Fifty Two Card Pick-Up

The financial deck of cards that was built into a house came crashing down due in large part to lack of over site and understanding of regulation.

This was accomplished systematically by the Clinton Administration toward the end of the 90's and brought to a whole new level by the Bush White House.

During Clinton's 2nd term in office an attempt was made to increase loan accessibility for low-income buyers which resulted in Fannie Mae, the nation's largest home mortgage underwriter, relaxing credit requirements on the loans it would purchase from other banks and lenders.

To review:

Sub prime Lending= loans to high-risk borrowers with poor credit.

High-Risk FICO score= 620< lower credit risk characteristics of the typical sub prime borrower.

Sub prime loans can offer borrowers with poor credit a chance to own a home or repair damaged credit, but comes at a price of higher interest rates and increased fees. It is not by chance when a person is hit with late fees on their credit card account causing overdrafts to their credit limit, resulting in overdraft charges. These higher fees offset the lender for the increased costs associated with servicing high risk clients.

Everyone has dirt on their hands for the degradation of the financial system. Sub prime predatory lenders and the continued lack of effective government oversight have taken the brunt of the blame in the media but others also at fault are mortgage brokers for guiding borrowers into irresponsible loans, appraisers for inflating housing values and Wall Street investors for backing sub prime mortgage securities without verifying the strength of the underlying loans.

Borrowers should also be criticized for entering into loan agreements they could not fulfill and were only approved for the loan because of falsified and unverified financial records.

We seem to be on a ten to fifteen year cycle of booms and busts. Maybe the answer is curbing growth in annual GDP by increasing taxes and creating a larger safety net for citizens willing to take high risks.

The lesson here can be summed up in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "A nation that expects to be ignorant and free, expects what never was and never will be."

Give Stem Cells A Chance

I’m not going to get into an argument about whether or not I think an embryo is a human life. I will argue that the majority of the representatives in the House and Senate voted to allow the federal funding of stem cell research of human embryos.

These representatives of the people were stopped by one man who knew all too well the pen is mightier than the sword.

George W. Bush made it his personal mission to stop the federal funding of stem cells because of ideology. Good for him, he stuck to his guns. Unfortunately for the rest of us the former president didn’t have his finger on the pulse of the nation and with one fell swoop of the veto pen, ended the discussion.

George Washington understood the importance of getting fresh blood and new ideas into the executive office. This is evidenced by his willingness to relinquish power after only two terms. Without that precedent being set it is possible that term limits would never have been established and G.W. Bush could terrifyingly be serving out his third term. The very idea makes me shudder so let's be rid of such egregious thoughts and move on to greener pastures.

From the East Wing of the White House, President Barack Obama announced recently the removal of restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research put in place by the Bush administration.

“At this moment, the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown…but that potential will not reveal itself on its own. Medical miracles do not just happen simply by accident. They result from painstaking and costly research,” Obama said.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, the source of all cells and tissue, including brain, blood, heart, bones and muscles. Embryonic stem cells come from days-old embryos and can produce any type of cell in the body. Scientists hope to exploit the transformational qualities of stem cells to treat a variety of injuries and diseases including cancer and cystic fibrosis.

The goal is to quickly undo the legacies of the Bush era that Obama sees as holding back progress, particularly those motivated by politics or religion. The decision was a clear repudiation of the approach taken by the current president’s predecessor.

There is this guy I keep reading about. His name is Albert Einstein and he is known to have espoused many profound thoughts in his time.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind,” Einstein said.

But I’m sure Bush has a better comprehension of the cosmos than the a**hole who proved space is curved.

Tell me which way to the ranch cause I hear there's some brush that needs to be cleared.

Ahh, somewhere in Texas a village finally has its idiot back.