Rahm And Freddie’s Excellent Adventure
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Barack Obama’s now official White House chief of staff, House Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), was profiled by the New York Times today. Rahm has a lengthy Democrat history, but the NYT left something out of the piece… Rahm’s stint on the board of fraud-riddled mortgage giant Freddie Mac. When Emanuel left the Clinton White House, he was given the plum seat on Freddie’s board, just as it was expanding it’s subprime lending. According to Freddie Mac insiders, Emanuel opposed EVERY reform of the quasi-governmental agency proposed by the Bush administration.
In 1998 it was the Clinton administration who ruled that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could satisfy their affordable housing obligations (mandated for banks by the Clinton administration) by purchasing subprime mortgages. This ultimately made it possible for Fannie and Freddie to add a trillion dollars in junk loans to their balance sheets. As we all know, this led to their own collapse, and to the development of a market in these mortgages that is the source of the financial meltdown affecting our entire economy. Having Rahm as a director, fresh out of the White House, helped grease the skids we’re sliding on now.
Emmanuel was part of a small crew that created the CRA-the Community Reinvestment Act, (some call it the Credit Redevelopment Act), and allowed applicants to secure mortgages without income verification. As the idea grew the “crew” formed the Freddie and Fannie programs as a (sort of) “job” for out of work democrats. After 6 years, the CRA grew, and Emanuel was able withdraw almost 200 million dollars.
Emanuel worked for investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, from 1999-2002, at the same time he was a Freddie director. He reportedly earned $18 million during his stay, largely by brokering large mergers and acquisitions deals. His client base was almost exclusively the Democrat party’s biggest financial supporters.
So, thank your new Chief Of Staff-elect for doing his part in facilitating the biggest global financial crisis of, perhaps, ever. Rahm won’t be making the kind of coin he did in the private sector, and with Obama’s income tax-hikes looming…that’s a good thing for Rahm. Fortunately for him he doesn’t have to pay property taxes either!
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November 6th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Check the facts on the Rahm doesn’t pay taxes story. Illinois Review apparently didn’t bother to:
http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/assessors-response-to-illinois-review/
November 7th, 2008 at 1:53 am
You’ve been punk’d!
The Emanuel tax story is a false urban legend.
He and his wife actually pay about twice the normal property taxes for their neighborhood. The confusion seems to be in that they own a double-lot (makes sense they’d be paying twice the taxes for a double-lot). The taxes are attributed to the street address of the vacant lot but actually cover the addresses of both the vacant lot and the lot their home is on.
In other words, the story’s false.
Ya might want to update your post here to let everyone know your source on the property tax urban legend is a dingbat.