Ben got reelected as Federal Reserve Chairman this year. In 2006 he should have lowered the target interest rate but instead increased it almost a whole point (.75%) and as the economy plummeted, he waited 14 months until September 2007 to begin lowering the rate, then by only small degrees, driving us into a deep recession. Congress in 2007 and 2008 pretend nothing is wrong.
Chairman Barney Frank of the Housing Finance Committee says nothing is wrong during this period. That all the sub-prime loans held by Fanni Mae and Freddie Mac are fine!!! And he’s still in power!?!?!?
During this period, Dodd denied rumors these firms were in financial crisis. He called the firms "fundamentally strong", Dodd is the number one recipient in Congress of campaign funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Here is what Ben reported July 2007 (Chairman Ben S. Bernanke Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives July 18, 2007 Chairman Bernanke presented identical testimony before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, on July 19, 2007):
“The cooling of productivity growth in recent quarters is likely the result of cyclical or other temporary factors, but the underlying pace of productivity gains may also have slowed somewhat.
To a considerable degree, the slower pace of economic growth in recent quarters reflects the ongoing adjustment in the housing sector. Over the past year, home sales and construction have slowed substantially and house prices have decelerated. Although a leveling-off of home sales in the second half of 2006 suggested some tentative stabilization of housing demand, sales have softened further this year, leading the number of unsold new homes in builders' inventories to rise further relative to the pace of new home sales. Accordingly, construction of new homes has sunk further, with starts of new single-family houses thus far this year running 10 percent below the pace in the second half of last year.
The pace of home sales seems likely to remain sluggish for a time, partly as a result of some tightening in lending standards and the recent increase in mortgage interest rates. Sales should ultimately be supported by growth in income and employment as well as by mortgage rates that--despite the recent increase--remain fairly low relative to historical norms. However, even if demand stabilizes as we expect, the pace of construction will probably fall somewhat further as builders work down stocks of unsold new homes. Thus, declines in residential construction will likely continue to weigh on economic growth over coming quarters, although the magnitude of the drag on growth should diminish over time.”
WHAT?!?!? Is he kidding??!?!? What a lame report. He raises no serious red flag of warning or pending recession. He doesn’t get it. NO thorough research is conducted by the Federal Reserve on the instability of and lack of regulation of sub-prime mortgages, over supply of real estate, over stimulous from immigration population growth. The Feds take no strong proactive stance to guard against a worsening market.
The 2008 and 2009 Fed reports are pathetic statements of the failure of the Fed to correct the situation. Unbelievably the Fed makes this bold statement “The Federal Reserve and other government entities continued to respond forcefully to these adverse financial market developments.” In its July 2009 report. Unbelievable. Forcefully?!?!?! Really?!?!?
The problem is an oversupply of homes and commericial buildings. Due to a lack of understanding of micro economics, they can’t see the forest for the trees. Supply and demand drive a capitalist system. The failure to understand this has caused our government leaders to lead blindly. While the Fed launches high finance programs called TLGP, SCAP and TALF and congress does the same in passing a lame “Troubled Assets Relief Program” or TARP bailout. High finance to the big boys on wall street?!??! That is how you fix a great recession? Clueless are the socialists.
I fault Greenspan as the initiator of the declining market for lowering interest rates to 1% by June 2003 creating a craze for real estate then only raising it to 2.25% in 2004 and again to 4.5% when he left office in 2006. WAY TO LOW! Inflating the real estate "bubble".
Greenspan had been in office way tooooo long, 19 years. In prior cycles his modest interest rate changes fixed things so he was lulled into a false notion that modest increases would always be sufficent, unaware that greed had crept into the hearts of people and for some odd reason clueless that hugh amounts of sub-prime loans had been given to the unqualified and resold on the open market to wall street not concerned about proper management of these rishy loans.
The SEC failed in its responsibility to monitor the value of these toxic assets in publicly traded companies. Wall Street traded sub-prime mortgage backed securities as if they were as stable as mount McKinley!!!!. The SEC fell asleep and Congress, who oversees the SEC, was too busy making large salaries to care.
This excess credit and debt to unworthy recipients via sub-prime loans driven by bank and developer greed was facilitated by the Fed via low interest rates. This irresponsible lending, push towards housing aid to the needy (socialism), lack of oversight by the Fed, and rampant immigration created a building boom not supported by the real job economy. Now the U.S. sits on an over supply of buildings which causes this over supply of real estate to be worthless. This causes prices and demand to remain low which causes a declining economic condition. This recession will continue until the supply situation is finally addressed by the Fed and Congress.
Congress passed NO legislation to correct the steep downfall, hoping instead to benefit from voter anger and get the Democrats elected into power. The political strategy worked. The constitution lays responsibility for the economy on Congress not the President. Congress failed us all because of their drive for political power and their of socialist mentality.
What are the root causes of our current mess?
Pop american culture voted this congress into power. Pop American culture is therefore one of the root causes of our current economic problems. Greed is anouther root cause, war sapping our attention and resources is yet another, socialism (unmanagable size of governement) yet anouther. Anouther cause may be that God via natural disasters/deseases, is displeased with people and no longer holding back the earths unhappiness with those who inhabit it (I would not be surprised).
What is to be done?
Pop American culture gave us Obama. Obama spent his first year making things worse by placing national health care (socialism) first above capitalism (economy). In 2010 Obama says he will finally begin to address the problem the right way, however its too little too late. $30 billion in loans to community banks is a step in the right direction, allbeit, a baby step and insuffiecient to correct the economy. All our nations money is being spent on social programs for the needy. So there is not enough left to take care of their first constitutional responsibility to manage the economy and money supply. We need $700 billion in loans to community banks, not $30 billion. We need the state governments to buy up the excess assets taking them OFF THE MARKET. This asset purchase, coupled with regulations regarding responsible construction policy on the state level, will fix the recession. In order to accomplish we need money. Money wasted on federal social programs should be redirected to the states to accomplish this loan and asset purchase program.
Socialism hamstrings us all. What happens when you pass mandatory entitlement legislation and those who have the money don't want to pay for all of it? I think America is finding that out the hard way.
Obama has increased the 2010 spending budget from 2008 (Bush) by billions: 84 Bil in Social Security, 66 bil in medicar, 89 bil in medicaid, 212 bil in welfare, 179 bil in regulatory, 95 bil in defense, and 608 bil in non-budget expenses such as iraq/afghan war and other sundry projects. And he has withheld paying interest 117 bil that he owes people. Looking at the details of his focus on jobs agenda, and comparing what he is spending above I find his measly 30 bil in loans to community banks and assembling a "task force" as the great refocusing he is doing in 2010 an insult to our intelligence!!!!!!
This century brought us socialism and war and its time to scale back federal government to a manageable level. Social programs are 20% of the entire gross domestic product and military is 6%. In addtion to this add 8-10% on top for interest expense to finance it because, in actuality, people want to help the poor, but aren’t willing to pay for it. False christianity rules the popular culture.
All this (and much more) teach us that the Federal Government is way TOO BIG and complex for the “smart” to manage and control. I think its time for the govenors of the states (people) to take back their rightful power. And to put government back into a more managable level. This is a Constitutional Republic of 50 States, NOT a federally driven socialist state. Lets have a revolution against socialism and vote in conservate thinkers who understand limited government, free markets, true human nature, and the workings of laws of supply and demand that keep us all safe.
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wouldn't states buying huge piles of housing assets constitute socialism, or is that facism? Secondly, if the housing industry were governed by the supply and demand concept that you claim is so obvious to everyone, why would they continue to produce inventory when they were well aware that they had too much supply? No political system works, that's why none has lasted. Capitalism has been a monster that we've tweaked and played with until it's basically unrecognizeable in an effort to keep this country on track. We've been more socialist than capitalist for most of the last hundred years. We regulate our markets, take care of our poor and elderly to a certain extent, educate the masses, provide safety and security in law enforcement and emergency services, provide infrastructure by building bridges, dams, and the interstate highway. The government has been the biggest employer in the united states for a long long time, so I'd say that makes us socialist and you've been duped into thinking we aren't. I'd also argue that you don't want to give up any of the things I just mentioned. You'd end up with total anarchy. Fires would rage while private fire fighting services would bid for the job, the roads would fall into disrepair and the economy would grind to a halt. No workers, no products etc without roads trains and trucks...De regulation gave us enron, gave us the banking crisis, the housing crisis, the auto industry crisis, and if the government had allowed all those sectors to fail where would we be? What do all you geniuses propose should have been done instead of what did happen... I don't envy anyone faced with that situation, and guess what, for the last forty years or so, ten of those years were run by a democrat... so I'd say the situation we are in was brought about by republicans and their misguided economic policies. They've been in charge for 2/3rds of the last forty years. Quit blaming everyone else, and stop crying about socialism. Only right leaning americans think that we aren't a socialist nation, it's obvious to everyone else that we are. P.S. socialism and communism aren't the same thing.... and I'd say most successful governments in the modern world are a form of socialism. Representative democratic socialism.
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