politics – Page 15 – Hopeful Romantics

Is Fannie Mae to Blame for the Financial Crisis?

What I find in so many articles about the financial mess we are in is the greatest focus is on Fannie Mae. While no doubt Fannie Mae had much to do with the debacle we are now facing, there are multiple lenders at multiple banks who when freed of such elements as oversight and regulation and the need to maintain certain reserves, lent money to everyone and anyone.

In many real estate scams, the great flipping fiasco, “home buyers” were provided with loans for different properties totaling well in the millions. There was no qualifying or the qualifying financial statements were false. In most cases these were not minority borrowers. In fact, far from it.

But, nevertheless, they were part of giant flipping schemes, misleading their lenders and then borrowers on the actual value of the property by having appraisers who were well paid for their efforts falsify the documents and assess the value of these houses at artificial and specious rates. Sometimes they worked independently and more often they were “straw buyers” front people for the real money, the people who would actually buy the house and then flip them for cooked value and greater profits.

Every bank got into the act and every bank resold their mortgages to the unsuspecting and to foreign investors who had no idea what the true value of the properties were. There is one case in LA alone, relatively small on the bigger picture, where through bribed appraisers, stand-in mortgage brokers and willing banks, they took off over $148 Million. It’s an elaborate scheme, but thanks to the lack of regulation, it has been repeated all over the country. Las Vegas and Phoenix were particualrly notorious for this type of criminal operation.

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By comparison, the Billions that banks and mortgage brokers raked off by issuing irresponsible and unsubstantiated lines makes the aggregate $48 to $50 million in golden parachutes to to the unworthy members of Fanny Mae pale by comparison. Their severance packages while regrettable and undeserved are a drop in the bucket compared to the grab bag of interests and the hundreds of millions and billions paid out in bonuses and profits for issuing irresponsible loans that were motivated purely by greed.

Like everything else of this nature, Ponzi Schemes, Pyramid Parties, the Savings and Loan debacle some years back, it soon becomes a game of Musical Chairs. It all works fine and everyone is happy dancing in their own delusions until the music stops and there are no more chairs left. Then the panic starts. In this case it proved uncontrollable panic and now we plummet to near financial ruin, much to the surprise of the entire nation.

The bottom line is that regulations are there for a reason. And if they are outmoded or 20th Century regulations, as some contest, then they have to be upgraded and brought current. But the one overriding factor, no matter what century, is that if you reduce the necessary reserves a bank or lending institution must have at the ready, then you invite disaster. It ha happened time and time again, from people who were unqualified buying stocks on margin, which lead partly to the ’29 crash, to the Savings and Loan mess, to this. It is a very simple premise really–have enough capital in reserve to pay for mistakes and avoid catastrophe. It was ignored and then dismissed.

Personally, I believe there is ample blame to go around. From the venal jerks at Fannie Mae to the venal jerks at the banks and mortgage brokers around the country. Just what we have seen so far pretty much defines the general pattern of perhaps criminal behavior. The lenders were given a license to steal and they took advantage of it. Couple all that with a consumer society that doesn’t really produce anything anymore, and consumers who seek instant gratification, taking loans they can never afford to repay, taking loans for their own housing flipping scams, taking home equity loans to buy assorted trinkets and beads, and you have a disaster in the making.

In this case the disaster is already made. We are now living in its aftermath and trying to survive. But pointing fingers at minority groups who bought homes they should have never bought or the people, the simple minded bureaucrats of Fannie Mae and company who were pressued into granting these loans, or even the brokers and corporate criminals alone, or these three fools, no matter how incompetent, seems to miss the point. Blaming the Fannie Mae, is like blaming a single taxi for gridlock. We are all to blame. For being greedy. For being so stupid.

The Terrorists on Wall Street

Once again terrorists have visited Wall Street. This time they did not attack with hijacked airliners, crashing into the iconic symbols of American finance and commerce. This time it wasn’t even the fanatical zealots from the Middle East but instead our own home grown variety of terrorists. Most were American born, indoctrinated with the teachings of an MBA instead of the Islamic fundamentalism. Their spiritual, if you can call them that, convictions were not based on some warped view of Allah but on avarice. They were on a mission from Wall Street and didn’t care if Main Street got in their way.

Financially speaking, they succeeded in ruinng the country. We are flat broke, borrowing from every resource and printing money as fast as we can. We are treading water. Millions of everyday Americans have suffered massive hits to their retirement accounts and to just about anything of value. And while some of the institutions that helped cause all this mess are going down in flames, those who worked there, aside from their personal inconveniences, seem hardly bothered at all.

The attacks on the World Trade Center was a tragedy. It was horrible in every aspect. Three thousand died and thousands more had their lives ruined. Family members, friends, associates, were all damaged by the loss. Americans from far away were shocked and horrified. For me, perhaps the worst thing was watching on television as in the aftermath, surviving family ran around with photos and posters of their loved ones in the vain hope that someone had seen them alive. Who can forget the workers in the building running away, covered with dust as the debris from the crumbling buildings rumbled behind them?

There were the leapers and the police and fireman, all suffering and dying from some demented ideology. We all know the story. We have seen it enough times, and we all know how we chased the culprits all over the world. Whether we did the smart thing, or the right thing, is something I will leave alone at the moment, in order to focus on our current debacle.

Because in many ways, this fiasco is much worst than 9/11. It has caused more damage, ruined more lives, and has created more terror, more uncertainty than that fateful attack, seven years ago. Millions are affected by this. Their savings are wiped out, their plans for retirement, for starting new careers, for funding their kids college money have all but vanished. The very country which most found solace and though the best in the world is teetering and in danger of becoming a second tiered nation.

There are criminal investigations already under way. If the Federal Law Enforcement services do their job, surely there will be indictments and convictions. If anything, there is no lack of malfeasance, but the malfeasance is so great it can overwhelm the Department of Justice. I’m sure there were be Federal Crimes, State Crimes and serious Civil Cases. And then of course there are those who did not really perform any criminal acts. Instead they were greedy and ruthless and cared not a wit for the average guy and his well being.

So when so many lives are ruined and the citizens are terrified, shouldn’t we then regard these transgressions as acts of terror. When you act deliberately and create circumstances that terrify the citizens, rendering them uncertain and insecure, shouldn’t this be regarded as the height of a terrorist act. And if our bankers, brokers, appraisers and all the other corrupt personnel that just had to get in on the party are to be regarded as terrorists, then perhaps we should consider sending them to the Guantanamo’s of the world. Let them sit there and instead of the Koran they can shuffle expired contracts around to their hearts’ content. Make them do penance, and force them to give intelligence and to rat each other out. I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to get them to do so.
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Hey, it’s just a thought. It’s also a thought that achieved fruition in the past centuries. Scalawags have been hanged, beaten, put into stocks, tarred and feathered. Our predecessor may have been onto something, especially in the way they treated those who betrayed the public trust. Oil may be a prohibitive expense, but tar is cheap enough, and you can recycle feathers out of old pillows. Their pillows.

Sure, I realize they are not the only ones to blame. You can blame our legislators for handing out favors and perhaps taking kickbacks to eliminate the inconveniences brought on by rules and regulations. Government oversight is just too gauche Let’s face it, you give people a license to steal, and they will steal.

We can blame ourselves, or some of us can blame ourselves, for wanting everything. For actually believing you can buy a house with no money down and teaser payments that amount to maybe a third of the monthly mortgage. We can blame ourselves for being gullible enough to believe houses will always appreciate and that we should use them for our piggy banks. Pull out the equity so that we can buy boats and cars, and other trinkets and beads. We can blame ourselves that a country this size can function as a consumer nation, where we don’t really make many things anymore but shuffle documents around that contain bad debt. Or we can live in denial and not blame ourselves at all.

But most of us know better. Most of us are seething how our public servants let us down and how Wall Street deceived not only us but the rest of the world. We are angry that we now have to dig deep and forgo our own debts to pay off theirs. I suppose it’s about now that all that shiny junk you bought on credit doesn’t look so good. Those custom shirts are starting to fade and fray, the fancy car is, well, just another car.

And we are still terrified. Because while we have had eight years of warning about terrorists, our own Quislings have taken us down. Terror now is going to the gas pump, or being in a small business and trying to borrow money for the coming season. Terror is sweating out the next couple of months on bad tires until you can afford to buy new ones. Terror is feeding your kids and putting shoes on your feet. And then should you get sick, then terror knows no bounds.

So what do we do with these craven beings who worked so hard to line their pockets out our expense. Some, ironically, will be rewarded for their failures. Rewards in this case are usually great than the money you may make in your lifetime. Others, I suppose will be downsized, drift away and look for new avenues. Perhaps the bloom is off the ethic of the MBA. Perhaps a new kind of reality has set in. Probably not. But then, they may really have no choice.

So what do we do with all the greedy stooges? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps the best thing we can do is vow as we have done with other great tragedies, that it will never happen again. Until the next time.

The Rosenbergs–When Daddy and Mommy Are Spies

Morton Sobel, one of the key figures in what is known as the Rosenberg Spy Case, finally admitted he had spied for the Russians. His confession came almost 60 years later, after he and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted for passing secrets about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Sobel served more than 18 years in prison, and the Rosenbergs both died in the electric chair in Sing Sing Prison.

Since this all happened and long time ago and most of us have memories only slightly stronger than a dog’s, this may seem like ancient history. But the case was sensational when the spies were first arrested. There was much controversy about executing the Rosenbergs. Up until Sobel’s belated confession, people have argued the innocence of the Rosenbergs or at least claims they could not have passed atomic secrets to the Soviets, since atomic secrets were passable.

Writer, Robert Coover, wrote the Public Burning, in 1977, a novel centering around the Rosenberg case. It’s a terrific work, a classic, and the narration is formed through the minds and voices of the key players of the time, including our very own former President and Commie Hunter, Richard Nixon. The book captures the spirit of the entire affair, perhaps more than any other non-fiction narrative. But then, we now have Sobel’s confession.

The Rosenberg’s had two children. They were six-years-old and ten-years-old, respectively, when their parents were put to death. They lived anonymously for a number of years and then came forward, claiming their parent’s innocence. But now we have Sobel’s confession. Although Sobel’s confession was not a complete confession. He still denied passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. He implicated Julius in his confession, but claims Ethel was aware of her husband’s espionage but did not actually participate as a spy.

Others have argued that she transcribed some of the secrets, although old KGB archives may claim otherwise. It gets murky and will probably stay murky, despite the release of the KGB archives and Sobel’s confession at 91-years of age. Events as they happen are often seen through the prejudices of the people who participated and then misinterpreted by the media and historians. Misperceptions of historical events have probably occurred since the beginning of time.

Most believe Ethel Rosenberg was not a participant and was implicated in order to pressure her husband to reveal names of conspirators. He clammed up, and she died along with him. The two boys were orphaned and after denying either their parents were spies or that they did not pass atomic secrets, they finally have to admit the truth. Dad was a spy.

I would venture the two sons lived in at least partial denial or with the ambiguity as a means of buttressing against the sense of shame and embarrassment. And anger. America did not invoke the relative morality aspect like it does today. America did not like Commies and much work was done to assure that they were perceived a menace to our society and way of life. Perhaps they were. I would think so. It was the harshest part of the Cold War, and while we can excuse human imperfections and perhaps even understand their wrong minded ideology and motives, at the end of the day Daddy, for sure, was a spy.
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Whether they should have been executed or not, I’ll leave to others. They were. They were traitors. No matter how you couch it, how you smooth it over, or how you claim they were not really passing atomic secrets, they remain guilty of treason. Personally, I share little sympathy for traitors. While the Rosenbergs’ were a more compassionate example, perhaps even pathetic in some ways, they remain traitors.

In today’s world they would not face the executioner. They would probably write a book in prison and eventually be paroled. Like Sobel, who was paroled in 1969. Who denied his complicity for almost sixty years. Which brings the question if he denied his complicity for six decades and suddenly admits it, then how complete is that admission? Sobel is obviously a proven liar and since his release from prison has embraced “progressive causes.” Spots on the leopard, that kind thing.

Sobel argues, like other convicted traitors of the time, that he did it for peace. He did it for defensive reasons, not to give the Russians an offensive edge. He wanted parity in the world. It is an old song, a standard, if you will, and one that I find tedious at best. You have either betrayed your country or you have not betrayed your country. Anything in between smells of the old axiom, “you can’t be a little bit pregnant.”

There have been other spies. The Walker family gave the Soviets a lot more information than the Rosenbergs ever did. Aldrich Ames was in the CIA, and he sold out his country for a few bucks he needed for his wife’s more lavish lifestyle and to prove a point to the government. Dave Hansen, worked for the FBI, before he sold out his country. Jonathan Pollard. Ronald Pelton. It’s a long list.

And now with the Russians back on the proverbial war path once again, or at least with them trying to reassert themselves as a world player, we will probably see even more spies. If the behavioral chicanery from the financial market is any indication of modern character, it is hard to believe there isn’t a few thousand enterprising souls who would never let anything like patriotism get in the way of their alternate ideology or a few bucks in cash. And the Russians are very good at espionage, and really good at turning people. So I am sure we will see headlines in the future.

As for the Rosenberg children, I do feel sympathy. Clearly, no matter how you examine the case, nobody was all right in their actions. Probably not the government who it seems manufactured Ethel’s complicity in her husband’s espionage efforts. As for the Rosenbergs, if both weren’t spies, then Julius certainly was and Ethel knew it and kept her mouth shut. I can understand why she didn’t betray her husband, but it doesn’t exactly make her an innocent bystander, either. She betrayed her country instead of her husband. Tough choice. Maybe jail time complicity, but not the death penalty.

As for the kids, they must live with it. I’m sure they will digest what they may have known already and life will go on. As for closure to this case, you can forget about it. The Rosenbergs blighted the landscape with their treachery, and the government added to the scars with what is probably a miscarriage of justice. The case itself resulted in shame, embarrassment, anger, guilt, and sense of betrayal. It is not the kind of thing we forgive, although we do tend to forget it. Usually. The Rosenberg case is the exception. It will always be controversial. But at least we have Sobel’s confession.

Hot Buttered Corn Syrup and the Changing Public Taste

Time was when you eat or drank something sweet it was usually sugar cane or honey that made it that way. Your sodas, ice cream, cakes, whatever were made with sugar, unless you bought it at the emerging health foods stores. Then it might have been made with honey or molasses. Occasionally, maple syrup escaped its role as topping gourmet pancakes and waffles to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Corn syrup was rare. Corn syrup was the poor man’s sweetener. And then the food and beverage companies realized they could save a few cents per serving, and they started added corn sweetener to your snacks and drinks. Corn syrup was not only cheaper, they needed less to make food and drink as sweet or sweeter than sugar would. High fructose corn syrup–nothing like it.

Which is true. Apparently, it has no source in nature and the body has difficulty recognizing it as food and tends to store it more as fat than the body would store sugar cane or honey. At least that is the theory or argument posed by the alleged health nuts of the world. The Corn Refiners Association says otherwise. As do the companies who bought high fructose corn syrup and used it in their food and beverages. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times, captures the controversy pretty well.

But then, as some argue, when you look around, people are fatter. Forget the nice words like obese and overweight. People are fat. The fat rolls over their waistline, pudges out their arms and legs, extends their rear ends and causes their jowls to hang like a Bull Dog’s. And people have gotten fatter since we started consuming corn syrup in grand style. At its peak, the individual in America consumed almost 64 pounds of corn syrup a year. Now it is down to just over 56 pounds per person. That’s a lot of sweetener.

Diabetes is up, people are fatter, and related illnesses has climbed significantly. The purveyors of corn sweetener will tell you the obesity increase is due to caloric increase and the sedentary life. We are fat because we are couch potatoes, is the prevailing wisdom. It has nothing to do with the corn syrup we ingest every year.
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Well now a lot of people aren’t buying it. Literally. They haven’t been buying it for a number of years. So the good people who have been giving you bad foods are turning back to making their foods and beverages with sugar cane. They even boast their food products are “natural” and some even trumpet the health benefits of the sugar cane compared to corn syrup. Hey, anything for a buck.

I have to marvel over the miracle of the free market. This is the law of supply and demand at its finest. People no longer want something they fear is unhealthy in their foods and drinks and the manufacturers are forced to respond. The vendors re-arrange the furniture, so to speak, and spend the extra few cents on the ingredients and take the extra trouble to ship and store the more cumbersome sugar cane. Pretty amazing, eh?

But what is also amazing is that it took this long. For years now there have been health concerns about corn syrup. As the nation grew larger, the controversy stayed small. Until recently. As it has been said so many times over so many conditions, a change has come at last.

In the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, Galco’s a little Hispanic grocery has been for years carrying soft drinks with real cane sugar for many years. It is in fact the absolute Mecca for cane syrup soft drinks with aisle after aisle of cases of soft drinks from all over the world. Galco’s carried everything from the popular blends to the obscure. The owners let you mix and match. Galco’s serves excellent sandwiches, too, which presents a good excuse to wash them down with a bottle or two of Mexican or Irish soda pop.

As for the corn syrup, turn it into ethanol and put put it in your car. If your car gets fat, then you will know what to blame.

The Paparazzi Go Surfing

Last Thursday, several performers, testified at Los Angeles City Hall about the tribulations of the dreaded Paparazzi. Dutifully, the performers pronounced to City Councilman Dennis P. Zine’s stalwart task force how they were put upon, set upon and otherwise infringed upon by an uncaring, avaricious bunch of tabloid journalists who make their living following celebrities around. Of course no one offered how the Paparazzi could boost careers as well as hinder personal lives.

Sometimes getting photographed or getting written up in the tabloids is a trade off. You are annoyed, even hounded. Your business, as they say, it out on the street. But in return you receive more public exposure. It’s fair to say career have never really been made or broken by the Paparazzi. But careers have been boosted and lives have been damaged. The recent romp through the Beverly Hilton hotel and the subsequent cornering of former Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate, John Edwards, who had allegedly been visiting his mistress and love child, I’m sure did little to boost his chances for a cabinet position.

Then there is the recent situation up in Malibu where some of the youthful denizens decided to experiment with some notion of honor by intimidating the Paparazzi who were there to take photos of Matthew McConaughey who was surfing. I can well understand that McConaughey wanted his privacy but the notion of nobility among the privileged Malibu surfer dudes is about as laughable as another Brittany Spears beaver shot.

I remember when celebrities and aspiring performers had their publicists and managers tip the Paparazzi to ensure the tabloid media was present for whatever was deemed a seminal event. Like when dinner that night at Spago with a new love interest that would attract a lot more coverage than a mere dinner with friends. There was always some tipoff, some tempest in a teapot that could play out like scandal that the tabloids could embrace and for which the celebrity would benefit.
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I also remember hanging out for an hour or so with one famed Paparazzi photographer. He and his sometime partner were considered gruff and callous. They were infamous for taking photos in the most unusual ways, like one burying the other in sand and cover him with a newspaper, the popping out when the target strode past. Or using a really long lens to snare a shot of a really famous political personality who was topless on her private beach.

The day I sat with this photographer he showed me photographs he had taken not for the tabloids but for himself. They were photographs of famous people, of course. But the photos were sensitive and captured aspects of personality I hadn’t seen in other photos. There was one particular photo of the Kennedy matriarchy that was taken back when Rose Kennedy was still alive. The photographer had struck a bargain and offered that if the Kennedy women would pose for the photo, he would leave them alone. Well at least for the rest of the day. He took the photo and kept his word. They went on their way. The photo remains, and I still think about that photo from time to time. For the supposed gruff guy, the crass Paparazzi, there was artistic sensitivity working underneath.

But let’s face it, the world has changed and its hunger for photos and information about famous people defies all logic. I mean how much can you really care about someone else life? But more on that some other time. It is sufficient here to remark that celebrities have been hounded beyond any common dignity. Princess Diana was the most notable instance, and all conspiracy theories aside, what went on that fateful night in Paris’ Pont d’Alma Tunnel may have well been caused by an overzealous tabloid media.

The media can be ruthless. The path to celebrity can also be ruthless. When you sign aboard, you may get more than you bargained for. So at the end of the day, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the restaurant.