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| Stunning 2006 Barney Frank VIDEO Surfaces: Banks Forced to Report Too Much | |
| 2010-05-09 | |
| Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaking at a forum on national housing policy on December 11, 2006. Three weeks after making this speech at the Treasury Department, Frank became Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Frank on Democrats taking over regulatory reform: "You will see far less difference with Democrats taking over in the Financial Services regulatory area than in virtually any other area of public policy, because we did work together on things like regulatory relief and we have more to do yet in the deregulation. One of the things we did was try to reduce the reporting requirements from the banks to the financial detectives. "Far too much has to be reported now in my judgment." On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: "We weren't doing anything for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issue for me was housing. We were doing something for housing. And I agreed with those who argued that because of the markets' perceptions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got this great benefit to be able to borrow money cheaply yet the benefit was not being adequately returned to the public. "There were two things you could have done about that. You could have reduced the benefit. You could have cut back on their ability to borrow as cheaply or you could leave that benefit in place and distribute it more fairly. That's what we chose to do with the affordable housing fund." On the housing bubble in 2006, two years before the housing bubble burst: "I do want to address this thing about the bubble. I think the bubble is an entirely inappropriate metaphor. Let me just be very clear, houses ain't tulips. Houses today even with the drop in housing prices are more valuable than tulips were however many years ago when we had the tulip business." On plummeting housing prices: "I think it's a good thing that housing prices are dropping. A few speculators get stung, that's icing on the cake. The cake is... the cake is that people can afford to buy houses now. A 10% drop in housing prices is a good thing. Housing was over-valued. "But let me make this distinction on why it's not a bubble. I was just thinking about this [unintelligible]... maybe housing suffered from irrational exuberance. But bubbles in history haven't been cases of irrational exuberance. They have been cases of exuberant irrationality. And there really is a distinction. "Irrational exuberance means you get a little carried away with something that is basically a good thing. But exuberant irrationality is when you start thinking that tulips or some of those dumb ideas on the internet when there were some of those things that nobody in their right mind wanted to buy, those were excessive." On why housing prices plummeting is a good thing: "Fundamentally I don't think that there's a crisis, and I do think that the end result in a 10% drop in many parts of the country will be a more rational and healthier housing market." And finally... Frank on his own ability to deal with "things." "I'm pretty good with words but I'm not so good with things. I've had a lifelong struggle with things. And the less I am responsible dealing with them the better off everybody is."
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 ...and leave the children alone. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-05-09 11:57 |
| #4 Time to dump Barney. Put him in the unemployment line. ...and tell the bugger to keep his distance. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-05-09 11:42 |
| #3 Mr. Frank being frank and not dissemmbling? That is not usual mode of the Congressman. He did forget to mention the strong arm techniques used by the federal government on banks to give out so many subprime loans that became toxic for the entire world. I'm willing to give credit where credit is due. Time to dump Barney. Put him in the unemployment line. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-05-09 11:36 |
| #2 And in the end it will not matter, because Rep Fwank will never be held accountable by the unthinking knee-jerk idiot cattle who vote in his district. They only way for people like that to be held accountable is by prosecutors, or pitchforks. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-05-09 11:14 |
| #1 Banks do have to report too much. Banks should be regulated in simple ways. The currency should be regulated by modifying banks reserve requirements. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-05-09 06:49 |