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Chairman Of The Board

December 14, 2008 4:00 PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.), whose position as House Financial Services Committee Chairman puts him right in the middle of the controversial government bailouts, talks to Lesley Stahl.

Barney Frank On Bailouts, Welfare
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by edwood27 December 16, 2008 2:12 PM EST
How can we have confidence Barney Frank can solve a problem he helped create when he won''t admit his own complicity? He pushed through the new rules in 1997 and 1998 that allowed Fannie and Freddie to substantially increase their purchases of sub-prime and AltA mortgages. He and Chris Dodd then permitted FAnnie and Freddie to lower their capital requirements to 2.5%, thus compounding the risk. He and other Democrats refused Bush''s proposal to increase regulation of the S&L industry in a way that even the New York Times supported in 2003, all because of a fear, as Harry Reid put it, that the GOP was trying to cripple the ability to Fannie and Freddie to expand home ownership. Make no mistakes about it. A politically motivated but inept Congress created the environment that unscrupulous investors used to cause our current disater. Don''t blame just the Democrats. The Republicans were equally guilty of poor regulation and adopting Bush''s "Ownership Society" that is the root of the problem. But don''t absolve Frank. He''s guilty. Why should we trust him?
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by JamesB621 December 16, 2008 10:18 AM EST
I think it time all American stop bashing our president..............

posted by Icutright

Oh puhleez... you''re still bitter and POed about the election. It''s obvious even to the most casual observer that Bush ran this country and others (ie Iraq) into the ground, along with Barney Frank this has been the most corrupt, power abusing administration since the Nixon era. The subject of this blog is Barney Frank and his incompetent and and corrupt mishandling of the U.S. banking industry, let''s try to stay on the subject and not whine about the level of respect that you think should be afforded to another incompetent, blundering, lying, congress bypassing, and corrupt POS. The election is over, your team lost because of this doddering fool and the other doddering, warmongering POS on the GOP ticket, get over it!
To Veritas087, amen and right on brother, my sentiments precisely! He and his group of cronies had to know at least a year in advance what was going to happen to the housing market with over inflated housing values spiraling upward out of control and should have started raising interest rates to keep check on the out of control market.
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by lobodude1 December 16, 2008 4:12 AM EST
Miss Stahl
You are kidding me about barney being smart and that we are lucky to have rip us off in congress. You have sunk to an all time low. I find it amazing that you would give this creep the time of day and complement him on his accomplishment of wrecking the world economy. If you did your job you would have reported how barney fooled the world with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The implications do not fall short of just our economy it will ripple through out the world. 60 minutes had a field day with Enron but have failed to report that what barney and the wrest of the banking and fair housing committees along with CEOs of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mack did to investors worldwide. This scandal is 23,000 times bigger than Enron. I will no longer watch 60 minutes as long as I live. I thought I have seen it all, but you guys have managed to insult my intelligence. I thought Bill O'' Reilly was crazy but he has proven to tell the truth. No matter what your politics are and mine are to the left, there is no room for public corruption. That being said barney deserves the latest prison orange with two permanently connected bracelets. I thought president Bush was corrupt but barney takes the cake.
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by lobodude1 December 16, 2008 4:11 AM EST
Miss Stahl
You are kidding me about barney being smart and that we are lucky to have rip us off in congress. You have sunk to an all time low. I find it amazing that you would give this creep the time of day and complement him on his accomplishment of wrecking the world economy. If you did your job you would have reported how barney fooled the world with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The implications do not fall short of just our economy it will ripple through out the world. 60 minutes had a field day with Enron but have failed to report that what barney and the wrest of the banking and fair housing committees along with CEOs of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mack did to investors worldwide. This scandal is 23,000 times bigger than Enron. I will no longer watch 60 minutes as long as I live. I thought I have seen it all, but you guys have managed to insult my intelligence. I thought Bill O'' Reilly was crazy but he has proven to tell the truth. No matter what your politics are and mine are to the left, there is no room for public corruption. That being said barney deserves the latest prison orange with two permanently connected bracelets. I thought president Bush was corrupt but barney takes the cake.
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by ed_c_in_ok December 16, 2008 12:46 AM EST
Lenders and builders who are servicing the upper price range of homes are a basic ingredient of the problem we now face. There has been far too much inflation in the housing industry because the government or FED did not allow interest rates to rise and slow down run away inflation in housing in specific areas of the country. Now California, Florida and other high end areas are upside down in their mortgages. But that is not the case in most of the Midwest. I am sick and tired of watching TV programs showing a 1000ft flat in San Diego appraising at $700,000. I am also tired of having to pay insurance companies a ridiculous price because they have exposure of properties in those high risk coastal areas prone to hurricanes and inflation.

Allowing Big Business to create huge oligopolies and monopolies that now can have dramatic effect on the overall economy is a mistake that we don%u2019t necessarily need to enable them to sustain life. Especially if it will be the little people who foot the bill so big business who put Mom and Pop business out are now asking for help. Let the entire economy adjust back into a healthy balance. Those who bought into the hype of property values will undoubtedly be able to pick up the same place at the Court House steps for a much better deal.

Social Welfare is about helping people. Corporate Welfare is about bailing out upper management that made professional mistakes many of which should not go unpunished.
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by ed_c_in_ok December 16, 2008 12:45 AM EST
I think Barney Frank is an intelligent and politically savvy man who is in the middle of potentially the largest economic crisis in the history of this country. In the coming months many times he will be in positions of being damned if he does and damned if he doesn''t.

If he keeps a focus on reality within each task as he seems to do he will be a rudder which keeps us off of the rocks. In such an economic crisis big money will typically survive through hook or crook while the poverty stricken is living on the edge of total chaos.

It will be people in Congress like Frank that take a stand for the poverty stricken who had no part in creating the economic disaster. Yet they will be the first to be unduly punished during an economic correction.

He and others must realize the wisdom of humanely injecting money at various levels where it assists the poverty stricken at the bottom of our society up through the levels of working families who have found themselves upside down in debt without creating dependence is only just during this unprecedented bailout of corporate America.
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by likelyvoter December 15, 2008 9:21 PM EST
Frank has aided and abetted finanical terrorists. He has allowed corporate rapists to ravage the American economy through the financial sector. He has delivered the middle classes to destruction and ruin. Within a decade, expect much of America to resemble the Gaza Strip, where rebellion and disobedience against The Racist Masters will be punished by blockades of food, fuel and electricity. After his actions have hyperinflated the US Dollar to worthlessness, there is no doubt Barney Frank will sign a broken America''s Declaration of Surrender to the Zionist controlled World Bank and International Monetary Fund. They win. You Lose.
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by mlr10000 December 15, 2008 9:21 PM EST
Frank has no shame.
Frank mismanaged Freddy and Fanny into the ground. leslie- why no mention of his relationship (boyfreind) that was a member of FannieMae. The most intellegent part of your interview was the clip with Oreilly calling him a coward. He should be GONE. GET OUT!
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by jayhigman December 15, 2008 6:42 PM EST
Barney Frank, the "Smartest Man in Congress"? Are you kidding? Barney Frank is a root cause of the Fannie/Freddie implode. He was one of the loudest voices pleading them to make loans to those who wouldn''t otherwise qualify. He''s nothing but an enabler of the entitlement and irresponsibility mentality!
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by beethovenros December 15, 2008 4:52 PM EST
HUZZAH! Thank God for Barney Frank!
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