A new term is entering the legal field. Latham & Watkins lead the field in firing masses of associates in its offices worldwide. During the boom times, firms expanded too fast. Now, with less work going around as big clients enter bankruptcy, big law firms are letting attorneys go. This is not the usual “up or out” of older associates or losses through lateral moves. This is firing significant percentage of younger associates — including first year associates — in order to save the partner’s profits. Instead of managing better, they just jettison a hundred attorneys at a time. Latham led the way in this trend of screwing over young attorneys still with huge student loan debts at the expense of do nothing partners. If this guy was head of the Career Enhancement, he had a hand in these firings and probably the mismanagement that led to the chaos.

All it takes to debunk the tired talking point that government was responsible for banks giving out a disproportionate amount of subprime loans is the facts.

Type in “CRA default rates” into Google and get informed.

Salient paragraph from http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=did_liberals_cause_the_subprime_crisis

“Most important, the lenders subject to CRA have engaged in less, not more, of the most dangerous lending. Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, offers the killer statistic: Independent mortgage companies, which are not covered by CRA, made high-priced loans at more than twice the rate of the banks and thrifts. With this in mind, Yellen specifically rejects the “tendency to conflate the current problems in the sub-prime market with CRA-motivated lending.? CRA, Yellen says, “has increased the volume of responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households.” ”

Reality simply doesn’t support your political attacks.

Yeah, I’ve got a lifesized picture of that!

Seeing as probably 2/3 of the Senate GOP looks poised to switch parties, I think the odds of them asking probing questions of *any* Obama appointee are pretty darn low. ..

A bit of Fannie Mae history leading up to the current meltdown, all during the reign of Franklin Raines and Donald Remy:

On March 15, 2000, Fannie Mae Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Franklin D. Raines pledged to tackle America’s toughest housing problems through a ten-year, $2 trillion “American Dream Commitment,” designed to shrink homeownership gaps and serve 18 million targeted American families. “When we meet our new $2 trillion goal at the end of this decade, we will have helped create stronger, safer, and healthier communities; built wealth and savings among millions of families; stabilized neighborhoods; and eradicated discrimination and unfair practices in the mortgage marketplace,” Chairman Raines pledged.

About the only thing they created was the eradication of discrimination since just about anyone who wanted a mortgage got one. What a price to pay!

In its 2002 Report on the American Dream Commitment, Chairman Raines said:

“On top of providing good money, good lenders and good lending, Fannie Mae is heavily involved in disseminating good information. For example, we have registered more than 500 local agencies and 1,100 housing counselors to use our Home Counselor Online system to help consumers understand the home-buying process and financial requirements, and protect themselves from signing a bad loan. Almost everything you see in this American Dream Commitment report helps in the effort to expand responsible lending and combat irresponsible lending. With our good money, good lenders, good loans and good information—and the power of housing partnerships—Fannie Mae wants to help bring the best, most efficient housing finance system in the world to every neighborhood in America. That is our dream.”

We know who many of those counselors were, since as detailed in that same report, Fannie Mae announced a three-year partnership with ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC) and committed to invest up to $200 million in affordable mortgages originated by local lenders involving home buyers counseled through AHC.

Yes, that was some efficient housing finance system you cooked up.

And then we have Donald Remy:

On September 14, 2005, Fannie Mae announced that it would provide 1,500 homes rent free to Katrina evacuees from its inventory of foreclosed homes in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Fannie Mae had previously announced several measures to assist homeowners in affected areas with their mortgages including payment suspensions or extension provisions. Fannie Mae’s response to the disaster was being coordinated by Vice President Donald Remy. Fannie Mae was initially providing 1,500 properties for rent-free leasing for up to 18 months.

I know many more foreclosed properties were provided later. The question I have is what has happened since the expiration of that 18 month period? Are those homes on the foreclosure market, or are these evacuees still boarding for free? I would like to find out if we have started a new form of welfare under the guise of disaster relief. And as I said in a diary last week,

http://www.redstate.com/the_rebel/2009/03/17/speaking-of-obama-trial-balloons/

with all of the tent cities popping up around the country, watch out that Obama and his administration don’t start having the government buy up the vacant homes awaiting foreclosure, and begin a new program for the homeless.

As Barney Frank would say, nothing here, move along. I’m afraid that’s what our leadership-lacking Republican senators will be saying about Remy’s nomination.

In my book, his expertise in those two events is more pertinent to the DoD assignment and bears more scrutiny than his association with Fannie Mae.