I admit it: I did not warn the country about the coming crash in the housing market because millions of people were in houses that they could not afford via mortgages that they could not afford. Did you? According to Michael Lewis's great little book "The Big Short", pretty much the only people who predicted the subprime mortgage meltdown were a few Wall Street insiders who saw it coming, kept quiet, and bet against the market.
But, wait! Newt Gingrich says he knew all about it. The other night in a candidates' debate, Gingrich says that, as a private consultant in 2006, he told Freddie Mac about the coming apocalypse and that its lending policies were "insane." But this Washington Post story, based on interviews with unnamed former Freddie Mac executives, disputes Gingrich's account: "None of the former Freddie Mac officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Gingrich raised the issue of the housing bubble or was critical of Freddie Mac’s business model." Wouldn't this be easy enough to clear up? You'd think that Gingrich, prodigious writer that he is, would have some written account warning of the subprime mortgage meltdown well before it occurred.
One other thing: Gingrich said at the debate that he was paid $300,000 for his Freddie Mac consulting. According to the story in the Post, his total consulting fees from the mortgage giant were no less than $1.6 million to $1.8 million.
good post except this isn't true: " crash in the housing market because millions of people were in houses that they could not afford via mortgages that they could not afford. "
http://abigailcfield.com/?p=492
Posted by: Abigail Caplovitz Field | Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 01:45 PM