US News
Global crises need global solutions, world leaders warn (Roundup)
Sep 23, 2008, 20:46 GMT
French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at press conference at the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York USA, 23 September 2008. EPA/PETER FOLEY
New York - World leaders called for a revival of global institutions on Tuesday as economic crises have undermined development and growing violence and conflicts have threatened peace and stability.
In a stark address before more than 100 world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that the world was facing countless crises at a time when the leadership to address the turmoil was lacking.
'We all recognize the perils of our current passage. We face a global financial crisis. A global energy crisis. A global food crisis,' Ban said.
But 'we also face a crisis of a different sort ... a challenge of global leadership,' he said.
Other foreign leaders joined the appeal for the international community to come together to address the many global challenges.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an expansion of the UN Security Council and the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
US President George W Bush, in his final speech before the UN, said the world must unite in the fight against extremism and terrorism.
'Instead of only passing resolutions decrying terrorist attacks after they occur, we must cooperate more closely to keep terrorist attacks from happening in the first place,' Bush said.
He said nations have a responsibility to ensure terrorists cannot find safe haven on their soil, and called on countries to combat arms proliferation, human trafficking and organized crime.
A number of foreign leaders called for a new global financial order after a massive crisis in the US banking sector last week sent global stock markets on a nosedive, prompting the US Congress this week to consider a 700-billion-dollar rescue package.
Bush sought to allay foreign leaders' concerns. The US was taking 'bold steps to prevent a severe disruption of the American economy, which would have a devastating effect on other economies around the world,' he said.
Ban said a re-evaluation of the power of markets and capitalism was needed as the financial turmoil threatened to derail economic growth and cut aid to developing countries.
'We need a new understanding on business ethics and governance, with more compassion and less uncritical faith in the magic of markets,' he said.
Sarkozy said the world must 'rebuild capitalism,' while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slammed the 'boundless greed' of market speculators for putting global growth at risk.
Lula said it was up to those governments 'at the heart of the crisis' to bring the more immediate 'disorder' under control, but called for fresh international economic institutions to help improve regulation and make long-term changes to the global financial system.
African nations, in a one-day conference Monday, warned richer nations not to allow the financial turmoil to divert resources from foreign aid, which was sorely needed to meet the developing world's own crisis over the surge in food and energy prices in recent years.
Ban said there was a danger that countries were beginning to turn 'inward' at a time when the world's challenges more than ever required multilateral solutions.
International action was needed on everything from solving climate change, to reducing poverty, to fighting terrorism.
'If ever there were a call to collective action, a call for global leadership, it is now,' Ban said.
Big changes in the way the UN does business were also needed. Ban slammed his own institution for a 'dysfunctional' contract-awarding system and promised to unveil a new set of reforms in the next few weeks.
'We need to change the UN culture. We need to become faster, more flexible and more effective - more modern,' he said.
More than 100 world leaders were set to address the General Assembly between Tuesday and Friday, marking the start of a new year for the world body.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among those slated for the afternoon session Tuesday. A few hundred protesters gathered outside UN headquarters in New York, chanting, 'Ahmadinejad, out of the UN.'
His appearance was also slammed by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who told reporters that Ahmadinejad advocated a 'return to the age of darkness.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
Voters that put Bush in charge of this country should bail the financial institutions out. Anything less is unpatriotic!
'Global crises need global solutions, world leaders warn'
In other words, drop it all in the USA's lap and then complain about the way we chose to handle the problem.
The voters who put Bush in office will bail these institutions out, as well as the one's who did not vote for Bush.
This was preventable.Sep 21st, 2008 - 01:59:13
John McCain predicted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crises, pushed 2005 legislation to prevent trouble:
The 'FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERPRISE REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 2005' would have headed this off but it was killed in the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs by Chris Dodd who recieved the most money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
President Bush sought to rein in Fannie and Freddie in 2003.
The Democratic response to Bush in 2003:
“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.
“I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.
Please, please get some new information to paste in here. That is about the 10th time you have posted that smelly crap, get some new information about your career politician and then 'get back to us with that'. Please.
More Obama lies,
September 17, 2008 · (Abridged)
“These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'
Barney Frank 2003 in response to Bush administration overhaul plan.
“I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.”
John McCain
Obama and his democrat buddies never let the truth get in the way
of a good story. Never has this been more true than now in the face
of a financial crisis in this country. A financial crisis Obama and
his party created. What do Obama and Barney Frank have in common
besides being Democrats. They both were listed in the top 25
recipients of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
and they both are hypocrites. Obama is number 3 on the the list
and Barney Frank is 16. Obama, the candidate of change, was in
bed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yet he criticizes John McCain,
who along with George Bush, tried to fix the problem.
From a Wall Street Journal Online article:
Recent statements by Barney Frank (D., Mass.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), a powerful member of the Senate Banking Committee, make clear that Congress will never let them be privatized, broken up, slimmed down, nationalized or any of the other options hopeful reformers are putting forth today. Fannie and Freddie in their current form are just what Congress wants: an inexhaustible source of campaign contributions and funds for favored groups.
online.wsj.com/article/SB122117569863425755.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
Senate sponsors
Sen. Charles Hagel [R, NE]
Sen. Elizabeth Dole [R, NC]
Sen. John McCain [R, AZ]
Sen. John Sununu [R, NH]
House bill sponsors:
Rep. Richard Baker [R, LA-6]
Rep. Robert Aderholt [R, AL-4]
Rep. James Barrett [R, SC-3]
Rep. Roy Blunt [R, MO-7]
Rep. Geoff Davis [R, KY-4]
Rep. Tom Feeney [R, FL-24]
Michael Fitzpatrick
Rep. E. Scott Garrett [R, NJ-5]
Rep. Paul Gillmor [R, OH-5]
Rep. Jeb Hensarling [R, TX-5]
Rep. Walter Jones [R, NC-3]
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter [R, MI-11]
Rep. Patrick Mchenry [R, NC-10]
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R, FL-18]
Rep. Paul Ryan [R, WI-1]
Rep. Christopher Shays [R, CT-4]
Rep. Frank Wolf [R, VA-10]
Notice that there were no Democrat sponsors.
'WASHINGTON - The lobbying firm of John McCain's campaign manager was paid $15,000...'
These are the former freddie/fannie countrywide execs on Obamas campaign.
In the aftermath of the U.S. government takeover, attention has focused on three Democrats with close ties to Obama who served as Fannie Mae executives: Franklin Raines, former Clinton administration budget director; James Johnson, former aide to Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale; and Jamie Gorelick, former Clinton administration deputy attorney general.
All three Obama-related executives earned millions in compensation from Fannie Mae.
Johnson earned $21 million in just his last year serving as Fannie Mae CEO from 1991 to 1998; Raines earned $90 million in his five years as Fannie Mae CEO, from 1999 to 2004; and Gorelick earned an estimated $26 million serving as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003, according to author David Frum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
All three have been involved in mortgage-related financial scandals.
In 1998, according to the Washington Post, Gorelick, as Fannie Mae vice chairman, received a bonus of $779,625, despite a scandal in which employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions to manipulate books to meet 1998 earning targets. The moves, in turn, triggered multi-million-dollar bonuses for top executives.
Gorelick was embroiled in another controversy over an alleged conflict of interest when a 1995 memo she authored as deputy attorney general surfaced while she was a member of the 9/11 commission.
The memo, which became known as the 'Gorelick Wall,' appeared to establish barriers that barred federal anti-terrorist criminal investigators from accessing various federal records and databases that may have assisted them in their criminal investigations.
According to the Associated Press, Raines and several other Fannie Mae top executives were ordered in a civil lawsuit to pay nearly $31.4 million for manipulating Fannie Mae earnings over a period of six years to trigger their massive bonuses.
Raines was also forced in the settlement to give up Fannie Mae stock options valued at $15.6 million.
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Freddie Mac had engaged in accounting fraud from 2000 to 2002, imposing a $50 million fine on the company and on four executives fines for amounts ranging from $65,000 to $250,000.
Raines currently advises Obama on housing policy.
Johnson was appointed to head Obama's vice presidential selection committee, until a controversy concerning an alleged $7 millions in questionable real estate loans he received on favorable terms from failed sub-prime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial surfaced and forced him to step down.
www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75586
Wall Street is a form of legalized gambling and Prostitution in America. The People need to do a mancheck (balls) of all Congressman, Senators and US Government leaders to determine why America is being consolidated and sold to the highest bidder and why they are afraid to stand up and fight back. A 700 Billion...actually over a Trillion worthless US dollars is being used to reward rape and failure of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other prestigious universities trained business dummies to bankrupt our America. American Enthusiasm is the only emotion that is keeping our dollar alive, until others find out that there is nothing but hypes and snipes that values the American dollar (FIAT) system.
The Bush Admin and other leaders (Cowards and Traitors) are leaving America homeless and broke. The US\ taxpayer has no more money to bail out anyone anymore. Under the American Republic government, WE will bailout the American people first, and then decide which business concerns are valuable to the American economy and help those, all others like AIG, Lehman Bros, Fannie and Freddie, will just have to stand in the unemployment line. Paulson is a crook. Bush has placed a wolf to guard the chicken coop.
The American Republic is the only logical solution to help Americans get their (balls) back and do whatever it takes to gain liberty and freedom for all. Congress is a waste of talent....did the American people decide this bailout? No they were lied to by those that hide behind the truth.
Keep watch and pray, because soon the American Republic is coming back to reclaim America for Americans!
Today the New York Times launched its latest attack on this campaign in its capacity as an Obama advocacy organization. Let us be clear about what this story alleges: The New York Times charges that McCain-Palin 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis was paid by Freddie Mac until last month, contrary to previous reporting, as well as statements by this campaign and by Mr. Davis himself.
In fact, the allegation is demonstrably false. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006. Zero. Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation since 2006. Mr. Davis has received no profit or partner distributions from that firm on any basis -- weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual -- since 2006. Again, zero. Neither has Mr. Davis received any equity in the firm based on profits derived since his financial separation from Davis Manafort in 2006.
Further, and missing from the Times' reporting, Mr. Davis has never -- never -- been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Mr. Davis has not served as a registered lobbyist since 2005.
Though these facts are a matter of public record, the New York Times, in what can only be explained as a willful disregard of the truth, failed to research this story or present any semblance of a fairminded treatment of the facts closely at hand. The paper did manage to report one interesting but irrelevant fact: Mr. Davis did participate in a roundtable discussion on the political scene with...Paul Begala.
Again, let us be clear: The New York Times -- in the absence of any supporting evidence -- has insinuated some kind of impropriety on the part of Senator McCain and Rick Davis. But entirely missing from the story is any significant mention of Senator McCain's long advocacy for, and co-sponsorship of legislation to enact, stricter oversight and regulation of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- dating back to 2006. Please see the attached floor statement on this issue by Senator McCain from 2006.
To the central point here has made in the last 48 hours: The New York Times has never published a single investigative piece, factually correct or otherwise, examining the relationship between Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod, his consulting and lobbying clients, and Senator Obama. Likewise, the New York Times never published an investigative report, factually correct or otherwise, examining the relationship between Former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and Senator Obama, who appointed Johnson head of his VP search committee, until the writing was on the wall and Johnson was under fire following reports from actual news organizations that he had received preferential loans from predatory mortgage lender Countrywide.
Therefore this 'report' from the New York Times must be evaluated in the context of its intent and purpose. It is a partisan attack falsely labeled as objective news. And its most serious allegations are based entirely on the claims of anonymous sources, a familiar yet regretful tactic for the paper.
We all understand that partisan attacks are part of the political process in this country. The debate that stems from these grand and sometimes unruly conversations is what makes this country so exceptional. Indeed, our nation has a long and proud tradition of news organizations that are ideological and partisan in nature, the Huffington Post and the New York Times being two such publications. We celebrate their contribution to the political fabric of America. But while the Huffington Post is utterly transparent, the New York Times obscures its true intentions -- to undermine the candidacy of John McCain and boost the candidacy of Barack Obama -- under the cloak of objective journalism.
The New York Times is trying to fill an ideological niche. It is a business decision, and one made under economic duress, as the New York Times is a failing business. But the paper's reporting on Senator McCain, his campaign, and his staff should be clearly understood by the American people for what it is: a partisan assault aimed at promoting that paper’s preferred candidate, Barack Obama.
Statement by Senator John McCain, May 25, 2006:
Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae's regulator reported that the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were 'illusions deliberately and systematically created' by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae's former chief executive officer, OFHEO's report shows that over half of Mr. Raines' compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator's examination of the company's accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation
-John McCain
Better start growing extra skin fast, boys and girls. The faux money men are coming to collect on the checks they wrote on your asses.
page: 1
fight organized crimeSep 23rd, 2008 - 21:41:11
does he mean fight organized crime like the governments who are allowing the corporations to rip us all off?
the corporations that are no longer even selling anything but crap?
the corporations that despite record profits, are now begging for a handout, for subsidies?
the ones like Obama who is a dear friend of Freddie and Fannie and is being sold to us by the corporate run media?
Report this comment