2 who warned of financial crisis win JFK awards
Mar 25, 12:14 PM EDT
BOSTON (AP) -- Two federal regulators who sounded early warnings about the financial crisis and a Liberian peace activist have been named the 2009 recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., was one of the first to warn about the subprime lending crisis, and has urged direct assistance to distressed homeowners as part of the effort to stabilize the economy. She has also criticized management of the financial meltdown by Wall Street and the government.
Brooksley Born, former chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, warned a decade ago that unregulated financial contracts, including credit default swaps, could pose dangers to the economy.
Credit default swaps, a form of insurance against loan defaults, are traded in a market valued at around $60 trillion. They figured prominently in the credit crisis that brought the downfall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., a government rescue plan for insurer American International Group Inc., and the forced sale of brokerage icon Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp.
Leymah Gbowee will receive an award on behalf of the women of Liberia for her efforts in organizing a group of Christian and Muslim women that helped end the African nation's civil war.
The awards for political courage announced Wednesday by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation will be presented May 18 by the former president's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, at a ceremony at the Boston library.
"As appointed officials and citizen activists, they have inspired all those who wish to bring about meaningful change to their political systems," Caroline Kennedy said in a statement.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PROFILES_IN_COURAGE?SITE=PASUN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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My Thoughts
I'm sure Bush and McCain was just overlooked. They'll probably get a call within the next few days and told that they are also receiving awards. So, Caroline, we'll be waiting for you to right this injustice and give credit where credit is due. Why didn't the AP mention it in their article? Could it actually be liberal media bias? Nah, it can't be that.
After all, Bush called for an agency to oversee Freddie and Fannie in 2003 that Congressional Democrats opposed because of "fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing."
"'These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. 'The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'"
"Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/business/new-agency-proposed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
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McCain, also, sought to reign Fannie and Freddie in 2005.
"For Mr. Obama's information John McCain saw this collapse coming as far back as 2005 and not only warned of the coming collapse but co-sponsored legislation to try and prevent it and go after the corruption that was causing much of the problem. Following is McCain's speech on the Senate floor during debate of Federal Housing Regulatory Act Of 2005 urging the Senate to pass the Act which fell to defeat after being blocked by Senate Democrats."
"Senate Democrats blocked the passage of the Bill and while it passed in the House it failed in the Senate because of the Democrats."
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http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/blog_entry/ken_taylor/2008/09/17/john_mccain_warned_of_mortgage_collapse_in_2005
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