Legal Commentary

"Every Tool In The Tool Kit"

By Big Tent Democrat

I meant to write about this end of year markedly ridiculous Obama Administration puff piece by Ezra Kiein before, but work and college football got in the way. I just will point to one part to give you the flavor of the nonsense:

In housing [. . .r]ather than fundamentally reform the market, the administration and Federal Reserve focused on backstopping it. Buying a house in 2009 and 2010 was little different from 2004 and 2005. What had changed was the Fed using every tool in its toolkit -- and a few that people didn't even know were in there -- to keep interest rates low, the federal government handing first-time home buyers $8,000 to get into the market, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying virtually every mortgage that was issued.

(Emphasis supplied.) What absurd claptrap. The Obama Administration did virtually nothing to effectively address the homeowner crisis in the country and indeed, the results demonstrated that. The key failure was, of course, HAMP. What the Obama Administration did regarding the homeowner crisis was protect lenders, not homeowners. The policy was unmitigated disaster.

But in Ezra Klein's world, this was using "every tool in its tool kit." Just ridiculous.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 04, 2011 (boomark / email).