Right Voices

Where has the oversight been for the past 2 years? Take the time to read Jamie Gorelick’s ties to Fannie Mae and What She’s Doing Now–.

Exerpt:

In reading this article about Crony Capitalism at Fannie Mae (tip to Instapundit), I noticed that Jamie Gorelick was one of the Fannie executives who benefited from inflated bonuses based on Enron-style accounting. She was Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae from 1997 to 2003 (Fannie’s fraudulent accounting scheme was made public in 2004).

This is the same Jamie Gorelick who was Deputy Attorney General in the mid 1990s and was reported to have been the author of the Clinton Administration’s WALL against sharing intelligence data between foreign and domestic agencies. Without the policies instituted by Gorelick still in place in 2001, officials might have learned more about the 9/11 attacks before the planes hit the buildings.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Attorney General Ashcroft on the possible influence of Gorelick’s wall….

…..So what’s Jamie Gorelick doing now? Do we have to fear for the health of any other major US institutions on her account?

Wikipedia tells us:

She is currently a law partner in the Washington office of WilmerHale and a non-executive director of the oilfield services provider Schlumberger Ltd.

I’m relieved to see that at least she’s only a “non-executive” director at Schlumberger.
So we know that fraudulent accounting can be attributed to the majority of the problem, so what would the solution be? If you are an idiot: Nationalization: A Solution for Housing:

You can understand why nationalization is not Paulson’s first choice. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two monster housing-finance companies, between them owe trillions to their bondholders. Nationalizing that exposure would appear to inflate the federal debt, and there’s been talk of damage to the nation’s credit rating. Moreover, Fannie and Freddie have made or guaranteed almost half of all loans to American homeowners. Can it be healthy to have the government control that much lending? Of course not. But nationalization is healthier than the other options.

Start with the fact that, despite loud official denials until last night, the government will have to inject money into the mortgage lenders. Intervention may be precipitated as early as today if Freddie has trouble with its plan to borrow $3 billion in the markets. Even if the lenders escape the bond market equivalent of a bank run, which is what destroyed Bear Stearns, they are likely to succumb to a variant that might be called an “equity run.”

It was a bank run that destroyed Bear Sterns?  I don’t think so!  Well at least not according to this article:

What happened? Was it death by natural causes, or was it, as some suspect, murder? More than a few veteran Wall Streeters believe an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission will uncover evidence that Bear was the victim of a gigantic “bear raid”"that is, a malicious attack brought by so-called short-sellers, the vultures of Wall Street, who make bets that a firm’s stock will go down. It’s a surprisingly difficult theory to prove, and nothing short of government subpoenas is likely to do it. Faced with a thicket of lawsuits and federal investigations, not a soul in Bear’s boardroom will speak for the record, but on background, a few are finally ready to name names.

“I don’t know of any firm, no matter the capital, that could have withstood that kind of bombardment by the shorts,” says a vice-chairman of another major investment bank. “This was not about capital. It was about people losing confidence, spurred on by rumors fueled by people who had an interest in the fall of Bear Stearns.”

He pauses to let the idea sink in. “If I had to pick the biggest financial crime ever perpetuated,” he concludes, “I would say, ‘Bear Stearns.’ ”

We keep trying to change the facts in the Valerie Plame case by bringing in people right and left, yet never the leak, Dick Armitage!  We bring baseball players before Congress, haul oil executives in,  yet where the hell is the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs?  Oh that’s right, causing a run on IndyMac and blaming Bush, while another member gets perks from Country Wide and amazing campaign contributions!

Trackposted to <a href=”http://thevirtuousrepublic.com/?p=909″>The Virtuous Republic</a>, <a href=”http://perrinelson.com/2008/7/15/1199.aspx”>Perri Nelson’s Website</a>, <a href=”http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2008/07/special-disbursement-operations.html”>Right Truth</a>, <a href=”http://www.shadowscope.com/archives/2008/07/blogs_for_borders_video_blogburst_19.php”>Shadowscope</a>, <a href=”http://dragonladysworld.com/wordpress/?p=1595″>DragonLady’s World</a>, <a href=”http://stuckon-stupid.com/2008/07/10/jesse-jackson-and-barack-obamas-testicles/”>Stuck On Stupid</a>, <a href=”http://leaningstraightup.com/2008/07/10/more-on-the-black-hole-controversy/”>Leaning Straight Up</a>, <a href=”http://www.onebigdog.net/open-trackback-post/”>Big Dog’s Weblog</a>, <a href=”http://caosblog.com/8174″>Cao’s Blog</a>, <a href=”http://www.dequalss.com/wp/2008/07/success-in-iraq-time-to-pass-the-torch/#more-1704″>Democrat=Socialist</a>, <a href=”http://www.conservativecat.com”>Conservative Cat</a>, <a href=”http://nukegingrich.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/wffot-mid-life-crisis/”>nuke gingrich</a>, <a href=”http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/?p=3569″>third world county</a>, <a href=”http://mccainblogs.com/2008/07/10/mccainiac-weekend-linkfest-710-to-713/”>McCain Blogs</a>, <a href=”http://www.womanhonorthyself.com/?p=5078″>Woman Honor Thyself</a>, <a href=”http://dragonladysworld.com/wordpress/?p=1595″>DragonLady’s World</a>, <a href=”http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/?p=1476″>The World According to Carl</a>, <a href=”http://www.thepiratescove.us/2008/07/10/pirate-weekend-linkfest-710-to-713/”>Pirate’s Cove</a>, <a href=”http://rosemarysnews.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/whos-the-judge-of-these-judges/”></a>, <a href=”http://thepinkflamingo.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/14/3793216.html”>The Pink Flamingo</a>, <a href=”http://gulf-coast-hurricanes.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-on-dangers-of-cfl-bulbs.html”>Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker</a>, <a href=”http://wolfpangloss.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/obama-we-can-obama-in/”>Wolf Pangloss</a>, <a href=”http://blog.libero.it/corsari/trackback.php?msg=5050819″>CORSARI D’ITALIA</a>, <a href=”http://www.anewtone.com/2008/07/obama-youth-saga-continues.html”></a>, <a href=”http://thomistic.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-new-yorker-cover-sum-of-all-fears.html”>Dumb Ox Daily News</a>, and <a href=”http://www.stageleft.info/2008/07/13/off-to-the-chute/”>Stageleft</a>, thanks to <a href=”http://www.linkfests.us”>Linkfest Haven Deluxe</a>.