''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

And then......

Link

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

<snip>
''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Enjoy this video.

I mean, the Democrats were going to fix the "high prices of $2.15 in October 2006 and used that as part of their campaign claims to win the House and the Senate.

How did that work out??? Well, by July 2008 gasoline was over $4.00 a gallon.

Ga, you can make claims but the Internet has a long memory.

Just 17 months later gasoline was around $4.00, unemployment was rising as fast as the stock market was falling. In those short 17 months the Democrats had managed to convince the oil speculators they wanted high prices and would induce them by blocking legislation to encourage/allow new drilling.

The usual songs of "alternative" and "green" and "environment" had been played by the Democrats like a they were a bought DJ pushing the latest records that teens were supposed to buy.

The housing bubble, driven by Democrat policies and opposition to Republican attempts to regulate the boom, had started bursting in 2007. The Feds started pumping money and cutting rates and by March/April 2008 the bleeding, though not stopped, was under control.

Oil jumped drastically in May, June and July and the economy started collapsing and the patched housing bubble burst like a water balloon dropped on a hot July sidewalk.

In July Bush, too late in my opinion, issued an EO rescinding the EO that was part of the Feds block of drilling off shore. The speculators realized that there would be no shortage.

Gasoline prices started falling and had reached $1.81 by the day Obama was sworn in.

In the meantime Obama had opined on MSNBC in 8/2008 that he didn't mind high gasoline prices, he just wanted them to rise slowly.

Then immediately after he was sworn in Salazar announced that all the public lands that had just been opened would again be closed.

The speculators and oil mavens aren't fools. So Obama got what he wanted... a slow rise to near $4.00...

In the meantime he lectured us on keeping our cars tuned and tires inflated and opined that the world would be saved by such as Solyandra...

What a joke he has been.

But his actions have kept the economy depressed and that is going to keep him from a second term.

What I'm thinking is that these people were/are ticked off enough to show up for a primary where there may have been nothing going on, then they're sure to show up in November. My point is what if they are 30% of the voters in OH instead of 28% in 2008? (I don't know the actual numbers. I'm just using these to make a point). That would mean that Obama would have to work just that much harder in the cities getting people out to vote.

I really don't think these people like Romney because I can't see him really advocating for anything that helps them either. It's just that Jimmy Carter won OH in 1976 with something like one vote in every precinct and a few little changes can make a difference in a close election.

A letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) caused the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (UAFS) to reverse its policy and allow a 38-year old anatomically-male "transgender" student permanent use of women's restrooms on campus despite strong opposition from female students.