It's sad when just about the only place to get the truth about what happened to precipitate the current mortgage-lending mess is the Colbert Report. Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money" appeared on the Comedy Central show on Monday. The takeaway soundbites: Cramer said "I'd love to, but I can't" pin the blame for the debacles at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on President Bush. He noted that "the Democrats got a lot of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie and vice-versa. It was a big circle," and that this is what enabled the two government-sponsored enterprises to continue "to lend to anybody." Though Colbert was in attempting-comedy mode, Cramer eventually got to the point where he clearly wasn't kidding (video is at the National Review Media Blog link). Here's the relevant verbiage, which begins at the 2:20 mark (bolds are mine): Colbert: Let's count the different ways this is Bill Clinton's fault. Um, too much regulation, right? Too much regulation. Fannie, Freddie, bad, bad. Cramer and Colbert: Bad. Bad-bad-bad-bad. Colbert: Because he expanded that, right? Cramer: Well, they were allowed to lend to anybody who walked in. Anybody who walked in got up to 400 thousand dollars. Colbert: What are we doing giving loans to people who need money? Cramer: It's outrageous, outrageous, but it's also, what, they were set up to do that. They were set up to give people loans who couldn't get 'em otherwise. Colbert: So that's, so that' ...
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It's sad when just about the only place to get the truth about what happened to precipitate the current mortgage-lending mess is the Colbert Report. Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money" appeared on the Comedy Central show on Monday. The takeaway soundbites: Cramer said "I'd love to, but I can't" pin the blame for the debacles at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on President Bush. He noted that "the Democrats got a lot of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie and vice-versa. It was a big circle," and that this is what enabled the two government-sponsored enterprises to continue "to lend to anybody." Though Colbert was in attempting-comedy mode, Cramer eventually got to the point where he clearly wasn't kidding (video is at the National Review Media Blog link). Here's the relevant verbiage, which begins at the 2:20 mark (bolds are mine): Colbert: Let's count the different ways this is Bill Clinton's fault. Um, too much regulation, right? Too much regulation. Fannie, Freddie, bad, bad. Cramer and Colbert: Bad. Bad-bad-bad-bad. Colbert: Because he expanded that, right? Cramer: Well, they were allowed to lend to anybody who walked in. Anybody who walked in got up to 400 thousand dollars. Colbert: What are we doing giving loans to people who need money? Cramer: It's outrageous, outrageous, but it's also, what, they were set up to do that. They were set up to give people loans who couldn't get 'em otherwise. Colbert: So that's, so that' ...