Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

to tie in to this string some of the GSE reform-related discussions and background that have been posted here, and to add further background to that record:

the item in ieddyi's http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=32369248 (not gonna belabor it, but will say that that one comment of Jennifer's, as she's proclaiming her belief that banking deregulation has been a positive in the situation, to wit 'You will note that, with the conversion of the last two investment banking firms, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, to bank holding companies, banks are once again king.', strikes me at least, in context, as taking just plain vanilla magical thinking, like belief in the Rapture or 72 virgins or whatever, into the realm of the truly surreal) -- anyway, that item in ieddyi's post, in the one paragraph speaking directly of the 2005 vote in the Senate committee, is quoting from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html -- the last sentence of which (for example), 'The same politicians who today decry the lack of intervention to stop excess risk taking in 2005-2006 were the ones who blocked the only legislative effort that could have stopped it.', is a flat-out lie -- the more bipartisan Republican-sponsored reform bill that had already easily passed in the House, H.R. 1461 ( http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-1461 ; [items linked in] http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?Message_id=32347731 and preceding) was never taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate Committee -- instead, the Republican chairman of that committee, Shelby, took up a different and clearly more partisan bill, S. 190 ( http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190 ), that apparently would have not just constrained but wiped out any role of the GSEs relative to affordable housing -- as that WSJ/AEI-sourced paragraph states, the Senate committee did adopt that bill, with the vote along strict party lines (contemporary reporting at http://www.allbusiness.com/government/532756-1.html , http://www.nbnnews.com/wash/issues/2005-07-27.html ) -- but the bill basically just got lost at that point, never made it to the 'reported in senate' status it should have as the next step to being scheduled for action in the full Senate ( http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2008/09/18/what-does-ordered-to-be-reported-with-an-amendment-in-the-nature-of-a-substitute-favorably-mean/ )

additional background on this whole reforming the GSEs stuff that I've come across -- loaded with primary source links:

Republican Congress Talked About Financial Reform, But Did Nothing
Thursday September 18, 2008
http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/09/18/republican-congress-talked-about-financial-reform-but-did-nothing.htm

The Financial Meltdown And A Civics Lesson
Sunday September 21, 2008
http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/09/21/the-financial-meltdown-and-a-civics-lesson.htm

another one I've come across -- including the McCain quote "But so, in this whole new derivative stuff, and SIBs [sic - SIVs] and all of this kind of new ways of packaging mortgages together and all that is something that frankly I don’t know a lot about. / But I do rely on a lot of smart people that I have that are both in my employ and acquaintances of mine. And most of them did not anticipate this. Most of them, I mean I can find some that did. But, a guy that’s on my staff named Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, said that there was nervousness out there. There’s nervousness. There was nervousness that we had such a long period of prosperity without a downturn because of the history of our economy. But I don’t know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said ‘wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.' / So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.":

Despite Claims Today He Warned of this Crisis, McCain in 2007 Said He Didn't See This Crisis Coming
September 17, 2008 12:24 PM
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/despite-claims.html

and further re McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis ([items linked in] http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=32328746 and preceding and following):

McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac
September 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/w24davis.html

and to tie in a couple more from here -- (items linked in):

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?Message_id=32278324 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?Message_id=32307186 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=32352721 and preceding