The Long Reach of Barney Frank
Not much to look at, is our Barney. He bears no resemblance to the great despoilers of history. But even though you’d never mistake him for Tamerlane, Attila the Hun, or a Viking Berserker his reach is long and his wrath, terrible. And, like the conquerors of old, after he has got what he wants he just rides on, leaving the poor, dumb, ordinary schnooks to scurry around and try to deal with the consequences.
During his campaign of conquest he was invincible. When people would argue that Fannie Mae was getting into dangerous territory Barney and his lieutenants would smite them. He continued making banks write bad mortgages, and making Fannie Mae suck them up. And Fannie turned the bad mortgages into bad securities and sold them. And Barney’s buddy, Chris Dodd, who had an “in” at AIG, helped AIG sell insurance policies guaranteeing that the securities based on the bad mortgages were good and would pay up if they weren’t. And if it all collapsed there was always Uncle Sam. Wouldn’t cost Barney and his accomplices a penny. Nothing to see here. We’ve moved on.
Now, according to the New York Times, Barney’s housing Ponzi scheme has acquired an international reach.
MIAHUATLÁN, Mexico — During the best of the times, Miguel Salcedo’s son, an illegal immigrant in San Diego, would be sending home hundreds of dollars a month to support his struggling family in Mexico. But at times like these, with the American economy out of whack and his son out of work, Mr. Salcedo finds himself doing what he never imagined he would have to do: wiring pesos north.
And that’s not the worst of it.
Still, although a study by the Pew Hispanic Center from July showed a sharp decrease in the number of Mexicans heading north, there has been no sign of a mass exodus of migrants back to Mexico. Immigrants’ families say it took great effort to scrape together the thousands of dollars needed to send relatives to the United States, a sum that includes the fees charged by the people who help them sneak in.
Now isn’t that a kick in the head! There was no Barney Frank to threaten the Coyotes (the people smugglers) with regulatory ruin if they didn’t offer no-doc no-down loans so the Salcedos HAD TO COME UP WITH CASH! Bummer. Not only is the U.S. Treasury tossing billions into the pit left by Barney’s idea for Affordable Housing (affordable, apparently, by Uncle Sam) but now the Mexicans are having to pitch in to the Great Frank Money Suck.
But don’t worry. Barney is not depressed by all this. Or even slowed down. He’s now working on a plan to do the same thing to the FHA.
Meanwhile, down in Mexico, there are some people who are starting to get the message that the Democrats have their own version of trickle down. Except in their version it’s not money doing the trickling.
