Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following statement by former Representative Barney Frank entitled ``Trump's financial plans promise another Great Recession'' be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the Boston Globe, Nov. 28, 2016] Trump's Financial Plans Promise Another Great Recession (By Barney Frank) Apparently, one aspect of American greatness that Donald Trump seeks to recreate is the Great Recession of 2008. He calls for a complete repeal of all the rules that were adopted to govern the financial industry in response to that crisis, restoring to it the freedom to create unlimited debt throughout the economy, with no requirement that serious attention be given to the ability of the indebted to meet their obligations. By the '90s, the business of lending had been transformed by securitization. Lenders sold the right to repayment of loans, eliminating their incentive to worry about the borrowers' solvency. The financial institutions that bought the loans then packaged them into securities and sold pieces of these throughout the economy. Other large institutions then sold insurance against the failure of these securities to pay. The use of derivative forms greatly magnified the amounts of money at stake. When imprudently granted mortgage loans began to default, so did securities, leading to investor losses, and demands that the insurers make good on their pledges.…”