Comments on: Obama has kind words for Fremont teen

By: Jennifer deG

Jennifer deG — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:10:04 +0000

Congratulations to this local young man for his entrepreneurial efforts being recognized by the President. Good job, Will Kim! I hope his microloan operation helps a good number of students raise money for a college education.

By: Marty

Marty — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:04:38 +0000

Jon, I’m not arguing the innocence of Republicans. I’m arguing against your hard-line partisan Democrat approach to analyzing political matters.

By: Jon Simon

Jon Simon — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:01:44 +0000

Marty,

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-242

That’s the voting record for the “Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act”. Just take a look at the voting numbers. It passed the house with 3 Democrat nays, and 111 Republican nays. 61 Republicans did vote for it, so it must have been reasonably bipartisan.

Then it died in a Senate committee. What does that tell us? That the Republicans are largely against mortgage reform, even bipartisan reform.

By: Andre

Andre — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:42:52 +0000

What if we all spent next week NOT chiming in?

By: Marty

Marty — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:17:22 +0000

Thanks for the far leftist partisan Democrat point of view, Jon. But of those financial “tools” you mention, the most fiercest opponents to their reform have been Austan Goolsbee, Larry Summers, Richard Rubin and Tim Geithner. All of which are or have been key economic advisers to Pres Obama.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is excerpt from Austan Goolsbee’s 2007 NY Times op-ed, he was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to Obama:

“Congress is contemplating a serious tightening of regulations to make the new forms of lending more difficult. New research from some of the leading housing economists in the country, however, examines the long history of mortgage market innovations and suggests that regulators should be mindful of the potential downside in tightening too much.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29scene.html

Good luck digesting reality, my friend.

By: Jon Simon

Jon Simon — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:59:20 +0000

Marty,

Here’s an idea, let’s regulate the securities and banking industries. Imagine, we could stop people from obfuscating risk with complex derivatives, all while demanding means tests for those offering credit default swaps (insurance). Then we could keep banks, governments, and pension systems away from high-risk investments, thereby lowering the odds of another financial meltdown.

Oh, wait, the Republicans killed that effort. Never mind.

Marty, now and again, you start making sense. It’s when the Republican part of your brain turns off.

By: Marty

Marty — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:10:09 +0000

Charlotte,

I think you’re missing the point of mortgages – they’re supposed to help people buy homes, not enrich speculators.

By: Charlotte Allen

Charlotte Allen — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:51:05 +0000

Marty,

I think you’re missing the point of microlending – it’s supposed to help poor people, not enrich speculators.

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:36:56 +0000

No takers?

I would think in this region, when Obama hails the proliferation of trust-based, no interest/no collateral loans 3 years after such products brought this world to it’s knees, they’d sell like hotcakes.

How about default swaps on their performance?

By: Marty

Marty — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:34:20 +0000

Somewhat related, I’m opening a brokerage for trading microloan backed securities if anyone is interested.