Can you believe Barney Frank’s name surfaces again? Me neither! Perhaps it’s just FOX news making stuff up?
Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.
So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.
Just in case there’s any doubt, which is hard to believe, partner means boyfriend/lover. The seeds of a conflict of interest? No way says Frank…
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
“It’s absolutely a conflict,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. “He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
“If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have – or at least what’s not in the stock market – that this would be considered germane,” added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. “But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard.”
What did Moses do at Fannie?
The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses “helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs.”
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.
And could Barney take any responsibility for the crisis?
Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.
Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.
Didn’t think so!
And one more thing, the Clinton’s sure aren’t sounding like main stream Democrats these days. What’s up with that? Hillary in 2012 perhaps? Nah, couldn’t be… could it?
And I want to say a few more words about taking responsibility, not in this case but in general. It seems people simply don’t want to take responsibility for decisions they are responsible for. Take Bob Hullinghorst, Boulder County Treasurer that has at least temporarily lost access to $601,000 of County funds due to investments in the Colorado Diversified Trust. Should Bob have been able to realize that capital was at risk with this investment? That’s unclear. Still, who decided to make the investment? Either he was or someone in his department. Who should take responsibility, well Mr. Hullinghorst of course.
I see a difference between taking responsibility and perceived incompetence. I think Mr. Hullinghorst, who isn’t paid like a investment expert or hedge fund manager was probably making prudent investments. Still, it happened under his watch and it’s his responsibility. Take responsibility or find a new job.
I don’t think Bob needs to find a new job, just be a stand-up guy, say “Hey it happened under my watch, so I’m responsible. I apologize to the citizens of Boulder County and we’re taking all reasonable steps to retrieve these assets as close to full price as we can.
