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RSS FeedChris Dodd: Does he share the blame for the mortgage mess?
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| Yes | 83% | 43 votes | Total: 52 votes | |
| No | 17% | 9 votes |
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Add to FavoritesConnecticut's Senior Senator Christopher Dodd must share some of the blame for the current economic instability in both the U. S and world financial markets. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, It is Dodd's role to keep abreast of changes in the banking industry and lead inquiries into practices verging on unethical and bad business practices. Dodd is not the sole architect of the faltering economy, but in his role as committee chairman, he should have been asking questions after Leheman Brothers and Bear-Stearns went belly-up and had to be rescued with the help of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Benerke.
With the beginning of the second millenium, mortgage rates tempted Americans to buy homes, many under creative mortgage approvals that accepted little or no money down with very non-traditional pay-back terms. Some home buyers opted to pay interest only on their loans to make it possible to afford a house. Others chose balloon payments which kept initial payments low so they could buy now and worry about the bigger payments later. It's later and many of the them discovered too late they couldn't meet the terms of their contracts. Slowly, the house of cards began to tremble and fall. With the implosion of the subprime mortgage business, banks and the financial institutions that purchased subprime loans began to fail with a domino affect. When banks failed, credit for business loans dried up and jobs were cut as company after company laid-off workers.
Senator Dodd fell asleep at the helm. Either that or he thought the Federal Reserve's growing list of troubled financial institutions and banks was merely a compilation of contributing companies who donated to his failed 2007 Democratic presidential bid.
Dodd like a modern day Nero, fiddled while the banking industry collapsed. Or maybe he was too busy counting the pennies he saved from the preferential mortgage rate he received from Countrywide Home Loans for both his Washington, D.C. residence and his home in East Haddam, Connecticut.
Now after all of the bailout efforts by both the former Bush Administration and the Obama presidential cabinet, Connecticut's esteemed Senator has decided to hold hearings before the Banking Committee to determine what went wrong and how to keep it from occurring in the future. Isn't that a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped?
Dodd began his political career in 1974 when he was elected the House of Representatives from Connecticut's second district. He served three terms in the House before following his father's legacy into the Senate. For five consequetive terms, the voters of the Nutmeg state have continuted to return him to office. Perhaps now is a good time to take a hard look at the Senator's record and determine if he is the best political leader the state can offer help lead the nation through a deepening recession to people of the in the House of Representatives and now as a senator.
With the lastest mortgage scandal and questions being raised about Dodd's ethical practice of accepting campaign contributions from many of the financial lenders and institutions overseen by the Senate Banking Committee, the voters of Connecticut must ask themselves if it is time for Senator Dodd to to join the growing roster of unemployed Connecticut workers.
Learn more about this author, Jan Lazor.
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No
Chris Dodd, at worst, has the role of enabler in this mortgage mess. Yes, he had a hand in killing a regulatory bill in 2005, but he didn't singlehandedly deregulate the market. Dodd did not sell risky loans to Americans that could not afford them. And Chris Dodd didn't buy more house than he could afford and then walk away from it.
Yes, Dodd does share some blame for the deregulation of the financial industry in 1999. But so do the other 89 Senators who voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act. And so does President Bill Clinton, but it is somewhat out of vogue to launch partisan attacks against him lately. It is also out of vogue to attack Senator McCain, so we won't point out that he said that deregulation was "helpful" to the economy.
Neither Clinton, Mc Cain, or Dodd have a home in foreclosure, and this is the real root of the economic meltdown that has this country, and the world, in its grip. When trillions of dollars in loans suddenly turn into worthless bank owned properties, is it really fair to only blame politicians? The roles of banks, consumers, or mortgage agents instead can only be conveniently ignored when one only cares about blaming someone who is a member of an "enemy" political party in a thinly veiled attempt at a partisan attack piece.
Partisan solutions to the economic crisis include somehow winning a congressional election in 2010, blaming the other side, and criticizing recovery plans. It is unclear as to how these solutions will help this country right now, just as it is unclear just how Senator Dodd's ideas for economic recovery are bad. Instead, we get ad hominem attacks against Dodd, and very little talk about exactly what Senator Dodd wants to do or even Dodd's opinions.
Dodd has a share of the blame in this economic crisis, but unlike the consumers that have helped to create these problems, he has the power, the experience, and the ability to help solve these same problems. The rest of us are only able to pay our bills on time, educate ourselves about the root causes of these issues, and tell our elected representatives just what we want them to do. Partisan finger pointing does little in the way of problem solving, and playing the blame game only serves those who value political victory over economic recovery.
The time has passed for finger pointing and blame, and the public good can be better served by a public dialog free of attacks and full of ideas.
Learn more about this author, Brian Smothers.
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