It is truly insulting to hear Congressman Barney Frank, who almost single-handedly invited $1 trillion in mortgage defaults, complaining about businessmen who tolerated the poor practices that allowed the failures of major banks and insurers.
Frank himself, as a member of the House Banking Committee since 1981, should have known better than most when, for at least 15 years, he pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to violate basic lending standards and back the $1 trillion in bad loans that started the current financial meltdown.
As Victor Davis Hanson puts it:
Frank received more than $40,000 in campaign contributions from the bankrupt Freddie and Fannie, despite his own role as supposed fiscal watchdog on the House Financial Services Committee….
So please, Representative Frank, Senator Dodd, and all the rest — give back all that campaign cash to our government, and then in silence endure what you helped to conceive.
Frank also should be required to return the $1 trillion he lost.
Frank Warner
I agree. He needs to "man" up.
Posted by: CJW | March 16, 2009 at 08:26 PM
No mention of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac meltdown is complete without watching Barney Frank tell us that the "safety and soundness" of these institutions "does not seem to be an issue."
Find Barney Frank 6:00 minutes into this video (but watch it in its entirety):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Posted by: George | March 16, 2009 at 09:40 PM
Chris Dodd, give back the money
Criminals all.
Posted by: George | March 17, 2009 at 02:50 PM