Please take note of the parts I bolded below in the AP story that all the other articles point to as their source.
There is now evidence and an admission that the Bush administration has known for over a year that there was a serious problem in our financial system, serious enough that it warranted FBI investigations during the past year, and they did absolutely nothing to stop the continuation of it while investigations were underway. This wasn't a set of unexpected circumstances that no one foresaw, it was an effort at covering up the problem before it got out of hand and developed into a crisis. The FBI is now looking for a scapegoat to hang the whole thing upon.
While the FBI is investigating the corporations, the Congress needs to do their own investigation. What did the Bush Administration know and when did they know about it and who gave the orders to not act upon what they knew?
This is the same thing that occured in relation to the warnings the Bush Administration ignored about emenent terrorist attacks on our country before 9/11. They made no effort to protect American citizens from that.
This is the same thing they did relevant to the studies and warnings about the potential for catastrophic damage to New Orleans levies from a hurricane years before Katrina. They made no effort to protect American citizens from that.
This is the same thing they did relevant to ignoring the recommendations of the 911 commission about shoring up homeland security. They still have made no effort to protect American citizens with these recommendations.
This is the same thing they did for the last five years relevant to the warnings from local and state governments of a mortgate/foreclosure crisis in their states.
The only thing they've done to protect American citizens was to protect us from weapons of mass destruction and they even got that wrong and are now ignoring all the warning signs pointing to a build up of terrorists camps elsewhere.
We can not afford another four years of an administration that ignores all the warning signs leading up to a crisis in hopes that it will just go away.
This isn't trickle down economics, this is a clogged up pipeline that needs to be run through with a middle class worker's plumber's snake to remove all the accumulated gunk inside it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080924/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/financial_meltdown_investigationFBI investigating companies at heart of meltdown
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.
Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.
The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official said.
The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing and are in the very early stages.
Officials said the new inquiries bring to 26 the number of corporate lenders under investigation over the past year.
Spokesmen for AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday evening. A Lehman spokesman did not have an immediate comment.
Just last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller put the number of large financial firms under investigation at 24. He did not name any of the companies under investigation but said the FBI also was looking at whether any of them have misrepresented their assets.
Over the past year as the housing market cratered, the FBI has opened a wide-ranging probe of companies across the financial services industry, from mortgage lenders to investment banks that bundle home loans into securities sold to investors. Mueller has previously said the FBI's hunt for culprits in the nation's subprime mortgage crisis focused on accounting fraud, insider trading, and failure to disclose the value of mortgage-related securities and other investments.
The investigations revealed Tuesday come as lawmakers began considering whether to approve emergency legislation that would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms.
The bailout proposed by the Bush administration is aimed at helping unlock credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe.
In the past two weeks, the government has taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country's two biggest mortgage companies, with a bailout plan that could require the Treasury Department to put up as much as $100 billion for each of them over time if needed to keep them afloat as mortgage losses mount.
Last week, the Federal Reserve provided an emergency $85 billion loan to AIG, which teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers was forced to file for bankruptcy after attempts to engineer a private rescue fell apart. All the companies were laid low from bad bets on complex mortgage-related securities.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made the joint decision last week that the only way to stop the carnage was to deal with the root cause of all the troubles, billions of dollars of bad mortgage debt sitting on the books of major financial companies. This debt has triggered the worst credit crisis in decades, causing credit markets to essentially freeze up despite the fact that the Fed joined with major central banks around the world to pump billions of dollars of reserves into the financial system.
Additionally, the FBI is investigating failed bank IndyMac Bancorp Inc. for possible fraud. Countrywide Financial Corp., formerly the nation's largest mortgage lender and now owned by Bank of America Corp., is also under scrutiny.
FBI widening mortgage fraud probeThe FBI is investigating for fraud at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG:http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/23/news/companies/fbi_finance.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes
Poll shows blame spread around, focused on BushGiven a choice, voters blame Bush and a combination of Bush, Wall Street, Congress, and Homeowners:http://allison-linnmsnbc.newsvine.com/_question/2008/09/22/1897791-whos-to-blame-for-the-current-economic-crisis
China, Japan, and Buffet buying up surviving banksJapan and Buffet buying up devalued American Banks:http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1843534,00.htmlhttp://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080923/goldman_sachs_berkshire.html
Buffet gets $5B in preferred stocks of Goldman Sachs (for comparison that's almost 100% of WaMu's current worth), plus $5B in common stock options.
Mitsubishi UFJ yesterday announced they will buy a 10% to 20% stake in Morgan Stanely, one of two major investment banks left standing. This is on top of the 9.9% stake China bought last December.
McCain's campaign manager Rick DavisJohn McCain is allegedly mistaken when he said his campaign manager had no involvement with Freddie Mac "for the last several years". Rick Davis's firm was paid $15,000 a month in 2005 until the takeover - allegations are Rick did no real work in return for the money:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26859857/
From the New York times. McCain probably didn't know and doesn't care.
More than 3/4 of Americas concerned, believe bailout benefits crooksSep 19-21 poll shows 79% worried about inaction, 77% believe the bailout would benefit those responsible for the downturn in the first place:http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/news/economy/bailout_survey/?postversion=2008092307
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