Bush Honchos Nationalize Private Mortgage Businesses

The US State Department and its surrogates go around the world monitoring the economies and policies of governments in order to see to it that industries are privatized and opened up to "free trade" mandates dictated by multinational corporations. However, in a move designed to get a handle on the slumping housing market, the US government has taken over the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The Bush administration has been careful not to use the word, but its takeover amounts to “nationalizing” the two privately held businesses.

AFL-CIO chief economist Ron Blackwell says [watch video, below], "Housing prices are falling faster presently than during the Great Depression. This is very serious."



Don't expect US government funded groups like the International Crisis Group (ICG) (a "bevy of detached "intellectuals" that seems to think that they need to hold forth on all world issues") to report on the Bush administration's hypocrisy on the issue of privatization. Their report's "findings" are geared towards coinciding with the goals of the US State Department. And privatization (i.e. "making the world safe for American corporations") is a goal that is often at the bottom of US interventions into the sovereign politics of nations like Venezuela and Haiti.

VENEZUELA

"Large social service programs, termed “missions”, have been launched in poor neighbourhoods and helped gain popular support for the government. State control of the economy, not just the vital oil sector, has increased, as has pressure on opposition media and NGOs".

The report concludes:
...increase efforts to improve the medium to long-term sustainability of social and infrastructure programs by attacking inflation and fiscal deficits and avoiding excessive state control of the economy...

Venezuela: Hugo Chávez’s Revolution
ICG Report: Latin America Report N°19 (02.22.08)

HAITI

"He [Aristide] offered an explanation rarely heard in discussions of Haitian politics--actually, he offered three: "privatization, privatization and privatization."

"...Washington's negotiators made one demand that Aristide could not accept: the immediate sell-off of Haiti's state-owned enterprises, including phones and electricity. Aristide argued that unregulated privatization would transform state monopolies into private oligarchies, increasing the riches of Haiti's elite and stripping the poor of their national wealth.."

Aristide in Exile by Naomi Klein
The Nation (07.14.2005)

At the risk of sounding sanctimonious; the US must avoid "excessive state control," If allowed to "nationalize" industries, the US faces an increased risk of conflict. We must all work to "PREVENT CONFLICT WORLDWIDE." Even if we first have to see to it that preferred "opposition groups" are well-funded, represented and ready to step in and achieve "freedom" and "democracy."

60 Minutes Misses Black Carcasses for the Forest

This past Sunday 60 Minutes featured a segment called House Of Cards: The Mortgage Mess. "60 Minutes" Reports On How The Subprime Loan Crisis Is Shaking Markets Worldwide.

Click here to play video.
I was appalled by the way that 60 Minutes failed to point out that this crisis is responsible for the biggest loss of wealth for African Americans in modern US history.

"A startling new report has predicted the subprime mortgage crisis will cause people of color to lose up to $213 billion, leading to the greatest loss of wealth in modern U.S. history. The figure appears in a new report from United for a Fair Economy called “Foreclosed: The State of the Dream 2008.” The group accuses mortgage lenders of deliberately targeting the poor and people of color with high-cost loans."
Report: Subprime Mortgage Crisis Causing African Americans to Experience Greatest Loss of Wealth in Modern U.S. History
Democracy Now! - Nov. 29, 2008

The subprime crisis is hitting hardest in black and urban neighborhoods and destroying the wealth of current and future generations of blacks who might become homeowners. Owning a home has traditionally been a way to achieve financial parity in this country.

Also, 60 Minutes fails to point out the structural problems inherent with a system where 1 out 4 subprime loans are expected to go into foreclosure.

"The latest statistics show US foreclosure filings nearly doubled in October from the same month last year. Nearly 225,000 foreclosure filings were reported last month, a 94% spike over October of 2006. And economists project the figures will only get worse in 2008, when some two million homeowners potentially face foreclosure when their adjustable-rate mortgages reset at higher rates.

African American and Latino homeowners have been particularly hard hit. A recent study by ACORN found that upper-income African Americans and Latinos were more than three times as likely as upper-income whites to have a high-cost loan."

Minorities Hit Hardest by Subprime Mortgage Crisis

Democracy Now! - Nov. 29, 2008

I was appalled that this aspect of the crisis was never even given a mention and the emphasis was almost wholly on the loss in the global markets by speculators who were duped by Wall Street hucksters selling off the American Dream. The American Dream is worth just pennies on the dollar, under the inattentive gaze of the Bush administration, and as a result of the deregulation that began with the Carter administration; steamrolled with the election of Ronald Reagan and continued into the Clinton years and beyond. Reagan sure "changed the trajectory of America" and not for the better!

One troubling aspect of the piece was the racial dichotomy. My concern is for the unfair characterization of the black couple interviewed about their subprime mortgage. Whether it was intentional or not an unfair comparison was made. That the "dumb" couple who just did not understand the terms of their mortgage was the black couple and that the "savvy" couple who did understand, yet felt justified in "walking away" from the terms... seemed quite a stark comparison. Couldn't the 60 Minutes producers do better than that? It is an outrage that this is their idea of fair, unbiased reporting, if that was what they intended.

60 Minutes represents that there is no racial divide by ignoring the racial aspects of the subprime crisis. They did so by ignoring the people that it hits hardest. Then, to add insult to injury they present a false dichotomy with obvious racial overtones.