Hardball: Erin Burnett & Jim Cramer on Economy 09/19/08

[THERollyboy123]

Sit at home and make more money in 15 minutes than most make in a week. Come visit my website, just google Gold Trading Academy to learn more.

[PeaceChick07]

People are arguing about everything right now! Those repub's cannot deal with losing. Sad. Now, the Dem's have to go in & clean up the mess after repubs had 8 years in white house.

[nismoT40]

@PeaceChick07 LOL you said that 1 year ago.....I would like to see you say that now, only thing Dem's are good at are making excuses and getting us further in debt(more than what Bush spent so far, 2more years to go YAY)

[lisajason111]

toys, medicines, and milks now, why are the world so relied upon china? if u know chinese is like koreans 20yrs back. u shouldnt buy more chinese products. ahah! the point is, u dont have toy makers in usa anymore. walmart promoted this! eat ur own fruit! wat u have is a mountain of DEBT! usa is doomed in my opinion, and u have to pay more tax to redeem ur sin! but i feel sorry for the poor, they didnt cause the mess!

[TheSharpenedPen]

"In 1992, Congress passed the Government Sponsored Enterprises bill, which set targets (i.e., quotas) for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, which are quasi-governmental publicly-traded for-profit thing-a-ma-bobs, to encourage affordable & underserved (more or less minority) home loans.

Both the Clinton and Bush departments of Housing and Urban Development raised the quotas repeatedly." (Taki's Magazine, 06/22/08, The Diversity Recession, or How Affirmative Action Helped Cause the Housing Crisis)

[jade2002]

keep your racism to yourself because the majority of people getting AA is WHITE WOMEN- Google it genius

[TheSharpenedPen]

Keep your racism to yourself. Granting and denying jobs, educational opportunities, government programs, and yes, housing loans on the basis of race is wrong. Not just morally, but apparently economically as well.

[TheSharpenedPen]

Reuters Oct. 13, 1999:

"The mortgage industry intends to pursue minorities with greater intensity as federal regulators turn up the heat to increase home ownership in underserved groups. We need to push into these underserved markets as much as we can, said David Glenn, president & chief operating officer of Freddie Mac.

In September, Freddie Mac launched a new lending program, based on research done in collaboration with 5 black colleges, to bring more African-Americans into the market."

[jade2002]

They could sell mortgages to homeowners, and then invent fancy investment structures which they sold on Wall Street. Because they were covered on both ends, banks felt free to sell increasingly dicey mortgages, just so long as another sucker was picking up the garbage. This sucker was picking it up because he had a plan to repackage it and sell it to another sucker, and so on. Eventually we end up with no money down mortgages being repackaged as sound investments" being sold as "stable assets

[TheSharpenedPen]

It comes down to crushing debt, and socialism in the market place, coupled with a decrease in manufacturing base, and a sellout to globalism. Yes, that sums it up well. In terms of a trigger, the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac was due to affirmative action racial quotas in mortgages, put in place by the government and continuously raised until collapse.

[jade2002]

your rant is stupid and is not based on facts

On November 12, 1999, champagne must have been shooting from the walls at Citigroup, which had worked behind the scenes for over 30 years to get Glass-Stegall overturned. It was repealed under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, drafted and passed by a Republican congress, and signed by William Jefferson Clinton. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed commercial banks to merge with investment banks.

[TheSharpenedPen]

Not based on the facts? You deny then, that loans were offered to individuals who could not afford to pay them back, ever took place? Which part specifically is untrue? That the government had an enforced quota system in place for housing loans under both the Clinton and Bush regimes based predominantly on race and socioeconomic status, or that the bailout of Fannie and Freddie triggered much of the crisis? My rant was completely factual and sourced.

[dh234]

sharpened pen...when you want to make a point like that, you have to stress the quotas were faulty to avoid misinterpretation. You are illustrating quota policy and possibly racial disparities as the problem and not "policies to help minorities" as the problem. BIG semantics difference.

[TheSharpenedPen]

No, you're absolutely wrong in stating that there's a difference. Quotas are always inherently wrong, because they set a number based upon racial and gender characteristics, denying applicants who do not possess the characteristics desired. Quotas are like fighting fire with fire - they're fighting discrimination with more discrimination.

[zplz]

Economic armageddon my ass

Let the banks fail!

I don't need more debt, LET THEM FAIL

[tigerone1970]

Just like in 1929?

[zplz]

Look up "moral hazard"

If we don't let them fail now, the repercussions will be worse later.

[tigerone1970]

Remember that the Great Depression had two parts. The first was the Crash of 1929, which halved the value of the dow. The Dow later recovered, but then went on a 3 year bear market, to make a low in 1932.

And the reason for that second phase was the decision to let companies go bust if they couldn't make it on their own.

'Laissez Faire' theory turned what was an ordinary and healthy correction, into the worst economic event of the 20th century. And we all know what followed that.