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First Person: Inside St. Louis Pit Bull Shelter
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Mangini opens up to national media
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Interview with a Temple blogger
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Indians announce spring dates
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Quinn tabbed to start against Ravens Monday night
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KSU Notes – November 11
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Cavs: Yeah, on That Issue of Privacy
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Buckeyes Roll 100-60 / Season Outlook
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Twinsburg likes chances, but warns offense needs to deliver
All Da King's Men:
Democrats Divided Over Abortion
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Simply Incapable of Telling The Truth
Akron Law Café:
Study says 2,200 uninsured veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance.
See Jane Style:
Muffle Your Muffler
Car Chase:
Clock Tender- Extending the Life of Collector Car Clocks
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Rumors: Akron Starbucks Closing
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Kimberly requests information on living in Columbus, Ohio.
Sound Check:
Aeromsith looking for new singer as Steven Tyler contemplates solo career
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – Why People Do Not Live in Northeast Ohio
Akron Gamer:
Video: 'Modern Warfare 2' hits the streets
Published on Friday, Oct 03, 2008
Root of the credit crisis
I understand that the primary impetus for this financial crisis was failed mortgages, including NINJA loans — No Income, No Job, No Assets. These loans were a result of a law called the Community Reinvestment Act passed in 1977 and amplified in 1995, which was supposed to end the banking process of redlining.
In effect, the law makes banks ignore their centuries-old process of awarding loans (bank loans are a privilege that's earned, not a right) to borrowers who meet certain minimum credit worthiness standards.
This is not a failure of capitalism, it is a failure of liberal policy-making that starts with good intentions but ends up injecting unnatural pressures on the free market.
Here's my question: If the mortgage market has seized this week and now mortgage money is extremely tight due to this crisis, are the banks in violation of the Community Reinvestment Act?
Shouldn't that be public knowledge? Wouldn't that exemplify the true issue? Shouldn't that law be repealed immediately, and with a great deal of fanfare?
Todd D. Rufe
Cuyahoga Falls
Declare war
on greed
With active wars in Iraq and Afghanistan plus worries about Iran and Russia, we seem to have lost sight of our oldest and perpetual enemy: greed.
Greed happens when ambition goes too far and harms others. Some examples:
Slavery: It's easy to get ahead when you don't have to pay for labor. It took a war to end this vile practice.
Child labor: It's easy to make a profit when you pay workers next to nothing. It took 30 years to outlaw this practice.
Coal mining: It's not too hard to make money when you don't pay workers real money and they are forced to buy everything from the mine owners. Many union organizers were beaten, arrested or killed trying to get a fair day's wage.
Exporting jobs to Third World (sometimes communist) countries is the current form of greed attacking Americans from within.
We need legislation to protect our standard of living, because we cannot compete with $1-an-hour wages unless we are ready to live like a poor laborer in China.
I know no one wants another war, but it seems that our old enemy greed has resurfaced again and a war on greed is needed. God Bless America.
Larry Harmon
Kent
Save historic
school in Akron
At the corner of West Market Street and White Pond Drive, we now have the new Judith Bear Isroff Garden, a delightful and tranquil space, but there is a discordant note.
Cannot something be done to restore the old schoolhouse, which must date from the 1870s? My grandfather Hemphill, who was born in 1860, was a pupil there, so I have a personal interest in its preservation.
The garden is so elegant and understated in its design. The building, I think, should be functional, but retain its original outline, and the windows should be unblocked.
Above all, please don't tear it down.
Patricia Lepingwell
Akron
A pit bull in lipstick?
We must do better
Sarah Palin's cute joke about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull being lipstick was a catchy and clever line, but it struck a contrary chord in me. Do I want a pit bull with lipstick in the White House, a heart-beat away from becoming president?
We already have one, without the lipstick, who has been pulling the strings in the Bush administration. Dick Cheney urged the attack on Iraq and keeps himself pretty much out of the fray, letting George W. take the heat.
What we need for the next four to eight years is a thoughtful administration that has well-developed diplomatic skills in its arsenal, not just belligerence.
Elliott Berenson
Chesterland
Sarah Palin
deserves respect
Sarah Palin is my kind of woman. Some feminists do not understand that women can have children, care for them and serve in government and their church at the same time.
The slogan of the Ladies Home Journal is ''Never underestimate the power of a woman.'' Don't underestimate Gov. Palin. I know from experience that she can step up to the role of vice president.
On a small scale, I juggled responsibilities while living in Barberton. Graduating from the college of law at the University of Illinois 57 years ago, one of seven women in a college of 462, I married a classmate, practiced law part time for 32 years, served eight years on the board of education, taught the high school Sunday school class at the Methodist Church and raised 11 children.
Their piano teacher, Tressie McIntosh, asked if I weren't contributing to the population explosion. I told her our children would contribute more to the world than the food they will eat, and they are.
Those 11 children have 19 college degrees among them, including two sons who are doctors and two sons and a daughter who are attorneys. My grandchildren are following in their footsteps.
Unlike those who are pro-abortion, we ''soccer moms'' (my kids excelled at academics, football, cross country and track) believe we can be responsible for our children and use our education and talents at the same time.
Feminists accuse Palin of not thinking. Palin just thinks differently than they do about life, traditional family, global warming, drilling in Alaska, intelligent design and other important issues.
Don't put her down. She has her reasons for the way she thinks. Give her a chance to explain and give her the respect she deserves.
Mary Hull Naumoff
Orrville
Reject cruelty
of the meat industry
Will 2008 mark the beginning of the end for the U.S. meat industry?
The escalating costs of corn and soybeans caused by harvest shortfalls, rising global demand and government-mandated ethanol production are forcing widespread cutbacks in the number of animals raised for food. So is the current credit crunch.
A recent report by the prestigious Pew Charitable Trusts recommends a phase-out of intensive confinement, which would force additional cutbacks. For the animals and caring consumers, such cuts are long overdue.
The 10 billion animals killed for food in the U.S. each year have no life before death. From birth, they are caged and crowded, deprived and drugged, manhandled and mutilated. At the slaughterhouse, they may be scalded, bled, skinned and dismembered while still conscious. Although 93 percent of consumers condemn such abuses, no state or federal law prevents them.
Recent undercover investigations by humane organizations have documented egregious animal cruelty at California and Iowa slaughterhouses. The resulting media coverage has led consumers to examine their own role in subsidizing extreme animal cruelty with their shrinking food dollar.
This is why, on or about Oct. 2 (Mahatma Gandhi's birthday), 400 communities in all 50 states and two dozen other countries observe World Farm Animals Day with public education events. The purpose is to expose and memorialize the cruel treatment of animals raised for food and to promote an animal-free diet.
It's a great opportunity for each of us to reject cruelty and to embrace a healthful, cost-saving, plant-based diet.
Louie Free
Boardman
Flaws in health plans
of the candidates
Thanks for shining the spotlight on one of the most important issues facing us in this presidential election (''Health-care chasm for McCain, Obama,'' Sept. 11).
With businesses straining under the growing expense of providing health insurance to their employees, John McCain's plan — which amounts to a new tax — is sure to give them the escape valve they so desperately desire.
Families will rapidly discover that their budgets cannot accommodate the costs of health insurance, regardless of the tax credit McCain wants. Cheap plans that provide little real coverage will proliferate, and no one's health care will improve.
The flaw in McCain's market-based assumption is that the consumers control enough of the capital to influence the market. It is the insurance companies that pool enough covered lives to squeeze down their costs (payments to providers) and reap the benefits of the market, which they do handsomely.
Barack Obama's incremental plan, on the other hand, may provide a better safety net for those jettisoned by their employers, but continues the anachronistic notion that places the responsibility for health-care costs on those employers, handicapping them in the global marketplace.
Without a universal mandate, there will still be uninsured patients and therefore unreimbursed medical expenses for emergency care that are passed on to the rest of us in higher health-care costs and subsequent premiums — another hidden tax. By keeping the insurance companies in the game, Obama also allows for the continued diversion of health-care dollars away from patient care and health promotion.
Either way, costs will continue to rise, without increases in quality. We will lurch inexorably, albeit painfully slowly, toward a universal single-payer system in which we all share the costs as well as the benefits: healthier, more productive workers, a healthier economy, and a healthier nation.
Keith J. Loud, M.D.
Copley Township
Root of the credit crisis
Get the full article here.
Comments
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stow, oh
Posted 07:14 AM, 10/03/2008
Well, Elliott Berenson, you need not worry. In last night's debate, Sarah Palin showed she's far more capable of being a heartbeat away from the presidenct than the clueless Joe Biden.
And in fact, this woman has more meaningful experience than Obama, a Chicago community agitator.
mogadore, oh
Posted 08:14 AM, 10/03/2008
Dear Peter: Since when can a candidate dodge and weave around the questions of the moderator??? She answered NOTHING!!! There is NO DIFFERECE between a McCain/Palin ticket and the just finishing mess called Bush/Cheney. Get a life Peter...and put the Kool-Aid down.
Posted 08:24 AM, 10/03/2008
Todd Interesting statistics at the website for responsiblelending.org. Go and check but they are something like -- 15 million sub prime loans between 1998 and 2006 -- 9 million were for first home buyers -- 56 million for for refinancing -- the rest were for second homes or investment homes. Yes were for NINJA loans but the vast majority were not. Many wanted the equity out of their homes for whatever reason (since interest rates were low during that time) and many also wanted an investment or vacation home. The real cost of this bailout appears to be derivative investents especially credit default swaps. Read about them and then you will understand how 70 million in bad loans turned into 700 million in baleouts.
Posted 08:28 AM, 10/03/2008
That should be 70 billion and 700 billion. Sorry
Posted 09:04 AM, 10/03/2008
I ought to read before hitting submit -- it is 9%, 56% not 9 million and 56 million. The important this is that the picture is not as depicted by the Media and if the credit default swaps are the real problem as many economists are suggesting the problem was indeed greedy Wall Street. The scary thing about the swaps as I understand it is that the holder of the security can issue and sell as many swaps as they want for the same security so when they drop in value the owe much more that the value of the security.
U, OH
Posted 04:16 PM, 10/03/2008
Excellent letter Louie. Eliminating meat from your diet is the healthiest & most humane thing to do for our health and the lives of animals.
Posted 05:54 PM, 10/03/2008
Ken, you mean like Joe Bidon did?
Posted 10:15 PM, 10/03/2008
While there are many different pieces of legislation and people are being blamed for this crisis we are facing there are a couple of important facts that everyone should be aware of..
1. President Bush pushed for more oversight of fannie and freddie in 2003...Read the NYT Sept.11,2003 issue..democrats disagreed..again read the article
2. In 2005 3 Republicans Created The Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Act..which would have placed greater oversight, regulation on Freddie and Fannie..the 4th Republican to join as a so-sponsorer was John McCain..read his speech in the congressional record Dated May 25,2006..once again blocked by democrats..
3. President Bush called for action and oversight on Fannie and Freddie 17 times in 2008...the democrats ignored him
4. The democrats lied to the American people standing up and declaring this crisis the result of failed Bush administration policies....You Decide. concerned about america or PLAYING POLITICS.?
Posted 10:59 PM, 10/03/2008
Brenda -- This bill never made it out of a republican controlled committee.
Posted 11:08 PM, 10/03/2008
Brenda -- read all the gory details at
http://www.govtrack.us/users/questions.xpd?topic=bill:s109-190
google is a wonderful thing
Memory Alpha, OH
Posted 10:04 AM, 10/04/2008
Mary Hull Naumoff:
You seem to be well off and since you were able to get a college education those many years ago, your parents sound like they were well-to-do, as well.
It's too bad all of that experience and education hasn't taught you to think.
Just an example; your comment about "those who are pro-abortion" which is a right-wing buzz-word for people who believe in women's rights. There are actually few in our society that are "pro-abortion" in the sense they want to kill fetuses.
"Sarah Palin is my kind of woman." Judging from that comment, I'm assuming you are a typical right-wing nut that appreciates a professional liar such as Palin (Cheney, Bush, etc). Any criticism of her is derived from what people have experienced from her since her thrust into the spotlight. Mostly lies about what she's done (i.e. bridge to nowhere). Why give her a chance; because she's a woman?
Posted 10:16 AM, 10/04/2008
Sarah Palin -- not a competent woman for the Vice Presidency of the US. I am a retired professional woman and I too want a woman in the White House but I want a competent woman. If the first woman to serve in the White House is incompetent no one will remember that they voted for an incompetent in the first place. All they will remember is that she was a female. She is sarcastic, opportunistic, and being manipulated by Rovian handlers. I want a woman who can actually lead not one who is being led.
