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Swift Boaters and the Housing Crisis « The Washington Independent

Jul 31, 20209.9K Shares904.6K Views
Since housing and politics are so intertwinedtoday, it’s worth noting this postfrom The Big Picture, which details the role of swift boaters in a new development regarding the failed IndyMac Bancorp.
There’s a lot to explain here, since swift boating and the housing crisis haven’t exactly been linked previously. But via a Reuters report,The Big Picture says that 51 former IndyMac employees sent a letter to the California Attorney General’s office, requesting an investigation into Democratic Senator Charles Schumer’s rolein possibly causing the bank’s failure.
Schumer sent a letter in June to federal regulators questioning the financial stability of IndyMac, a troubled subprime lender hit hard by the mortgage crisis. Shortly after the letter was made public, the bank experienced a run by account holders. The FDIC took over IndyMac on July 11, and it became the third-biggest bank failure in American history.
The problem here, as The Big Picture notes, is there wasn’t exactly an authentic and sudden groundswell of indignation from former IndyMac employees. Here’s what really happened:
Who is behind this “groundswell” of (former) IndyMac workers? It turns out that the employee letter was distributed to the media by CRC Public Relations — yes, the group whose clients include the National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee.And, CRC was the PR firm behind the company that published a book questioning 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam service on a swift boat. Yes, those despicable, embarrassing festering boils on the Americans body politics: Liars, cheats & traitors all. Let’s review: It wasn’t the conflicts of interest, the outright fraud, or management’s rampant criminality that sent Indy Mac belly up. It wasn’t losing nearly a billion dollars this year alone. It wasn’t the share prices tumbling 87% in 2007, and then losing another 95% this year-to-date. And of course, the loss of ~$30 billion dollars had nothing to do with this. It was the Senator’s letter in June that was the cause of the collapse. Man, these swift boat guys are a dangerous combination of rabidly partisan, utterly ethicless, economically clueless — and about as dumb as lawn furniture. They make you proud to be an American.
Looks like the housing crisis is about to become an even bigger political issue, and it’s going to go well beyond the debates over foreclosures and rescue plans.
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

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