Grumpa Joe's Place

In my business I learned about something called “root cause.” Whenever we were faced with the solution to a problem, we were to keep asking why, until we found the “root cause.” The concept sounds simple, but in the real world, looking for, and finding the root cause was not always easy. For the last two weeks, I have been looking for the root cause of the “bailout.” It hasn’t been easy, but slowly the facts surface and the source of the problem is emerging.

Back in the nineteen sixties Lyndon Johnson became President after John Kennedy was assassinated. LBJ wanted a legacy. He created the “Great Society.” He saw a world that  would be equal for all people, not just whites. His program was a response to the black civil rights movement. In nineteen sixty eight, with the support of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Congress passed and enacted the Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968). This law was enacted to eliminate discrimination within the housing market.

Tracing the path from the subprime mortgage failure to Barack Obama, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bill Clinton, ACORN, to LBJ is complex, but the underlying root cause of this catastrophic failure is the Fair Housing Act. Looking back on it, the act totally contradicts good business practices of free trading banks. It is a Federal givaway program to poor people across the country. We as a nation bought into this venture, and as long as everything was going well, we enjoyed the profits.

Several leaders involved in the melt down  enjoyed really big profits. I laugh when I hear the politicians speak about the “greed” on Wall Street.  The “greed” thing was being promulgated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The leaders of these organizations were cooking the books to make a bonus. Thank God the mess finally exploded. Who are the greed mongers? Three men emerge as prominent thieves.

They are: 1.) Franklin Raines, CEO at Fannie Mae, he left with a golden parachute of $240,000,000.00.

2.) Tim Howard, CFO at Fannie Mae, His parachute is valued at $20,000,000.00.

3.) Jim Johnson, CEO at Fannie Mae, jumped with a $28,000,000.00 parachute.

All three of these guys should be incarcerated, instead they went out and found new jobs.

Guess where they work now?  All three work for BO as economic advisors. With these three guys in his pocket, imagine how  BO will cook the books of the United States Treasury?

Can we really trust him to guard the hen house when he has all the foxes working with him?

Back to my original point, the root cause of this mess, the Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) must be repealed before it destroys the world economy.

Filed under: Election, family, Memories, Motivation, politics, Uncategorized, Writer | Tagged: bailout, Barack Obama, Bill Cliinton, Civil Rights Act, Congress, economy, Fair Housing Act, Franklin Raines, Freddie Mac, greed, Jim Johnson, John F. Kennedy, LBJ, root cause, subprime, Tim Howard, Wall Street | Leave a comment »