David Cay Johnston advises, "Journalists, start your skepticism."
Reporters, hit the streets and telephones to ask business owners if their credit lines have been frozen. Look at swings in the stock market and put the recent swings in perspective.
Look on the Internet and see all of the ads for the very toxic mortgages that are supposedly at the core of this mess. Ask why are 1.9% loans (in which you pay that in cash and the rest of the interest is added to your mortgage balance) still being sold? Find out who continues to buy these loans.
Lets do our job -- be skeptical and ask the core questions, not the detailed ones around the edges,
Michael Isikoff gives us a reason to be skeptical of McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' motives:
But neither the Times story—nor the McCain campaign—revealed that Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month—long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac's senior vice president for external relations, because "he [Davis] was John McCain's campaign manager and it was felt you couldn't say no," said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].
Robert Reich weighs in noting that one of the assumptions behind the bailout is that once all this "bad paper" is gone that everything will be fine. Unfortunately, job losses and an otherwise crappy economic outlook promise more foreclosures in the near future.
The culprit isn't just those sub-prime loans. With jobs and wages are dropping across America, many people who had been able to pay their bills no longer can.
It's no coincidence that states where mortgage delinquencies are highest are also states with the highest rates of job losses. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official rate of unemployment in California last month was 7.7 percent. That's up from 5.5 percent a year ago. In Florida, unemployment has climbed to 6.5 percent, from 4.1 percent a year ago. No surprise that bad debts are mounting fastest in California and Florida - and elsewhere around the country where jobs are evaporating fastest.
The Constitutional Accountability Center reminds us that the states saw this coming a long time ago, and tried to stop it:
What many do not realize, however, is the extent to which state lawmakers across the Nation attempted to protect consumers from predatory lending practices in recent years, only to be blocked by the Bush administration. Facing a rapidly-escalating foreclosure crisis states sought to restrict predatory lending practices both through their own laws and by calling on Federal Reserve to tighten regulations on the mortgage industry at the federal level. These state officials were stymied at every turn by the Bush Administration.
In other news:
Experts expect average home energy prices to increase 17 percent this winter compared to last year, with heating oil soaring 30.1 percent above last year’s prices. In addition, climbing jobless rates have contributed to a 9.5 percent increase since last year in the number of people unable to pay their energy bills. According to NEADA, 15.6 million households owed almost $5 billion asof March 31, 2008, an increase of almost $640 million over the same period in 2007.
And what's it been now, 41 days since a McCain press conference? The media is starting to get surly:
Relations between John McCain and the press corps that was once described as his "base" have fully deteriorated. After an appearance in Strongsville, Ohio, on Tuesday, the Senator blissfully ignored questions about the bailout plan from nearby reporters, prompting one journalist to scream out: "Has your bus become the No Talk Express?"
McCain offered a smirk at the line but kept on walking. "Ok, pool, back to the vans!" said an aide. "That was fun."
I bet someone pays for that last remark.
Post new comment