to the 2009 collapse.

His most successful effort was to impose what were called “afforbarroweddable housing” requirements on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 1992. Before that time, these two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) had been required to buy only mortgages that institutional investors would buy–in other words, prime mortgages–but Frank and others thought these standards made it too difficult for low income borrowers to buy homes. theThe affordable housing law required Fannie and Freddie to meet government quotas when they bought loans from banks and other mortgage originators.

At first, this quota was 30%; that is, of all the loans they bought, 30% had to be made to people at or below the median income in their communities. HUD, however, was given authority to administer these quotas, and between 1992 and 2007, the quotas were raised from 30% to 50% under Clinton in 2000 and to 55% under Bush in 2007. Despite Frank’s effort to make this seem like a partisan issue, it isn’t. The Bush administration was just as guilty of this error as the Clinton administration. And Frank is right to say that he eventually saw his error and corrected it when he got the power to do so in 2007, but by then themit was too late.

The Republicans could have stood up and said this is BS but didn’t they let it happen as if they had voted for it themselves. Way to many low income people took advantage of the easy no down loans. They didn’t have a clue what to look for in a mortgage and took the advise of bank loan agents to give them that advice. Well we all know that the agents just wanted to get their commission so they pushed through the easiest  loans they could. Adjustable interest, 30 year notes. Did the borrowers even know they had to pay insurance and taxes? They had utilities and upkeep on a home. Most borrowers had never had a home and didn’t know what it took to keep one.  They spent  all they had or worst borrowed more money to move in and furnish the new home and in a few years when the payments started going up they didn’t have the money.  Most defaulted on their homes and had to give them up.

Now we are in the Trump Presidency, and the economy is moving along pretty good. He has made progress on all his campaign promises. He could have done more if the Republicans had not fought him on some of the items. But he has put a lot of conservative  judges on the court. Two supreme court judges with a possible one or two more. He has put N. Korea on notice, along with Iran. He has rolled back a lot of regulations that were hamstringing our economy.  He has renegotiated just about all of our trade agreements with other countries to more balance out our trade.

Is all of it good? Most likely not all but time will tell in the long run and for the people of America that voted for him, its been a long time coming.  The vast majority of Americans have been pretty quiet the past few decades and not voiced their views to much. But with the recent way the Democrats have been acting that time is coming to a end.

Its not just Republicans, but people from across the political spectrum that are starting to say enough is enough. They see what the Democratic party has become and reject it. What we need to do is keep shining the light on the Democrats  and pointing out the direction they are wanting to take our country. We don’t need a bigger government we need a smaller one. If that means we have to give up some of our social programs, well so be it.

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