Poignant words

by Russ Roberts on February 18, 2009

in Housing

From the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 that established the authority of HUD to set affordable housing goals for Fannie and Freddie (along with a zillion other attempts to manipulate the housing market)

Title XIII: Government Sponsored Enterprises – Federal Housing
Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 – Sets forth
congressional findings and definitions. Declares that this Act and the
amendments it makes may not be construed: (1) as obligating the Federal
Government, either directly or indirectly, to provide any funds to the
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), the Federal
National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), or the Federal Home Loan
Banks, or to honor, reimburse, or otherwise guarantee any of their
obligations or liabilities; or (2) as implying that any such enterprise
or Bank, or any obligations or securities of such an enterprise or
Bank, are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.

Good thing they got that straight.

Comments

{ 22 comments }

T L Holaday February 18, 2009 at 11:37 am

The zillion other attempts link to Thomas returns "Temporary file open error. Display failed." What was the document you wanted?

pj February 18, 2009 at 2:37 pm

The forgot to add "wink, wink" to the end of that title.

martin blessing story February 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Kredit in der Krise der Dresdner Bank

Von Raivo Pommer

Schwere Eisengitter versperren den Eingang zum Silberturm der Dresdner Bank. Das Foyer dahinter ist dunkel. Bis vor wenigen Monaten arbeiteten in dem 166 Meter hohen Turm auf 32 Stockwerken fast 2000 Mitarbeiter der Konzernzentrale. Jetzt wird renoviert. Doch auch wenn das vorbei ist, wird womöglich keiner der Banker jemals wieder einen Fuß in das Gebäude setzen.

Im September hat die Commerzbank die Dresdner Bank gekauft und mit ihr den Turm. Martin Blessing, der erst drei Monate zuvor an die Spitze gerückt war, will aus Commerzbank und Dresdner Bank mit ihren 16Millionen Kunden ein Kreditinstitut auf Augenhöhe mit der Deutschen Bank bauen.

Doch nur fünf Monate später droht die Finanzkrise das Unternehmen zu zerreißen. Zweimal hat sich Blessing schon Kapital vom Staat geholt, insgesamt 18 Milliarden Euro, um die Übernahme der Dresdner überhaupt stemmen zu können. Doch ob das Geld reicht, weiß niemand.

Bob February 18, 2009 at 4:17 pm

I smell lawsuit. The old adage says "A fool (US Taxpayer) and his money are soon (past, present & future) departed!" Something like that. Imagine what a constitutional crisis this could cause if someone sued to enforce the provisions in the above mentioned law.

Methinks February 18, 2009 at 4:37 pm

"A fool and his money are soon parted".

Good luck suing the government. The government has made it virtually impossible to sue the government, which is great for the government because everyone in government completely ignores the constitution. It's all very arbitrary these days and arbitrary application of law is not Rule of Law, which in combination with all the other government activities means we have crossed over to Banana Republic status with astonishing speed.

You can point out the fact that the government has no authority to rob Peter to pay Paul but the plebes will always vote to rob others if it benefits them (or promises to) because, contrary to leftist popular belief, people are self-interested. In a similarly self-interested fashion, the producers will stop producing and figure out a way to stick their paws in the rapidly decreasing kitty or just leave – as they have done every crap country in history.

The United States, the dream of the founding fathers, the country built on the principles of the Enlightenment is dead and the critters in congress are just stabbing the corpse to death. Long live the dream.

T L Holaday February 18, 2009 at 5:14 pm

The legislation as written prevents creditors of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from successfully claiming that the U.S. government was a guarantor. The legislation does not prevent the U.S. government from, at its option, acting as a guarantor.

The U.S. had the right, but not the obligation.

This is not a difficult concept.

vidyohs February 18, 2009 at 5:42 pm

"The U.S. had the right,
This is not a difficult concept.

Posted by: T L Holaday | Feb 18, 2009 5:14:57 PM"

Now, finding that in the constitution is a difficult concept. Care to point us to article and paragraph where you see it, T.L.?

Methinks February 18, 2009 at 6:12 pm

The U.S. had the right, but not the obligation.

It figures that government underpriced the option. What else is new.

Oil Shock February 18, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Here is a GREAT interview(mp3) of Tom Woods, the author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse

Book will debut at #15 on NY Times best seller this weekend.

qgambit February 18, 2009 at 10:49 pm

vidyohs, it stems from the commerce clause, Art I, Sect 8, Cl 3: The Congress shall have power . . . To regulate commerce ….

maichel punzet February 19, 2009 at 6:02 am

Von Raivo Pommer

Der Dax ist am Donnerstag etwas höher in den Handel gestartet. Der Leitindex notierte wenige Minuten nach der Eröffnung 0,4 Prozent im Plus bei 4222 Zählern. Vor allem Finanztitel lagen in der Anlegergunst vorn. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank und Allianz tendierten knapp 2 Prozent fester.

In Reaktion auf die Vorlage von Geschäftszahlen für 2008 zogen MAN-Titel um 0,8 Prozent auf 33,15 Euro an. Der Lkw- und Maschinenbauer hat mit seinem operativen Gewinn die Analystenerwartungen weitestgehend erreicht. Der Ausblick für 2009 erscheine allerdings etwas zu optimistisch, schrieb DZ-Bank-Analyst Michael Punzet in einem Kommentar.

maichel punzetstory February 19, 2009 at 6:03 am

Von Raivo Pommer

Der Dax ist am Donnerstag etwas höher in den Handel gestartet. Der Leitindex notierte wenige Minuten nach der Eröffnung 0,4 Prozent im Plus bei 4222 Zählern. Vor allem Finanztitel lagen in der Anlegergunst vorn. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank und Allianz tendierten knapp 2 Prozent fester.

In Reaktion auf die Vorlage von Geschäftszahlen für 2008 zogen MAN-Titel um 0,8 Prozent auf 33,15 Euro an. Der Lkw- und Maschinenbauer hat mit seinem operativen Gewinn die Analystenerwartungen weitestgehend erreicht. Der Ausblick für 2009 erscheine allerdings etwas zu optimistisch, schrieb DZ-Bank-Analyst Michael Punzet in einem Kommentar.

vidyohs February 19, 2009 at 6:13 am

I am sorry, ggambit, welfare is not part of the commerce clause. Gifting people with taxpayer money is not part of the commerce clause.

Try again.

vidyohs February 19, 2009 at 8:56 am

ggambit,

Earlier reply was a quickie but no where near the actual fact.

The constitution is NOT a document of rights and obligations.

The fact that you and T.L. address it as such tells me that you have the typical citizens view of the constitution, which is to say one of ignorance.

The constitution is a document of powers and limitations.

The constitution is an agreement, made among men who spent long days hammering out the details. It is not a gift from God.

If you read the constitution and its first ten amendments very carefully you will note that the only thing contained in it is a description of the corporation, the corporation's officers, how those officers are selected, duties, and terms of office. Beyond that there are a few minor house keeping details pertaining to settling old debts and how the corporate charter can be further amended.

I know you'll need help with this one, so please note as you read the constitution that it never mentions the individual (the citizen) at all, neither directly nor obliquely. No where does the constitution pretend to assign responsibilities or obligations to any individual who is not an officer of the corporation.

Guaranteeing loans using taxpayer money is welfare or will result in welfare if actually used to compensate a lender. No where in the constitution does that authority exist (the phrase "promote the general welfare" was twisted by FDR era socialist to justify it).

The corporate government formed under the charter of the constitution has no rights and in accordance with Supreme Court Rulings has no obligations to the citizenry.

persiflage February 19, 2009 at 11:15 am

I always took the phrase "promote the general welfare" to mean something like "implement government policies that benefit the welfare of all Americans in general". This interpretation does not address the individual welfare of any one citizen, nor in my mind does any part of the Constitution.

The above phrase is, IMO, in sharp contrast to the phrase "provide for" used elsewhere in founding documents, which I always took to mean, among other things, "…and pay for…" That is, there seems to be no authority for the federal government to pay for the individual welfare of any citizen, but there is a federal authority to pay for, e.g., the organizing and maintenance of an Army and Navy.

qgambit February 19, 2009 at 10:18 pm

Vidyohs,

The commerce clause gives the federal gov't nearly plenary power to regulate the economy as it sees fit. It wasn't always so but it is now.

RickC February 19, 2009 at 10:50 pm

ggambit,

The commerce clause "gives" the federal gov't no such power. The government and the Supreme Court, starting with the Marshall Court, seized that power.

qgambit February 19, 2009 at 11:28 pm

RickC,

Ok, how about this: current commerce clause constitutional jurisprudence gives the federal gov't nearly plenary power to regulate the economy as it sees fit.

All better?

vidyohs February 20, 2009 at 7:54 am

qgambit,

I agree that the corporate government has "assumed" the power to regulate commerce far beyond the intention of the clause, even though, if you were watching, the Supreme Court curtailed that aggressive assumption in the last few years in its ruling against congress using the commerce clause to dictate a gun free zone around schools.

My disagreement with the statements made above by yourself and T.L.Holaday clearly rest on your misguided use of the word right as you applied it to government.

People sit around bitch, moan, and wonder what went wrong in this nation, and what went wrong is exactly that…ignorance about what government is and what its intended use is.

Government is a tool, an agreement among men, and can only exist as long as people are willing to continue that agreement.

Words reflect thinking; bad words, bad thinking; sloppy words, sloppy thinking; careless words, careless thinking.

The words you chose to use revealed your level of understanding and thinking about government, and you wonder why we're in trouble when you represent the majority.

Government is a tool (a concept), and servants have no rights superior to an employer. Treat a tool as a tool, and a servant as a servant and things get straightened out real quick.

The most stupid thing done, and continued to today, is to let our servants write the terms of their employment, their own job description, and how business was to be conducted. Sheer idiocy!

I respect and value my lawn mower, but I don't elevate it to a position of worship.

vidyohs February 20, 2009 at 8:19 am

qgambit et. al.,

I forgot to add to this the crowning acheivement in stupidity.

"The most stupid thing done, and continued to today, is to let our servants write the terms of their employment, their own job description, and how business was to be conducted. Sheer idiocy!"

The Coup De Grace to our freedom? After allowing what I outlined in that paragraph…..we let them interpret what they have written and bind ourselves to that interpretation.

Stupidity squared.

dow jones February 20, 2009 at 8:31 am

VW BANK Krise

von Raivo Pommer

Der oberste Bankenfonds-Kontrolleur beschwert sich, dass die VW-Bank unter den Rettungsschirm darf. Die habe da nichts zu suchen.

Aus den Medien musste Albert Rupprecht (CSU) erfahren, dass jetzt offenbar auch Autobanken unter den Bankenrettungsschirm des Bundes schlüpfen dürfen. Man darf sagen: Einverstanden ist der Vorsitzende des parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums für den 480 Milliarden Euro schweren Rettungsfonds Soffin damit nicht.

Die VW-Bank soll offenbar staatliche Garantien im Gegenwert von zwei Milliarden Euro erhalten. "Das war so nicht abgemacht", beklagt sich Rupprecht in einem Schreiben an Soffin-Chef Hannes Rehm und den Vorsitzenden des entscheidenden Lenkungsausschusses der Bundesregierung, Finanz-Staatssekretär Jörg Asmussen.

dax February 20, 2009 at 2:19 pm

dax von raivo pommer Europe nur 4.000 punkte.merke

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