Originally Posted by TheLastBoyScout

Upon recent developments that saw Sallie May and Freddie Mac get taken over by the government, Sara Palin thought she would weigh in on the matter:

Housing Policy Trips Up Palin, By Steve Benen - CBS News



This is more than a mistake.... there's no two ways to parse this... Sara Palin believed that Fannie and Freddie have been government run this whole time.

No....Sara.... this is a situation where private companies failed and were getting a government bailout as a result.

Fannie and Freddie weren't costing taxpayers a dime directly... but now that we are bailing them out.... taxpayers will largely be footing the bill.

This woman isn't ready to be our Vice President, let alone our President.

We can now see why the McCain campaign is keeping Palin bottled up..... they should also make sure she sticks to the script completely on the campaign trail. Just recite and read.... don't think.

Originally Posted by Si modo

Then you haven't been really watching Fox. Two of the left wing commentators, Susan Estrich and another blonde (still can't think of her name) - both very left-wing - have ripped Palin's views to shreds, yet at the same time ripping the sexism towards her in the media apart.

One does not have to be left or right wing to criticize sexism, especially when it's blatant.

Stick to the issues. And stick to real sexism.

Originally Posted by Imperator

kirsten powers...

Originally Posted by Danny

No, the problem is Sarah Palin being a hockey mom. She may be able to run Wasilla but as I said this wasn't misspeaking. She meant to say exactly what she said. But hey...when your running a campaign not based on issues then I guess it doesn't matter at all.

Originally Posted by Frank Peter

Tim is right in his comments about the issue here and the problem is not the palin comment.


The real problem is the complete mortgage system in the US and this was known for years and this exactly is the topic to blame the US politicians. I have no idea which party is really resposible for not regulating and change the system in the US years and years ago but it´s a huge huge problem and will be very very expansive for the US taxpayer.

The banks outsourced mortgage risks to fannie and Freddie and this secondary mortgage system was mor eor less the reason for the US housing bubble where banks gave very risky loans that fuel the economy and the US housing markets. Where i come from such bubbles would not be possible becuase of different laws and in germany we have nor real secondary mortgage market and the banks have to take the risk and therefore the complete banking risk managment system is different or better we have no official public back up for private banks. You have a huge number of risky mortgages that are absolutly insane according to "normal" risk standarts.

These two companies have mortgages at an amount of 5,5 trillion dollars and i would be very suprised if at the end of the day the taxpayers costs would be lower than 500 billion according to the present sittuation of the market and the amount of money private banks had to write off.


I do not know enough about the different parties position about this topic but according to the overall fiscal and financial US policy under Bush i really hope that the democrats will do a better job an dget a chance otheriwse watch you money guys the taxes wil be very high in the future

Originally Posted by Tim

Hello Frank Peter - it's good to see you back on the forum.

I agree about the $500 billion cost. I do think, however, that the cost of allowing them to collapse would be even greater, as the reverberations would be felt throughout the world.

The example of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are anomalies even within the United States. My primary concern now is that the old structure has not been destroyed. The amount of government control is much greater, but the breakup into smaller entities has not happened.

It is a missed opportunity.