This book by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner was published in May 2011 by Time Books.
It’s subtitle is “How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armadeddon.” Sounds like more Republican greed to me. Let’s see.
The following are “faux adaptations” ascribed to the Chief Hypocrite for the purposes of commentary on the book and for criticism of the Huffington post for their third anonymous except of an “adaptation” in the Huffington Post. Did they pay for the right to adapt it?
In the summer of 2008, as the financial crisis gathered steam, Barack Obama, the putative Democratic presidential nominee, began the crucial search for a vice presidential candidate. The man he chose to lead his effort was James A. Johnson, the former chief executive of Fannie Mae and one of the most powerful men in Democratic circles in Washington.
But on June 11, before Johnson had gotten far in the vetting process, he resigned from the committee. News that he had received $7 million in cut-rate mortgage loans from Countrywide Financial prompted the resignation.
It was a rare trip-up for Johnson, a consummate Washington insider who had advised John Kerry in his run for the presidency, run Walter Mondale’s failed presidential bid and enjoyed, as he still does, a prestigious post as a director at Goldman Sachs.
But for many who knew Johnson and had watched him work his power base over decades in the nation’s capital, it was paradoxical that a raft of sweetheart mortgages from Countrywide had driven him from the Obama A-list. Indeed, Johnson’s ties to the burgeoning financial crisis were far greater than a few Countrywide loans. They arose from his eight years at the head of Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance giant that became taxpayer-owned in September 2008. Presiding over the company from 1991 to 1999 placed him front and center in the nation’s homeownership push, an effort that would bring about the worst financial debacle since the Great Depression.
And yet Johnson has largely escaped scrutiny in the aftermath of the crisis. This is surprising because under his direction, Fannie Mae capitalized on its government ties, building itself into the largest and most powerful financial institution in the world. In 2008, when the colossus fell, it required more than $100 billion in taxpayer backing to keep it afloat. Fannie Mae became the quintessential example of a company whose risk-taking allowed its executives to amass great wealth — but when those gambles went awry, the taxpayers had to foot the bill.
The Chief recommends this politically incorrect book with as many “likes” or “hootos” as can be generated.
An important question is why this “adaptation” is not claimed by any author. The Chief would appreciate receiving any information you have about that oddity.
Perhaps that is just the way adaptations are always done by the AOL savior, Huffington Post. If so, let me express my sincere apologies for the charge of political bias I am indeed suggesting is at work at the huffer who exploits the little guy who made them what they are for free and now greedily deny the 105 million dollar class action charges.
No worries, Arriana can afford it and she won’t jump ship, she was paid 315 million for her free huffing. Sounds like Exxon like excess windfall profits to me. Where’s the congressional calls for a windfall tax now?
Actually, she would not likely to have to pay anything, like the corrupt FNMA managers who contributed significantly to the financial crisis that hurt the little guy the most, AOL the publicly owned company no doubt will pay for the legal bills plus the ultimate settlement.
Remember who told us repeatedly the conservatives and Republicans were the greedy ones?
BTW, Bill Clinton ourscores George Bush by hundreds of millions. Where is that outraged outburst?
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