Imagine for a moment that a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives sitting on the House Banking Committee which had jurisdiction over Fannie Mae had a wife who served in a high level positon at Fannie Mae.
Would the shit hit the fan or what? Democrats would be calling for him to step down from the banking committee and calling for a a probe into his ethical conduct while serving on that committee.
But what if the same thing happened, but it was Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) involved with the executive at Fannie Mae?
Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.
So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.
Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
That's right. Nothing was done. Nothing at all. Read the entire article to read how Frank blocked all attempts at imposing new regulation on Fannie while his lover was working there. Read the entire article to read how far Frank's fingers are into this entire mess facing us today.
Chip Flowers
