Blogging Meltdown: Culprit 2 – The Community Reinvestment Act & affirmative action in lending, Part 1
on Mar 11, 2009 in Community Reinvestment Act GSE Lending CRA Meltdown Not only were Fannie and Freddie pushing for looser lending requirements, other Government agencies pressured lenders to make riskier loans in the name of “racial equality.” Fearing lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions in damages, the lenders...

Blogging Meltdown: Culprit 1: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Part 2
on Mar 9, 2009 in Congress GSE Barney Frank Freddie Mac Ron Paul Fannie Mae Fannie Mae along with the political establishment, in the name of helping the “disadvantaged” instigated moves to lower lending requirements. As the New York Times reported in 1999, Fannie Mae’s initiative would encourage banks to “extend hom...

Blogging Meltdown: Culprit 1: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Part I
on Mar 6, 2009 in Free Market Freddie Mac Housing bubble Fannie Mae At the center of the collapse were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, officially known as “government sponsored enterprises” or GSEs. What do they do? They do not offer loans to home buyers; they instead buy loans from banks on the secondary market. So,...

Blogging Meltdown: How Government Created the Housing Bubble
on Mar 3, 2009 in Goverment intervention Housing bubble A house is the best investment you can make. Houses never lose value. Getting rid of down payments will help create an “ownership society.” Flipping houses is a great way to make lots of money.So much for that.How far will housing prices fall? It...

Blogging Meltdown: The Fed – The Elephant in the Room
on Mar 2, 2009James K Galbraith claimed in the New York Times in November 2008 that perhaps 10 or 12 of the 15,000 professional economists foresaw the coming crisis. Evidently, Mr. Galbraith associates only with the blind, because hundreds of economists of the Aus...

Blogging Meltdown: "Change you can believe in"
on Mar 1, 2009Obama’s economic team seems to confirm at first glance that all his talk of “change” really means more of the same – “more bailouts, more government intervention, more addressing symptoms rather than causes – along with greater deficits,...

Blogging Meltdown: More bailouts, more regulation, more government
on Feb 26, 2009As usual, government officials first misdiagnosed the problem, giving themselves a pass and blaming others for the problem. They looked at the Great Depression, but got the lesson wrong. Next, they told America that the government needed to follow th...

Blogging Meltdown: The Elephant in the Living Room - The Fed
on Feb 23, 2009Since the fall of 2008, the common theme from the media, the economists, and the government they serve is the failure of the Free Market. According to them, including the Obama and the Bush administrations and both parties in congress, more regulatio...

Gold and Economic Freedom by Alan Greenspan
on Feb 10, 2009 in FED Ayn Rand welfare state Murray Rothbard government capitalism gold standard Alan Greenspan inflation freedom Last week at the book store while looking through some books about gold and the economy (I can't really remember which book it was), it mentioned Alan Greespan's essay "Gold and Economic Freedom." I had read about it several times and heard Ron Paul...

Hot News From The Future
on Oct 2, 2008Imagining just where the Gold Price might sit on 21st Jan. 2012...WHAT COULD BE MORE VALUABLE than one ounce of gold, asks Jeff Clark, editor of Casey Research's Big Gold newsletter. How about the news release I brought back with me from the future!