| “
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The villains? An unholy alliance
between Wall Street, the
Democratic establishment, community organizing groups like ACORN and La
Raza, and politicians like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Henry
Cisneros. (Frank got a cushy job for a lover, Pelosi got a job
and layoff protection for a son, Cisneros apparently got a license to
mint money bilking Mexican-Americans of their life savings in cheesy
housing developments.)
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| Did I
mention it's written by the New York Times business analyst? I
wonder if the Times will review it? Walter Russell Mead writes
that the Morgenson/Rosner story is a simple and easily grasped one,
even by people who don't know squat about the financial markets.
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| “
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The
Great Villain, the man who almost ruined America according to the
book,
is James Johnson, long one of the most important members of the
Democratic establishment. He ran Walter Mondale’s campaign.
He
chaired John Kerry’s search for a vice-president — the brilliantly
executed search that chose the revered anti-poverty warrior John
Edwards.
Anybody who opposed Jim Johnson’s get rich scheme was a racist who
hated the poor. Political correctness married Wall Street
chicanery as
Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank led the band; crooked
accountants and clueless rating agencies performed the ceremony; big
government dowered the couple with a debt guarantee and bankers dressed
as flower girls showered the happy pair in a confetti of junk mortgages
and junk bonds.
|
This is
a story that most of you know; a story that even Saturday
Night Live grasped just days after the markets melted. Still,
seeing it in print is heady stuff. Here's a few snippets to
wet your appetites.
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| “
|
 If the GOP can make this narrative mainstream, and put this
picture into the heads of voters nationwide, the Democrats are toast.
 Fannie Mae
would adopt the goal of increasing the percentage of Americans who
owned their own homes, targeting the inner city poor who, allegedly,
were blocked from home ownership by racial discrimination. (A
bogus study to this effect was widely circulated; devastating
criticisms and rebuttals quietly ignored.) This is where such
luminaries of the American political scene as ACORN and La Raza get
into the act. They served as cheerleaders for Johnson’s
self-enrichment plan, camouflaging a Wall Street rip-off by hymning its
benefits for the poor.
The story
illustrates everything the Tea Party thinks about the corrupt
Washington establishment and the evils of big government. It
demonstrates the limits on the ability of government programs to help
the poor. It converts a complicated economic story into a simple
morality play — with Dems as the villain.
It links President Obama (through appointments, associations
and friendships) with the worst elements of the Clinton legacy and it
blunts some key Democratic talking points.
There are many powerful Wall Street figures who are closely
linked to the Democrats, however, and the James Johnson story puts a
face on that alliance.
The American establishment does not have the necessary moral
strength and intellectual acuity to run the affairs of this country;
Tea Party believers will find much in this book that confirms their
worst fears.
Paul Krugman once told me that he thought that Enron would have
a greater impact on American politics than 9/11. He was wrong
about that scandal, but if the GOP plays its cards right, Fanniegate
could push this country into a new political era.
[more]
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I happened to read this yesterday, on a site called - The
Union,Com
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The subprime crisis was caused primarily by the
crash of real estate values and not by risky loans. |
” |
This is not going to be easy, and the Republican establishment is
incapable. I hope Tea Partiers still have some of that 2010
magic& moxie left.
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