Who created Freddie and Fannie?

You may also want to look into the history of pressure applied to Freddie and Fannie to increase the proportion of their lending in poor, particularly minority, neighborhoods which could only be done through increasingly lax lending standards.

That is like saying the Soviet Union was "free" under Kruzchef compared to Stalin.

You might also want to consider that even the U.S. has become a much more "free market" oriented economy since 1983-84 (when the Reagan rate reductions were fully phased in) and we have had 24 years of some of the most unprecedented growth and prosperity in human history, marked by only 2 incredibly mild (with the later within the statistical margin of error for even being called a recession) recessions.

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

Nice example and the only thing which is missing in this story, are the idiots who gave the guy such a huge morgage to go broke as well.

Instead government bails them out, isn't capitalism and the free market supposed to punish bad desicions and to reward good descisions?

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"bellum omnium contra omnes; atque in eo bello jus esse omnibus in omnia."
Thomas Hobbes

"Homo Homini Lupus"
Thomas Hobbes

Oh, I agree. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be allowed to fail completely...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":




Sayeth John Drake - 10/13/08: "OK, you're right, I admit to LYING"

I will say, if the government is going to "bail out" or even just loan money to businesses beyond the overnight lending window which is a basic function for the capital markets, then nobody at any of these businesses should make above what a cabinet secretary would until the loans are repaid. I agree with George Will completely on that point.

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

WTF are you talking about? These people deserve to be paid a lot less than that.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

Anyone worth less than that should be fired outright, anyone who is retained or hired should be limited to the Federal pay scale until the taxpayers are totally off the hook for loses.

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

Sweet! Common ground between the liberal and the conservative!

I can totally get behind legislation that would mandate GS pay scales for management of a company that requires a government bailout. I'd also love to see the golden parachutes that the CEOs received recinded and reinvested into the bailout.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears