Quotes of the Day Crisis: Democrats on Fannie, Freddie, and High-Risk Mortgages

Via Hot Air's headlines, a steaming cup of rich cocoa with little marshmallows of awesome.

Here's one:

Rep. Barney Frank: I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing. . . .

Also very cool: Guess who paid for academic studies "proving" Fannie and Freddie posted "effectively zero" risk?

Do I really need to say? Fannie and Freddie paid for that scholarship themselves.

And I'll tuck this in as an addendum because people will be annoyed if I highlight it: Rep. Shadegg may now support the rescue, given the mark-to-market change and raising of the FDIC maximums.

I know I'm really pushing things to link this guestimate of the odds of serious financial downturn, based on the "wisdom of the markets," as they've expressed themselves thus far.

And phreshone points out a good side of the crisis: European banks are glutted on our bad paper, too, and might also fail.

Okay, I guess that's not really "good" per se, as it increases the chance of a global crisis.

But still-- as far as downsides go, knowing we've screwed Europe more than we've screwed ourselves is sort of as up a downside as you can get.

Thanks, Barney! Roll those dice, chubby man!

posted by Ace at 01:31 AM

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