Hmmm, it took reading on Instapundit that it was US Senator Charles Schumer (DEMOCRAT-NY) whose latest reckless behavior two weeks ago (added to zillions of other examples before), caused the bank run at IndyMac which resulted in the Federal Government taking it over.  Funny how the MSM isn’t mentioning it at all in their saturated IndyMac coverage over the weekend.
So in addition to sparking fear among IndyMac customers, Senator Schumer has cost you and me (taxpayers) potentially billions of dollars from our pockets.
Way to go, jackass! (Hey, it IS the Democrat Party mascot; Schumer is just representing it well.)
If the IndyMac panic sparks other bank runs, perhaps Schumer will be responsible for millions of other Americans panicking and sparking the return of Hoovervilles SchumerVilles.
(Photo courtesy of BusinessWeek.com)
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
He should resign. but neither has Senator Dodd nor Conrad over their home mortgage conflict of interest problems. And little media cover was given about their misdeeds either.
I have zero respect for today’s media coverage. Lying by omission is the new journalist model. In days past newspapers were openly Democrat or Republican and stanted the news accordingly. At least they were honest about their bias.
Somebody should rent It’s a Wonderful Life for Schumer and make him watch it. Jimmy Stewart’s talk to the townspeople about how his Savings & Loan worked would be a good primer on banking and the psychology of bank runs for that clown. As a bonus the movie was set in New York.
And instead of “slums” we should call them “schums”.
Of course, Bruce – we all know the MSM is the tank for the Dhimmicrats. However, if it were a GOP scandal, we wouldn’t hear the end of it.
BTW – Now Chuckles is stating that it’s not his fault that the markets got scared. Yeah, right.
Typical libtard behavior. “I didn’t do it/nobody saw me do it/you can’t prove anything.” Instead of a jackass, the DNC symbol should be Bart Simpson.
Whether it’s Clinton and Lewinsky or Dodd and Countrywide, the Dhimmicrats just think that if we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. Sort of like the oil crisis that occurred under their watch in Congress.
And yes, I DO question their patriotism.
Regards,
Peter H.
Guess the Democrats are right… Words (even stupid ones) do have consequences. Let’s not hold our breath assuming that the DNC will accept responsibility for their words.
Schumer loves New York. He hates America.
Golly gee, Chuckie Schumer’s not responsible for all those lost billions. Just ask him. No, it’s his fault. Just move on and stop taking names.
Jackass is as jackass does.
Schumer is, of course, blaming everyone else for the damage he caused. Which is pretty typical Democratic behavior, as we see in their enlightened energy policy.
We have met the enemy and he is Congress.
Congress set up two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs): Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both of these entities are outside of the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange commission. They are complete rogues in terms of having to any agency other than “Congessional oversight.” Furthermore, they are where many former Congressmen go to work to get rich.
In 1986, Congress permitted banks to get in the home equity business. Home equity lending broke the link between loans collateralized by a primary residence and homeownership. A primary residence is often viewed as an asset that can be leveraged to fund a wide range of personal expenditures. Equity mortgages are just another form of consumer credit, but largely funded by GSEs.
Freddie Mac owns a debt greater than the national debt. It has reached this point with the full knowledge and encouragement of Congress. The idea of bailing out Freddie Mac with a few billion dollars is laughable.
If we are teetering on the brink of massive bank failures, it is almost entirely because Congress caused it.
If anything surprises me, it is that Freddie Mac didn’t get into the business of underwriting loans to members of Congress.
I wonder if the MSM will ever really look at this mess. No I don’t. J.C. Watts has an interesting website on all of this. (FM Policy Focus.)
Schumer is fully aware of this mare’s nest and he actively pointing at everyone else. He is going to blame the bankers in the same way the Democrats are going after the phantom oil speculators.
For those ignorant of history … and that includes much of the Democrat Party, you might want to caption that photograph.
You see, if your photo pre-dates MTV, they won’t get it.
Weird coincidences in this story. My son worked for Indymac up until 2 months ago. (he was at Countrywide before that!)
The mood and the conditions have been horrible for a year now. He was lucky to get out before getting fired, layoffs were happening every few months.
Meanwhile, my nephew works for Chucky Shumer. Since we don’t agree on anything political – I’m not asking him about this one!
Personally I’m thrilled that my son works in the private sector, not for the government. He’s learning young about the realities of the business world – while his cousin is aiding and abetting the demise of private business.
I was amazed to hear how banks/lending institutions no longer actually manage the loans they make, they sell them to/through Fannie and Freddie.
I wonder how much more sane their lending policies would have been if they’d actually had to manage what they loaned and weren’t able sell them?
Even though Schumer should have kept his big mouth shut, the bottom line is that IndyMac’s situation is the result of bad business practices, over reliance on the sub prime market and the bursting of the real estate speculation bubble. It is impossible and not realistic to pin the entire blame on Chuckie.
IndyMac could just be the start. A lot of names are cropping up with financial accounting irregularities. Pinning a collapse of certain segments of an industry that was allowed to run unbridled with the bulls on one big mouthed Senator from New York stretches credulity.
The GOP was supposed to be minding the store until 2006. And there is the larger question of taking responsibilities for one’s own actions. People were lying on applications. Assets were exaggerated. Incomes were falsified. People knew what they were doing. Banks were aware of what was going on — at least to a degree. This is a classic bubble bursting. There is plenty of blame to go around.
One of my profs in B-School mid-90’s had been in the Reagan Treasury and would rail about these “non-governmental governmental agencies.” He predicted the inherent moral hazard of the organizations would bite us.
Looks like that time has come.
I though Schemer’s rebuttal was practicularly lame. It essentially said “Shut up because we’ll be in charge of the Executive Branch soon enough.
The only thing this Congress is good at is designing sure-fire ways to bankrupt and destroy this country.
#13 – “Pinning a collapse of certain segments of an industry that was allowed to run unbridled with the bulls on one big mouthed Senator from New York stretches credulity.”
Yes, but H-Bill, check this out – this is from the Office of Thrift Supervision, which is IndyMac’s regulator:
“The immediate cause of the closing was a deposit run that began and continued after the public release of a June 26 letter to the OTS and the FDIC from Senator Charles Schumer of New York. The letter expressed concerns about IndyMac’s viability. In the following 11 business days, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion from their accounts…”
I’d say that it doesn’t stretch much credulity to show that Chuckie’s big mouth was responsible for this mess.
And let me point out one more thing: when Phil Gramm spoke of a “mental recession,” nobody made a run on the banks. And the financial stocks didn’t plummet to new lows.
Schumer is merely following the DNC game plan to try and convince the American people that their country isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit. And unfortunately, you have a lot of Kool-Aid sippers who are taking it to heart.
Regards,
Peter H.
Yes, PH, but IndyMac was insolvent whether Chuckie opened his big mouth or kept it shut. Of course the Dems and the msm love it when people are lining up outside the bank in Pasadena. Again personal responsibility is missing. People whining that they had over 100 grand in many accounts at IndyMac.
Did Schumer cause the run? That’s giving him more credit than he’s due. Did Schumer help in the collapse of IndyMac? Probably, but it may have been inevitable anyway. IndyMac was overextended to an unparalleled degree in the subprime market. It was probably a question of time before the Feds would do some arm twisting and announce another “merger” as in the BofA/Countrywide deal.
Is there a Machavellian plot to paint the Dems as the champion of the working people who are losing funds due to their own stupidity? Time will tell on that one. I also don’t believe that the country is going to turn all three branches of government over to the Dems. The executive branch is going to stay Republican with at least one adult minding the store.
Well at least we’ve identified you as a political hack. A long chain of events lead up to this collapse and there are going to be others. It has very little to do with Schumer as much as I dislike the guy, but then again I dislike most politicians.
Well, Henry Paulson gave reassuring talk today about Freddie Mac. Doubtlessly, he could have grabbed a mike and predicted the collapse of the Freddie Mac house of cards.
Can someone explain how Schumer’s self-important pronouncement benefitted the country in any way shape or form? Bank runs are good sport? A jittery stock market is useful? Diddling around trying to find someone to blame for oil prices is comforting at the pump?
The Democrats are invested in talking the economy into a rut. It is their typical game plan. They thrive on misery. Misery creates victims and victims need government handouts.
that is the absolute truth.
Here’s the thing, having the bank bought out by another bank would have been painful, but not quite like being federalized.
Words matter, words from a senator matter. It’s not that Chucky single handedly caused this – but he sure didn’t help matters. It might be nice if he apologized – like a real apology. But no, the apology the Dems will ever give is when Bill Clinton apologizes for the sins of others.
DNC 2008 – “We have to burn the village to save it.”
can he be sued?
then the press could alternate their ‘blanket’ coverage between chuck and murtha.
dodging two stories at once, in an election year would be quite a feat.
Greed killed the real estate market. There is plenty of blame to go around for both parties, I feel. Of course, Debt is the American Way. Spend money you don’t have for things you don’t need made of crappy plastic, paid for with plastic.
All of Congress should be ran out of town. All rich politicos are all alike, grabbing what they can for themselves. Grabby, greedy hands grab what they can.
If Chuckles had made a comment about a CA state chartered bank that caused it to fail, he’d be guilty of a misdemeanor:
Financial Code section 3369(a) states:
Any person who willfully and knowingly makes, circulates, or transmits to another or others, any statement or rumor, written, printed, or by word of mouth, which is untrue in fact and is directly or by inference derogatory to the financial condition or affects the solvency or financial standing of any bank doing business in this State, or who knowingly counsels, aids, procures, or induces another to start, transmit, or circulate any such statement or rumor, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one
thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
Uhm, Patrick, I think you need to read the charter again:
…any statement or rumor, written, printed, or by word of mouth, which is untrue in fact and is directly or by inference derogatory to the financial condition
Schumer’s actions were sloppy and stupid, and his statement was the key log that started the run, but his statements were not untrue per se. (he’s the Rodney King of the political world) Still, just another example of why the approval rating of congress is at 9 percent.
Pinky, after reading your comment in the Tony Snow thread, I have concluded you are a truly heartless, classless, and despicable individual.
kudos to glenn reynolds for at least linking to this post.
the flippin ridiculous thing is that neither glenn, nor his “pajamas media” will take on this Dem media machine. pajamas media is so timid. what does this country need? “NEW MEDIA” that will shine the light on these corrupt scumbags. why the cover for schumer, dodd, etc? pajamas media is such a waste. and glenn reynolds would rather save face with the NY Times and Dem media conspirators than do what is right.
people who want to cover for schumer don’t understand banks and how they have worked in this country for decades. yeah, maybe IndyMac wasn’t doing so great. Lighting the match and saying ‘well at least I yelled fire’ is now costing pain in real people’s lives. We will never know if IndyMac might have been able to make it without having 12% of its deposits gone in 2 weeks.
blame Bush you blind lever pulling Dems.
these flippin dems want to talk the country over a ledge to secure more votes. see, vote for us, bush caused it. it’s just sick. add to this how in 2004 and 2006 they would point to a car bomb and say, see vote for us. it’s sick. why are people like schumer running this country? i used to vote for Dems. Now I have become anti-Democrat more than anything else.
I’m sorry, but didn’t the whole sub-prime mess begin during the 6 years of non-oversite by the republican led congress/white house? Don’t like big, bad government getting in the way? Don’t like real oversight? Well, this is what happens; bunch of greedy sob’s palying on people’s fears of never owning a home, lying on their own forms, overvaluing homes, lying on borrowers forms about their ability to pay, etc, etc, etc. Funny how every time we seem to have a Republican president, people feel good for a while, but then the party night is over, the hangover is in full swing and the bill needs to get paid.
23: And don’t forget that the plastic was manufactured in a foreign country with who knows what kind of toxins in it.
#27
Even if true, where were the omnipotent liberals? They’ve had control of Congress for over a year and they’ve done what, exactly, to fix your so-called Republican exclusive mess????
Take your time and look for some catchy bumper sticker slogans, if you need to. Just get back to me.
Memo from Headquarters:
The daily beatings will continue until morale improves.
Now they are talking about Fannie/Freddie going-under….
I don’t know about you, but I’m putting a priority getting my finances in order over the next 30-days. Pay-off my current business debts, re-double collections from my clients, and cash-out my non-essential account-balances. From now-on I’m front-loading my client’s invoices rather than carrying their outstanding billing balances as in the past.
Freddie/Fannie are the United States. This could be a banking scramble the size of the Savings and Loan mess, but the FDIC exposure is but a shadow of the Freddie/Fannie debt. It wraps its way through every pension and retirement fund and into the securites of countries throughout the world.
Congress will have to get serious about this. They created it and watched it morph into the blob it is today. Even Jamie Gorelick made millions at Fannie Mae. Think of how many government jokers have been stealing from that henhouse.
They can not bail it out anymore than they can pay off the national debt. But they will scramble to prop it up while whistling past the charter.
I tend to agree with this post at the Volokh Conspiracy about Schumer and IndyMac:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_07_13-2008_07_19.shtml#1216071430
Funny how it’s the deregulation (privatizing) of everything that is a GOP battle call that is at the heart of the Housing Crisis. Oversight is not a strong point for the shortsighted money grabbers. Remember ENRON and the S & L crisis’ from the Reagan/Bush years …again the filthy print of the GOP was all over these scandals too!!
re:32 volokh
If there is gasoline on the floor in the theater and you yell fire and light a match… should you get credit for yelling fire?
or should you try to clean up the gasoline (even if it means no one will ever know it was you that cleaned it up)?
Our senators are retards. The stock market has been tanking the last few days, mainly because Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are said to be insolvent.
Last week, the senate passes a bill to bailout people who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford, and squandered non-existent equity to put in home-theaters and granite counter-tops. The bailout is supposedly paid for by… wait for it… confiscating the profits of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
This is what you get when you let socialists run your government.
Remember ENRON and the S & L crisis’ from the Reagan/Bush years …again the filthy print of the GOP was all over these scandals too!!
Uhm, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Most of the Enron wheeling and dealing, the malfeasance, took place during the later part of the Clinton years (at the time, Ken Lay and Clinton were golf buddies). Add what about WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers (huge Clinton contributor) and Global Crossing (Terry McCaulif), which had ties to the Demicratic machine. The current mortgage crisis was spurred by a bill written in 1997 by Sen Chris Dodd (D) that required banks to stop discriminating and start lending to lower income families. So that is just what the banks did. Now am I blaming Chris Dodd for the crisis? Of course not! He had no idea his bill would open the door and ultimately create the conditions leading to the current bank crisis. Both parties are complicit in creating the current economic slump.
Joel:
“As with most economic problems, we find the hand of government. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, whose provisions were strengthened during the Clinton administration, is a federal law that mandates lenders to offer credit throughout their entire market and discourages them from restricting their credit services to high-income markets, a practice known as redlining. In other words, the Community Reinvestment Act encourages banks and thrifts to make loans to riskier customers.”– Walter E. Williams, “Subprime Bailout”
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/WalterEWilliams/2008/01/23/subprime_bailout
Don’t miss this part:
“Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.”
What’s your expertise?
Your government in action. First, they order mortgage brokers to provide mortgages to people who can’t pay them bac. Then, they attack mortgage brokers for loaning money to people who can’t pay it back. And they accuse the brokers of being “greedy.” Which is insipid. Greedy people do not lend money to people they don’t think can pay it back. Unless, of course, they believe a government even greedier than they are will bail them out.
Meanwhile, all this borrowing to shore up socialism drives the dollar lower and oil higher.
Sonicfrog- I would argue that IndyMac Bank, while troubled, was not about to fail as Schumer stated in his letter that was made public. Therefore, his statement would meet the statutory requirement of being “untrue in fact”.
“We have met the enemy and he is Congress.”
Tully, you didn’t get the quote quite right, but don’t feel bad. Everybody gets that quote wrong. As first enunciated on the back cover of Walt Kelly’s “The Pogo Papers”, a collection of Pogo comic strips (c. 1953), it was:
“. . . Resolve, therefore, that on this very ground, with small flags waving, and tinny blasts on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy and not only may he be ours, he may be us.”
For me, part of the delight it still engenders is the casting of its final clauses in the subjunctive mode. Kelly wasn’t much given to bombast, except when mocking it.
(On the other hand, perhaps you have Mark Twain in mind: “. . . there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”)
By the way, VtheK, the Supreme Court wrote a ruling within the past 3 years that used the word “retarded.” So I’ve been still using it with vigor, despite its obvious un-PC flavor. 🙂
#38 My sister is a mortgage agent. She now tells me they have added 3 or 4 sheets to the closing paperwork. One actually says…..”I understand this is a mortgage, loan and I agree to pay it back.
Signed the borrower_____________________.”
Mortage companies 5 -6 years ago were being crucified by Congresspeople for not liberalizing lending practices to minorities. Over that time home ownership hit record levels. People living on the edge became homeowners. A small bump and whoops they couldn’t pay the bills. Just the latest example of there really isn’t a free lunch people. Trouble is in America today it isn’t the offenders that end up paying the price, it is “society” re: the taxpayers, the fewer and fewer amongst us.
test: i-a-n