Thread: Are you "Furious".

Originally Posted by Crotalus

Wow! This is actually humorous. I think it is an example of what happens when the government meddles in the free market.

Title 12 part 25 of the Federal regs

You keep bringing up the CRA, do you know what it is? I mean really, not what some right wing propaganda vehicle tells you.

It was passed to ensure banks don't open up branches in areas for the purpose of getting deposits and then taking those deposits and removing them from that area without benefiting that area they are located in. It sets up various tests to ensure banks are serving the community they are located in. If they are not the worst that can happen to them is they can be made to close the branch. There are all kinds of exemptions for whole classes of banks and lending institutions where this Act doesn't even apply.

I've never heard of a single bank ever made to close a branch because of this act if I'm wrong correct me there. it doesn't force any bank to do anything and the Act really contains no enforcement teeth. It tries to make a community bank serve the community.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, CRA played only a minimal role in the housing bubble and crash. It was the non CRA loans that outweighed any CRA loans by about 9 to 1 i.e. the private sector loans that created the problem. All one has to do is check the facts. A fascinating book to read is the "Big Short", by Michael Lewis. Well documented.

Interesting read today from Fortune:

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features

Originally Posted by ryanjewell

Interesting read today from Fortune:

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features

It doesn't really matter whether the piece is true or not because this has now taken on a life of it's own and the manufactured "facts" are more important and believable than the truth. If Moses came and testified to the facts the rightees would accuse him of being a progressive and leading a cover-up.

It does put things in a very different light, though. Hard to believe the way it's been twisted and packaged into a simple narrative for mass consumption.

A few highlights, although the whole thing is worth reading:

"Republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false," says Linda Wallace, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation unit who was assigned to the Fast and Furious team (and recently retired from the IRS). A self-described gun-rights supporter, Wallace has not been criticized by Issa's committee.

...Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.

...By January 2010 the agents had identified 20 suspects who had paid some $350,000 in cash for more than 650 guns. According to Rep. Issa's congressional committee, Group VII had enough evidence to make arrests and close the case then. This was not the view of federal prosecutors. In a meeting on Jan. 5, 2010, Emory Hurley, the assistant U.S. Attorney in Phoenix overseeing the Fast and Furious case, told the agents they lacked probable cause for arrests, according to ATF records. Hurley's judgment reflected accepted policy at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.

That's the thing - the investigations are ongoing, none of us here has access to the documents or the testimonies, so threads like these are nothing more than demonstrations how gullible each poster is.

There are ongoing operations that the government conducts for the securityof this country. We don't know all the facts that made this operation happen. Nor do we need to know everything. There are operations that if made public could ruin years of intelligence gathering.. It would be more harm than good to release those details. Having been. On the receiving end of families that have lost family members during conflict in the service of the country i understand their pain, but most of the time it is the misfortune of being in combat. There is no conspirecy, these things happen... I am sorry for the families loss and understand theiir desire to get their pound of flesh.. I would to if it was my son... But, their anger is misdirected.. Focus on the cause, the cartels and illegal immigration is the problem. 50,000 people have died in mexico over the last 6 years. 5,000 in The middle east.. We need to focus more on the two war front we are fighting. If you think we are not at war, then you should probably re evaluate the issues south of the border.

Of course the general public doesn't have all the information, but it is worth pointing out how much public opinion gets manipulated on such topics - particularly when a (simplistic) position has been chosen as some kind of rabble-rousing battle cry.

Originally Posted by 1OldGI

Wait until next week when the Supreme Court rules in favor of 70% of Americans and kills Obamacare. And November? Forget about it, I for one am spiking football early and often.

You should probably hold off on spiking the football until after a touchdown:
BBC News - US Supreme Court upholds healthcare reform law

To someone like myself who did this kind of work and knows how things go the Fortune article looks about right to me.