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In addition, view an Obama letter re: Filipino American History Month here http://my.barackobama.com/AAPIFilipinoLetter
Speaker Pelosi revealed the latest revision of the proposed Wall Street bail-out plan earlier today, ahead of the start of foreign stock markets. Read the emergency-economic-stabilization-act-of-2008 here.
For those who are curious, here’s a draft version of the bail-out previously published by CNN and The NY Times:
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY
TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS
Section 1. Short Title.
This Act may be cited as ____________________.
Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.
(a) Authority to Purchase.–The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.
(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:
(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;
(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and
(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.
Sec. 3. Considerations.
In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for–
(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and
(2) protecting the taxpayer.
Sec. 4. Reports to Congress.
Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.
Sec. 5. Rights; Management; Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.
(a) Exercise of Rights.–The Secretary may, at any time, exercise any rights received in connection with mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act.
(b) Management of Mortgage-Related Assets.–The Secretary shall have authority to manage mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act, including revenues and portfolio risks therefrom.
(c) Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.–The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act.
(d) Application of Sunset to Mortgage-Related Assets.–The authority of the Secretary to hold any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act before the termination date in section 9, or to purchase or fund the purchase of a mortgage-related asset under a commitment entered into before the termination date in section 9, is not subject to the provisions of section 9.
Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.
The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time
Sec. 7. Funding.
For the purpose of the authorities granted in this Act, and for the costs of administering those authorities, the Secretary may use the proceeds of the sale of any securities issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are extended to include actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses. Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.
Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.
The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate two years from the date of enactment of this Act.
Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.
Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.
Sec. 11. Credit Reform.
The costs of purchases of mortgage-related assets made under section 2(a) of this Act shall be determined as provided under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as applicable.
Sec. 12. Definitions.
For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.–The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008.
(2) Secretary.–The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Treasury.
(3) United States.–The term “United States” means the States, territories, and possessions of the United States and the District of Columbia.
O’Neill: Bush Doesn’t Understand Crisis, ‘It Shows’
The President’s Former Treasury Secretary Speaks Out About $700 Billion Bailout
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit Sept. 25, 2008
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said today that our nation’s leaders — especially President Bush — are “in a panic” and haven’t thought through the $700 billion bailout plan very well in a rush to pass a plan by the end of the week.
“I don’t think he understands or knows much about any of this and it shows,” O’Neill said, adding that current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “knows a lot of about this, and it’s good that he’s there.”
O’Neill, who served as Bush’s first treasury secretary until being fired over diverging views with the president about tax cuts and other issues, didn’t have favorable things to say about the economic policies of either presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.
“I think most of what has been said by both campaigns about economic stuff is ill-informed and ill-advised,” he said. Asked for specifics, O’Neill said, “Everything.”
“Hopefully, whichever one of these two people ends up being president, my prayer is that they will be better than what they have said in the campaign,” O’Neill said in an interview with ABC News this afternoon.
“We have spun ourselves into a position where intelligent people don’t believe they can tell the people the truth and still get elected, so they pander,” he added. “One can only hope that they understand the difference between campaigning and governing, and that their governing will be better than what their campaign said.”
The Bailout Plan
O’Neill said that “we do need to do something to avert a complete collapse of the credit system” but added the administration’s bailout plan shouldn’t the only option.
“It is possible to re-liquefy the credit system without ‘We the People’ owning $700 billion worth of homes,” he said.
Instead, O’Neill would like for the government to calculate the present value of the mortgage-backed investments and then insure, rather than own, those assets.
Essentially, O’Neill said, we run the risk of become the largest owner of foreclosed properties in the world.
“We have notoriously no capability to do anything like that,” he said. “There is no agency of government that could actually do that job.”
Praying for Congress
O’Neill is pegging his hopes on Congressional leaders to investigate that option, because the Bush administration has the “door locked and they haven’t taken on any new ideas.”
So why is the president and his administration pushing so hard for this plan?
“I think it’s because they’re in a panic and they haven’t thought about it very well,” O’Neill said.
The bailout process risks being bogged down by a number of “sideshow issues,” O’Neill said, including executive pay and aid for homeowners.
“Not a lot of people are saying, ‘Slow down.’ They’ve actually done something a lot worse than say,
‘Slow down.’ They’ve introduced a whole bunch of sideshow issues like executive compensation and oversight committees,” O’Neill said. “All of that stuff is not relevant to the central problem of re-liquefying these financial instruments.”
He said there is “flagrant overcompensation” of CEOs but that is a separate issue that is not relevant to the crisis.
“This is a side show, and it’s frankly irritating as hell that the political process is so incompetent that it can’t differentiate the important from the trivial,” O’Neill said. “Right now, we have a kind of stay of execution, and workable, meaningful legislation is the only thing that is going to keep us from getting executed.”
Helping out homeowners is also a separate issue in O’Neill’s mind.
“It’s not to say that you don’t feel compassion and sorrow for people that have got financial problems,” he said. “But if your solution is to give them more money, then you’re going to have to take it away from somebody who’s got it.”
Having this crisis hit right before a key election is not helping.
“It complicates it because [Congress is] wanting to rush out of town &133; and get reelected,” O’Neill said. “So rather than doing this in a deliberate way and hearing from a lot of different, careful points of view, they desperately want to be able to leave town on Friday and not come back until the day after the election.”
Mortgage Meltdown Causes
O’Neill said we got into this mess because bankers were not making prudent decisions, because they believed that by reselling mortgages to Wall Street they weren’t going to be stuck with the problems.
“We suspended disbelief and said we can take people with no known source income or wealth generation and we can give them a $500,000 mortgage,” he said. “I think there’s a very important thing: When you violate fundamental principles of economics you can get away with it for a while, but eventually it’s going to get you.”
Does O’Neill wish he was still in office?
“I wish I was there two years ago became I think I would have blown the whistle of these unbelievable loan practices and we would never gotten to today,” he said. “That might be wishful thinking. It’s not possible to really know that. But I’m a detail guy and I think I would have been paying enough attention to the details that I would have stopped the music.”
O’Neill has been asked by the Obama campaign “on several occasions” to take part in conversations with the candidate on the economy with the understanding that his participation doesn’t represent an endorsement. He said he would be willing to offer the same help to McCain but hasn’t been asked.
Last Friday, he was on the telephone with an Obama meeting that involved the candidate, his running mate Sen. Joseph Biden, investor Warren Buffet, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former treasury secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, and the former chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Laura Tyson.
“I’m happy to be part of that kind of opportunity to talk about serious issues and bring the knowledge I have to bear on what people are thinking,” O’Neill said. “I’m happy to do that, and I’d do it for either party.”
Lawmakers Agree on Outline of Bailout
The NEW YORK TIMES Published: September 25, 2008
WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators from both parties said Thursday that they had reached general agreement to move forward with the administration’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system, authorizing unprecedented government intervention to prevent what President Bush warned could be a widespread economic collapse.
Emerging from a nearly three-hour meeting in the Capitol, Republicans and Democrats said the legislation would include limits on the pay packages for executives of firms that seek assistance and a mechanism for the government to take an equity stake in some firms, so taxpayers have a chance to profit if the bailout plan works.
The announcement that lawmakers had reached an accord came on a day of political theater at the Capitol and at the White House where President Bush met with Congressional leaders and the presidential candidates, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois.
“We’re in a serious economic crisis,” Mr. Bush told reporters as the meeting began, shortly before 4 p.m. in the Cabinet Room of the White House. “This meeting is an attempt to move the process forward. My hope is we can reach an agreement very shortly.”
Mr. McCain was seated at one end of a long conference table, Mr. Obama at the other, with the president and congressional leaders between them. Neither spoke, though Mr. McCain smiled broadly as reporters shouted questions that went unanswered by President Bush.
Some Republicans, ahead of the White House meeting scrambled to suggest that talk of an agreement was premature.
But lawmakers who participated in the detailed talks said that few substantive differences and no major obstacles remained.
“I now expect we will indeed have a plan that can pass the House, pass the Senate, be signed by the president, and bring a sense of certainty to this crisis that is still roiling in the markets,” said Robert Bennett, Republican of Utah. “That is our primary responsibility, and I think we are now prepared to meet it.”
Mr. Bennett, one of the senior members of the banking committee, made a point of describing the meeting as free of political “posturing.”
“I appreciate very much my Republican colleagues who participated in the meeting and added tremendously,” he said. “We focused on solving the problem, rather than posturing politically and it was one of the most productive sessions in that regard that I have participated in since I have been in the Senate.”
The bill would authorize the full $700 billion requested by President Bush, lawmaker said, but that Congress was intent on disbursing the money in installments.
One plan under consideration would release $250 billion immediately, with another $100 billion available at the discretion of the president.
They also said that there would be limits on pay packages for executives whose firms seek assistance from the government and a mechanism for the government to be given an equity stake in some firms so that taxpayers have a chance to profit if the companies prosper in the months and years ahead.
On Wall Street, shares, which had opened higher, rose sharply on expectations of a rescue plan. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 196 points.
The meeting on Thursday morning, in an ornate conference room on the first floor of the Capitol, was convened by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the banking committee, and Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
“We are giving the secretary authority that he will need in order to act and the funding that he will need,” Mr. Dodd said after the meeting, referring to the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr. “We also have dealt, I think effectively, with the issue of effective oversight, with homeownership preservation as well as with executive compensation.”
“We now need to meet with the Treasury Department,” Mr. Dodd said, “and go over these principles which we have agreed on amongst ourselves and obviously go back to our respective caucuses and talk to them as well.”
The news from Congressional leaders that they were in the final stages of reaching a deal stole some of the drama from the meeting scheduled at the White House in the afternoon.
Some Democrats, who had complained on Wednesday that Mr. McCain was pulling a stunt by saying he was suspending his campaign and returning to Washington, said the White House visit was a distraction. But lawmakers agreed that Mr. Bush and the candidates could help build support for the bill.
In a brief speech on the Senate floor, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said that in the next few days, he expected to cast the first procedural votes on the bailout plan, in which the government plans to buy distressed debt from financial firms and stave off what President Bush warned could be a widespread economic collapse.
Mr. Bush in a prime-time televised speech on Wednesday night appealed to the nation — and to reluctant lawmakers — to support the plan. And he asked Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama to meet him and Congressional leaders in a show of cooperation.
After the overnight drafting efforts on both sides of Capitol Hill — with pizza on the House side, and Thai food in the Senate — Democratic officials said they had completed a unified draft of a bill. (Negotiations between the House and the Senate can be nearly as complicated as negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.)
But even as Congressional leaders, including Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Financial Services Committee, said they had settled on the framework of an agreement, other House Republicans said there was ongoing opposition to the rescue package.
Conservative Republicans, in particular, have said that such a huge government intervention violated their free-market principles.
A group of Republicans, led by Representative Eric Cantor, a Republican leader in the House, were circulating an alternative plan that would rely on mortgage insurance, provided by the government, rather than taxpayer purchase of frozen mortgage assets.
A senior Republican lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to undermine the party leadership, said there was a “violent reaction” among House Republicans to the Paulson plan. He said backers of the alternative, one of several that have been proposed, believe that they can force negotiators to accept it as part of a larger deal.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California had made clear that she did not want to approve the bailout plan without rank-and-file Republican support.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting
Bailout foes plan day of protests: Grassroots groups and online activists rally against the proposed taxpayer rescue of Wall Street
By Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: September 25, 2008: 2:45 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The public backlash against the Bush administration’s proposal to use tax dollars to bailout Wall Street could spill into the streets Thursday.
“People all over the country are up in arms about this,” said David Elliot, a spokesman for grassroots advocacy group UsAction. “Our members are livid, and they’re hitting the streets.”
At present, there are 220 events planed in more than 30 states to protest the bailout, according to organizers at TrueMajority.com.
Several organizations have contributed to the planning of the protests, including Democracy for America, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) and labor unions.
A protest organized by the New York Central Labor Council took place this afternoon on Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange.
Another protest, which was spontaneously organized online, is also targeting New York’s financial district, where protestors plan to build a “pile of citizen junk” near the famous Wall Street bull statue later Wednesday.
“Since Bush wants to buy up Wall Street’s worthless investments with Main Street’s hard-earned tax dollars, some folks are planning to bring their OWN junk to Wall Street to see if they can get a bailout, too,” citizen organizer Arun Gupta said in a statement.
Gupta is the author of an e-mail message that initially inspired plans for the protest in New York.
Protests are also planned in Washington. Events are scheduled to coincide with a 4 p.m. ET meeting at the White House between Bush administration officials, Congressional leaders and the presidential candidates to discuss the final details of the bailout plan.
“The people we entrusted to run our economy have failed us,” said Alan Charney, program director of UsAction. “We can no longer trust them to get us out of this financial mess.”
Charney said the government should “put Main Street first” by ensuring that taxpayers have an ownership stake in the companies that benefit from the bailout plan.
It should also include provisions for increased oversight of the financial markets, limits on executive compensation and protection for homeowners facing foreclosure, he said.
Many of these issues have already been incorporated into alternative plans being circulated on Capitol Hill, something Charney said happened “because the American people are rising up and saying no, no, no.”
Arum: Left-handed Pacquiao to pose problems for de la Hoya
By DENNIS GASGONIA, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/10/2008 12:01 AM
Manny Pacquiao’s fighting stance will pose a “very big problem” for international boxing superstar Oscar de la Hoya when they meet inside the ring in Las Vegas, Nevada come December 6.
Top Rank executive promoter Bob Arum, who used to promote de la Hoya’s fights before the boxer eventually decided to become a matchmaker himself, said the Mexican-American has difficulties in handling southpaws.
“Oscar as I said time and time again, always has problems with left handers. His entire career he’s only fought two southpaws. One was [Hector] Camacho … and [Pernell] Whitaker,” Arum told dzSR Sports Radio during an interview Tuesday.
Arum said though de la Hoya managed to win over the two boxers, the six-division champ had trouble dominating them and to think that he was still at his peak when he fought Camacho and Whitaker.
“So I’m very confident with Manny’s chances… the way he throws his punches, he’s faster than Oscar, he’s elusive,” said Arum.
The Top Rank head honcho added that he will be providing Pacquaio’s trainer Freddie Roach copies of de la Hoya’s fights against Camacho and Whitaker. This way, he said, they will see de la Hoya’s disadvantages against southpaws.
Mexicans love Manny
Meanwhile, Arum echoed Roach’s claim that Pacquiao is more popular among Mexicans compared to de la Hoya.
“Manny has endeared himself to Mexicans because he’s conducted himself as a gentleman and he fights like a Mexican. Manny has tremendous fans among the Mexicans,” he said.
Roach earlier said that de la Hoya has never been accepted by the true Mexican fans from Mexico.
“Mexican-Americans yes, but not Mexicans,” said the hall-of-fame trainer.
“I think to some extend he may have more fans than Oscar does among Mexicans,” said Arum.
The 12-rounder non-title match between Pacquiao and de la Hoya was dubbed as “The Dream Match”.
It is slated to take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.
“It started out as a fantasy, Larry Merchant suggested it and then ESPN ran with it and it was a dream nobody though it would happen and now it‘s a reality. Everybody liked that title,” said Arum.
A public service message from Charmaine Manansala via email sent Sept 22:
“Now there’s an easy way to learn your status and get registered. Our new one-stop voter registration site, VoteForChange.com, lets you do it all: check your registration status, register to vote, request an absentee ballot, and find your early voting site or polling location.”
RP won’t follow US subprime mess
LALA RIMANDO, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 09/13/2008 3:44 AM
The newly bailed out US housing firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have a Philippine version: the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC).
Since Fannie and Freddie hit rock bottom following the US subprime housing mess, inevitably, there are questions on whether NHMFC, one of the key housing agencies of the government, will follow their US counterpart’s sad course.
These questions will be more pronounced by November, when NHMFC will be issuing its first investment instrument backed by a pool of housing mortgages by borrowers who are considered poor.
NHMFC will be issuing about P2.5 billion worth of Residential Mortage-backed security, the first investment instrument to be offered by the government to banks that are based on housing mortgages. It is guaranteed by the Philippine government.
However, it seems that the fears are unfounded. NHMFC operates in a different housing and financial environment as Fannie and Freddie. Filipinos are generally not as financially adventurous as the Americans.
Besides, NHMFC has already went through a subprime-like experience in the 1990’s. It was bleeding to death after the government tinkered with its original mandate of staying only as financial arm for the entire housing system in the country.
Since P150,000 to P375,000-worth of housing loans are too retail and operationally tedious for commercial banks, which are focused on the medium to high end housing sector, NHMFC became the tool to meet the housing demands of those with lower income. But it proved to be overwhelming. NHMFC financed low-cost housing to thousands of poor borrowers, but it did not screen them well nor collected the loans properly.
When uncollected housing loans, or those considered highly delinquent, reached a massive P53 billion, this big burden brought it to its knees, prompting a major restructuring in 2002.
Fast forward to 2008. It has recovered lost ground and ready to be more or less like Fannie and Freddie. How? By being active in the secondary mortgage market.
Secondary mortgage market
The financial scheme called secondary mortgage market in the financial sector’s lingo is supposed to unlock opportunities in banks and among house builders so they could sell more residential properties at interest rates affordable especially to the low income masses.
It works this way: The banks and residential property developers lend to house buyers. Since the banks and developers cannot lend to more aspiring house buyers if they have to carry big chunks of these housing loans or mortgages in their financial books, NHMFC comes to the rescue by buying these mortgages from the banks.
NHMFC then turns these mortgages around, then securitize or document them as financial currencies that they could then sell as bonds to potential investors. They are like financial intermediaries between people who would like to park their money in bonds and housing loan borrowers who signed a mortgage document where they promise to pay in a future date.
NHMFC, however, started out in the eighties with a social function: to make housing affordable to the masses by tapping funds from the capital market to buy and sell mortgages.
However, since housing for the poor is a highly politicized activity, there were efforts to pump-prime the housing market during the Aquino up to the Ramos administration.
Three government managed funds, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS) and the Pag-Ibig Fund, were then instructed to set aside a portion of their members’ contributions and allotted them to NHMFC through a housing-for-the-poor program, called Unified Housing Loan Program (UHLP). The P43 billion from the three became NHMFC’s seed money to directly lend to the poor.
Between 1988 and 1996, NHMFC directly lent about 220,000 housing loans to poor borrowers.
It was doomed from the start. NHMFC–not immune to coaxing from politicians who peppered the housing agency with requests to accommodate their poor constituents, and from scheming housing developers, some of them fly-by-night ones–was terrible at screening borrowers.
NHMFC also proved to be a poor loan collector. When it stopped entertaining new loan applications in 1996, collection levels dipped alarmingly below 65 percent. It was bleeding. About P30 billion worth of accounts were considered “highly delinquent.” It needed to be restructured.
Healthy asset pool
In other words, NHMFC was stuck with collecting, then eventually restructuring, the 220,000 mortgages it could not collect. It is only this November 2008 that it could truly become what it was meant to be.
NHMFC’s maiden bond issue, which will be rated by local firm, Philratings, will be underwritten by Standard Chartered Bank, with Ernst & Young and its local auditing partner, SGV, as the financial advisors.
The bond issue will be based on “highly seasoned” 15,000 housing mortgages, which the borrowers have been paying up-to-date. Since NHMFC’s housing loans usually last for 25 years, this means these mortgages backing the bonds have had 10 years of good payment record.
This makes the Filipino borrowers different from their American counterparts. The US subprime mess came about because the bonds were partly based even on mortgages that are beyond the value of the property that was bought through credit. The housing mess exposed the fact that these are dud loans when the credit risks became too apparent and each layer tumbled like house of cards.
“These mortgages are not the same as those that backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Daisy Dulay, the operations head for securitization for NHMFC.
“The borrowers have been at it for more than 10 years already. At the same time, the houses they got in 1996 at P150,000 to P375,000 are now worth P1 to P3 million. They would definitely want to keep that asset because it already appreciated tremendously,” Dulay added.
In other words, there is a real asset with real value behind NHMFC’s bond issue.
Setting standards
The maiden bond issue was postponed several times because part of NHMFC’s restructuring program was to sell the 220,000 highly delinquent mortgage accounts to a special purpose vehicle, namely the Deutsche Bank Real Estate Global Opportunities.
The bad loans sale to Deutsche was valued at a whopping P42 billion. It was the first bad loans sale in the Philippines.
The maiden bond issue, also set to be a pioneering one in the country’s financial market, is expected to create secondary mortgage experts within the NHMFC as an institution, since in the succeeding rounds, it will already start buying mortgages from commercial banks so they too could free up their books and expand their housing loan portfolio.
While this will initially be felt on the level of the financial institutions, the public, especially those who aspire to buy their own homes, will also soon feel the impact.
NHMFC’s maiden bond offer is expected to set the standards both for the underwriters of these instruments and in the documentary requirements to borrowers. Home buyers will eventually have to fill up just one set of forms and fulfill similar sets of requirements whether they are availing housing loans from a commercial bank, a financial institution, or on the in-house financing scheme of the property developer.
Power to rise from the East
Caroline J. Howard, ABS-CBN News | 09/20/2008 3:14 AM
When the dust over the ongoing US financial chaos eventually clears, Asian countries may end up getting back the glory that they lost to the West 200 years ago.
Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said China and India—the two largest economic powers in the world for 18 centuries before the West took over, and which had very little hope of succeeding in the 60’s and 70’s—are once again reigning supreme.
In his book, “The New Asian Hemishphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East,” Mahbubani speaks of Asia’s unprecedented economic, cultural and social transformation which has made possible a massive shift of power from Western dominance in the last 200 years, to Asian societies.
Mahbubani cites a Goldman Sachs projection, which says that by 2050, the four largest economies will be China, India, the U.S. and Japan, and not a single economy will be European.
“We’re seeing the greatest change ever seen in human history. You will see the end of the era of Western domination of world history. For the last 200 years, world history has been dominated by the European powers, later by the rise of America. But now the amount of space occupied by the West in the world will diminish.”
But this is not to say, the world is seeing the end of the West, Mahbubani added. “The West will remain the strongest civilization but there will be other civilizations as successful as the West. We have to believe Asian societies can succeed and study why they’re succeeding now.”
US’ rise and fall
The US economy, long considered a global growth engine, now buckles under the weight of its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. With the impact of the U.S. credit crisis rippling across the globe, Asian economies are scrambling to insulate their markets.
Already the Asian Development Bank has stepped in, calling for an “Asian Financial Stability Dialogue” among the region’s financial experts and regulators to assess the risk of a spillover.
“It’s a development that even the best American minds did not see happening,” Mahbubani said.
“It shows, something has fundamentally gone wrong in American economic management,” he said. “There was a feeling America could continue to defy gravity, issue loans and not worry. But even American corporations are subject to the laws of gravity and when they violate rules of good governance—when they issue more loans than they can and take on more risks than they should—they pay a price.”
While Mahbubani is optimistic America’s financial turmoil has more or less hit bottom after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the takeover of Merrill Lynch and the $85 billion bailout of insurer AIG, and will begin to recover, he also believes that Asian countries have a vested interest in being supportive of America.
In performing the role of benefactor to help keep the U.S. economy stay afloat, Asia’s strength and incidental position of dominance only serves to solidify its potential as an emerging global power.
Learning the lessons
What is causing the power shift to the East?
Mahbubani cites Asia’s ability to tap Western concepts to effect this transformation.
“Asian societies have finally figured out the seven pillars of Western wisdom: free-market economics, a mastery of science and technology, culture pragmatism, meritocracy, rule of law, culture of peace and education.”
Mahbubani explained that having copied best practices from Western Societies, Japan’s Meiji reformers became the first Asian society to take off; while from running on a Communist central plan economics 30 years ago, China has grown to become the world’s fastest rising economy for three decades after introducing free market economics.
Mahbubani said that more Asian societies are showing they know what to do, and discovering they can fall back on their own strength and succeed. “It’s important for Asians to realize now that they’re the biggest beneficiaries of an open multilateral trading system that was a gift of America and Europe to the world.”
“America and Europe were happy to be the custodians of this multilateral trading order as long as they see themselves as the biggest beneficiaries. Now they see that the biggest beneficiaries would be the Chinese, Indians and other Asians, so its important for Asians to take on more responsibility for managing global governance.”
Mahbubani noted that “There’s a very high degree of geopolitical competence that you can find in Beijing which has led to relative calm and peace in this area.”
But other Asian nations still have to overcome internal political instability. Malaysia and Thailand must resolve power struggles and political squabbles, what Mahbubani believes can best be addressed with good governance.
He cited Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s approach to Aceh’s long standing problem with its separatist movement, as a success story the Philippines can learn from in solving its stalled peace process with the separatist group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) .
“It partly had to do with the 2004 tsunami and the political wisdom of president [Yudhoyono] who decided to give Aceh a reasonable degree of automony normal in a federal democratic state as long as Aceh remains part of Indonesia it could continue to be autonomous. It can be done but it requires the capacity to listen.”
He also cited how Asian countries are preventing a worst case scenario with geopolitical tensions by providing a venue for discussions for great powers to come together via the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Shared power
Despite the internal political instability, Mahbubani also noted a rising amount of trade flows and interdependence, and a certain degree of resilience in the region.
“Economic growth is likely to continue rising but we have to manage the geopolitics and the internal governance of these societies,” he explained.
“What the Asian countries have to do is achieve what the European Union has achieved. In the EU, you dont just have zero wars between any two European states, you have zero prospect of war between any two EU states. Among the Asean we have zero war but we have not reached zero prospect of war.”
The shift of power is possible while ensuring stability in the global arena, Mahbubani said. “Throughout history, the worlds most important relationship was between the US, the world’s greatest power, and China, the greatest emerging power. You should see rising tensions between the two, instead you see it diminishing.”
But Western approaches to resolving conflict within its borders have at times also only ended in failure. “The general assumption is that Western countries are geopolitically competent and Asian states are not. But as you can see in the Georgian episode, we saw a lot of geopolitical incompetence. Western powers provoking this conflict with Russia was not necessary at all.”
Mahbubani added, “Both the US and the EU now face a more insecure future, even though they have had two decades to enhance their security without any obvious challenge to them.” If international organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations do not reflect the modern world and allow for shifts in power based on new developments, emerging powers will establish their own systems and rules.
The US credit crunch that sparked the global economic crisis may just be the beginning of the West’s reawakening to the existence of emerging powers that are better able to withstand market turbulence by sheer foresight and by putting the appropriate policies in place. Mahbubani expects that there will be countervailing forces that will want to accept and work with Asia and some that will resist the shift of power.
But just as the sun rises from the East, so has the world’s new powerhouse. And the sooner the West can accept it, then the better off it is.
Community leader, Betsy Kim, AAPI Vote Deputy Director for Obama for America sent this info. I share it with all of you. Please pass on.
FLORIDA
1) Women’s Rally for the Change We Need with Barack Obama
Date: Friday, September 19, 2008
Time: Doors open at 9:30 am, Program begins at 11:45 am
Details: Event is free and open to the public, however, a ticket is required. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT.
2) Presidential Candidates Forum
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Place: Modis Building Theatre Auditorium, West Bay – One Independent Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32202
Details: Hosted by The Filipino American Council of Jacksonville
Contact: Winnie Tang, (305) 753-8791, WinnieVHTang@aol.com
3) Voter Registration at the South Florida Dragon Boat Festival
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2008 and Sunday, October 5, 2008
Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Place: Haulover Beach Park Marina, 10800 Collins Ave,Miami Beach, FL 33154
Details: This event attracts approximately 10,000 participants and spectators from all over. These two days are almost the last chance to register voters before the deadline of October 6, 2008.
Contact: Winnie Tang, (305) 753-8791, WinnieVHTang@aol.com
4) 11th Annual Diwali Mela: Central Florida’s Leading Festival of Lights
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2008
Time: 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Place: Disney Amphitheater at Lake Eola (downtown Orlando)
Contact: Winnie Tang, (305) 753-8791, WinnieVHTang@aol.com
5) Voter Registration
Date: September 27, 2008
Time: TBD
Place: First Oriental Supermarket, 5132 W Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32808
Details: Volunteers needed
Contact: Winnie Tang, (305) 753-8791, WinnieVHTang@aol.com
MICHIGAN
1) Obama AAPI Michigan Meeting
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008
Time: 6:00 pm
Place: Birmingham Campaign for Change, 1025 E. Maple Road, Birmingham MI
Details: Meeting will be geared toward mobilizing volunteers, creating action plan, and mapping out events. Refreshments will be provided.
Contact: Rep. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, hoonhop@hotmail.com, 313.510.4358, Jayashree (Jay) Kommareddi, jkommareddi@yahoo.com, 810.252.9250, or Ramesh Verma, vermaramesh@hotmail.com , 248.348.1766
MINNESOTA
1) Voter Registration
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008
Details: Event targeting the Hmong community and AAPI voter registration
Contact: Lee Pao Xiong at 651.492.4491, xiong@csp.edu for more information on how to get involved.
2) Voter Registration
Date: Every weekend from now until November 2, 2008
Place: Hmong International Marketplace, 217 Como Avenue, St. Paul, MN
Details: If you are interested in helping to register voters and generate support for Barack Obama’s candidacy, come to the Hmong International Marketplace.
Contact: Lee Pao Xiong at 651.492.4491, xiong@csp.edu for more information on how to get involved.
3) Voter Registration at India Day
Date: Sunday, October 5, 2008
Time: 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Place: Landmark Center, 75 West 5th Street, St. Paul, MN 55102
Contact: Prem Shunmugavelu, (202) 486-8831, prem97@hotmail.com
4) Voter Registration at Diwali Festival
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008
Place: St. Paul, Exact location TBD
Contact: Prem Shunmugavelu, (202) 486-8831, prem97@hotmail.com
OHIO
1) Contact for OH events listed below: Christine Chen, chrchen88@gmail.com
Events in Columbus, Ohio:
India Festival (12,000+)
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Place: Veterans Memorial Hall, Downtown Columbus, Ohio
Time: 10 am to 10 pm
2) OSU Students Move-In Day
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008
Korean American Society of Central Ohio (tentative)
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008
OREGON
1) Taiko Concert – Portland
Date: Fri, Sept 19 & Sat, Sept. 20
Place: Oregon for Obama Headquarters, 3016 SE Division Street, Portland, OR 97214
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
2) Portland Voter Registration
Date: Sat, Sept. 27
Place: Oregon for Obama Headquarters, 3016 SE Division Street, Portland, OR 97214
Time: 1-5 PM
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
3) Beaverton Voter Registration
Date: Sat, Sept. 27
Place: Campaign for Change Beaverton Office, 14025 SW Farmington Rd., Beaverton, OR 97005
Time: 1-5 PM
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
4) Eugene Voter Registration
Date: Sat, Sept. 27
Place: Campaign for Change Eugene Office, 150 West Broadway, Eugene, OR 97401
Time: 1-5 PM
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
5) Portland Canvassing/GOTV
Date: Sat, Oct. 25
Place: Oregon for Obama Headquarters, 3016 SE Division Street, Portland, OR 97214
Time: TBD
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
6) Beaverton Voter Registration
Date: Sat, Oct. 25
Place: Campaign for Change Beaverton Office, 14025 SW Farmington Rd., Beaverton, OR 97005
Time: TBD
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
7) Eugene Voter Registration
Date: Sat, Oct. 25
Place: Campaign for Change Eugene Office, 150 West Broadway, Eugene, OR 97401
Time: TBD
Contact: Ramey Ko at ramey.ko@gmail.com, Sign-Up Form
PENNSYLVANIA
1) Voter Registration Drive for New U.S. Citizens in Philadelphia
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2008
Time: 9:45 am to 1:00 pm
Place: United States District Court, Eastern District of PA, Office of the Clerk of Court, James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse, 601 Market Street, Room 2609, Philadelphia, PA
Details: Please come to the Philadelphia Central HQ at 9:15 am, 1500 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA.
Contact: Hai Ninh, Deputy Field Director of Center City East Ward 5, 267.298.8748, haiway101@gmail.com
2) Voter Registration Drive
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Staging location: 115-117 North 9th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Meet & Greet, Briefing: Mini-voter registration training, assignment of locations. Sunday church outreach volunteers will meet at designated church due to early morning schedule (see below). All meet back at staging location to submit voter registration forms, volunteer forms, etc.
Contacts: Nina Ahmad, 267.304.1670, willsresearch@yahoo.com and Matt, matt4obama@gmail.com, 267-237-8340.
3) Deployment zones (Saturday, September 20, 2008):
a. Southeast Asian (Cambodian and Vietnamese) Supermarket Voter Registration Drive (Press coverage by the Khmer Post):
i. Hong Kong Supermarket, Inc., 501 Adams Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19120, 215.728.1300
ii. Ben City Supermarket, 5520 Whitaker Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19124,
215.537.8938
b. Korean Outreach/Multiethnic: We will have at least one Korean speaker with the group.
i. H Mart, 7320 Old York Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027
ii. 5th Street Korean/Multiethnic corridor (5th & Godfrey)
4) Voter Registration Drive
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008
Time: Start time is 9:00 am
Contacts: Nina Ahmad, 267.304.1670, willsresearch@yahoo.com and Matt, matt4obama@gmail.com, 267-237-8340.
Deployment zones (Sunday, September 21, 2008):
i. Place: Mar Thoma Church, 2060 Orthodox St Philadelphia, PA 19124,
Tel: 215.289.9228
Time: 9:00 am
English Service begins at 9:15 am; Malayalam Service begins at 10:15 a.m.
Details: We need to get there by 9:00 am to access people going in. We will place fliers on cars. Those who need a ride from staging location, please arrive at 8:30 am You will be driven to and from the church.
Contact person on site: M. Thomas (cell 215.284.4907)
ii. Place: Bethel Mar Thoma Church, 532 Levick Street, Philadelphia, PA 19111.
Time: 9:00 am
Details: We will place fliers on cars and conduct voter registration. Those who need a ride from staging location, please arrive at 8:30 am. You will be driven to and from the church.
Contact person on site: Mathew Tharakan (215.584.2582)
iii. Annual Cambodian-American Voters Conference: BCTGM Local 6, 5416 Rising Time: 11:00 am
Sun Avenue (across the Street from Soriyransai Buddhist Temple), Philadelphia, PA 19120.
Details: Non-partisan Voter Registration
Contact on site: Matt, matt4obama@gmail.com, 267-237-8340.
5) Non-partisan voter reg with the Cambodian community in Philly
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008
Time: 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
Place: BCTGM Local 6, 5416 Rising Avenue (across from the Soriyaransey Cambodian Buddhist Temple)
Contacts: Nina Ahmad, 267.304.1670, willsresearch@yahoo.com and Matt, matt4obama@gmail.com, 267-237-8340.
VIRGINIA
1) Voter Registration with South Asians for Obama (SAFO)
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Time: 10:00 am (meet-up); 11:00 to 2:00 pm (Voter Regstration)
Place: Obama Falls Church City Campaign Office, 350 S Washington St., Falls Church, VA
Details: SAFO is organizing to register voters at area South Asian restaurants. We have identified 20 such facilities within 15 minutes of drive maximum from the Obama Falls Church office, and need at least 2 persons at each location. If you are able to spend some time on this, it would be of great help.
Contacts: Neha Misra (nmisra05@gmail.com) and Mohsin Siddique (msiddique@aol.com,) if you can make it.
2) Canvassing Event
Date: Saturday, Sept 20, 2008
Time: 10 am
Place: Obama Falls Church City Campaign Office, 350 S Washington St., Falls Church, VA
Contact: Paul Tiao, paultiao@aol.com or Joe Montano, joe@vademocrats.org to sign up.
3) Canvassing Event
Date: Sunday, Sept 21, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm
Place: Obama Falls Church City Campaign Office, 350 S Washington St., Falls Church, VA
Contact: Paul Tiao, paultiao@aol.com or Joe Montano, joe@vademocrats.org to sign up.
4) Taste of the Pike
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Place: Arlington Mill Community Center, 4975 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA
Time: 12:00 – 7:00 pm Noon to 7:00 p.m.
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
5) KORUS Festival
Date: Friday, September 26, 2008 to Sunday, September 28, 2008
Place: K-Mart’s front lot, 4251 John Marr Dr, Annandale, VA 22003
Time: Begins at 6:30 pm on September 26, 2008
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
6) Voter Registration at the Vietnamese Autumn Moon Festival
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008
Place: Eden Center, 6795 Wilson Blvd., Falls Church, VA 22044
Time: 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Duration: 8 hours
Host: Hung Nguyen
To RSVP, please go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpgh33.
7) Eid Al-Fitr
Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Details: TBD
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
Manassas Fall Festival
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2008
Place: Costello Park Recreation Center
Time: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Details: TBD
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
9) Fairfax City Fall Festival
DATE: Saturday, October 11, 2008
Place: Fairfax, VA
Time: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Details: TBD
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
10) Sterling Fest
DATE: Saturday, October 11, 2008
Place: Sterling, VA
Details: TBD
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
Diwali
DATE: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Details: TBD
Contact: Paul Tiao, PaulTiao@aol.com
WASHINGTON
1) Contact for WA events listed below: Melissa Montenegro, Melissa.Montenegro@gmail.com.
Voter Registration:
September 20-21st
September 26-27
Details: TBD
2) Canvassing:
October 11-12
October 25-26
Detatils: TBD
3) Obama Youth Camp
Saturday, September 20; 7-10PM
Sunday, September 21; 1-6PM
Location: 1310 Mercer Street in Seattle, Washington
4) National Federation of Filipino-American Associations Conference
September 26-28
Location: Seattle, WA
5) Korean American Coalition Conference
September 26-28
Location: Seattle, WA
Betsy Kim
AAPI Vote Deputy Director
Obama for America
(312) 350-2555 c
In troubled parts of the world, in whichever period you dare to look, one thing is consistent: the dictatorship of anti-intellectualism. Many leaders fetishize “resolve” and “quick action” at the expense of sound analysis and evidence-based decision-making.
And those who do this “fetishize-ing” do so to overcompensate for their insecurity, to hide their honest-to-goodness unpreparedness to face a difficult situation and manage the unknown that goes with governing. Cases in point: China over Tibet; Russia over Georgia; the U.S. over Iraq; the Philippines over Muslims in Mindanao; and finally, Republicans beating up on liberals.
How I wish that one day, the war in southern Philippines will finally end. But this will not happen as long as strength is equated with aggression and military might. As long as this is the case, true development and national renewal will elude millions of Filipinos now living, and millions more to come.
How I wish that the seige of liberal thinking by conservatives will end! But this will not happen in the United States as long as conservatives are not confronted on how they disparage the value of reason, of precision, of high-level thinking.
I wish that McCain would honor his pledge to having a decent campaign and put a stop to his staff that impugn Obama policies with senseless spin and punchlines. This will not happen as long as we agree with conservatives that embracing reason and intellect is a form of weakness, indecisiveness, elitism, and that it is un-American.
Liberals need to grow cojones! We all need to have more cojones!!!! Liberal or not, we need to have a backbone and defend Reason in this country. Embracing Reason is a strength. Reason requires as much courage, as much self-belief to secure victory in the battleground of ideas, as it is to be victors in the theater of war.
Bully politics – that’s the underlying Republican campaign strategy. It is the clear Republican modus operandi against the Democrats, and in particular, against Sen. Obama. It is a type of politicking fueled by the arrogance of power and wealth, contempt for substance and new thinking.
As we all know, bullying can begin as early as kindergarten. Both boys and girls can be bullies. Being bullied is distracting, frightening, damaging to self-esteem and physically dangerous. Bullying is a way to gain and maintain power.
But do not be fooled. Do not be swayed. Deep inside, we all know that bullying is also the mark of a deep insecurity. In this case, Republican insecurity arises from knowing that the last eight years have been a disastrous experiment in US politics. Republican insecurity arises from the fear of a catastrophic loss of political power in November, thanks to an electorate that has wised up. Thanks to an electorate that is fed-up with a divisive and cynical Republican approach to governing.
When speakers at the RNC this week conspired to sway our votes by poking fun, ridiculing and demeaning liberals, Democrats, community organizers, and Sen. Obama, instead of contrasting the parties on substantive grounds, they insulted our maturity, our intelligence, and betrayed quite openly their much advertised and chanted slogan, “Country First!” What a bunch of hypocrites.
Let us not join them at their level. All the organizers, students, liberals – and progressive thinking independents — who were pumped up previously by idealism and are now pumped up also by disgust, be calm and be collected.
Let us work quietly but together.
As one let us punish them in the best way we know how. Let us shame these Republicans convincingly by mobilizing votes against them on November 4.
There’s no hiding it. The Republican strategy for clinching the November election will be one of derision, lies, personal attacks and small-time politics.
Last night’s RNC event reminded me of so many high school rallies of years past to elect student government officers for my old high school, Independence High School in Northern CA.
The booing.
The mocking of the opponents.
Jocks battling the nerds.
The beautiful “in” crowd attacking the misfits at the school paper.
The conventional wisdom for 2008 given all the events that make this election year critical is that Democrats will win if the prevailing political discourse focuses on big ideas. And conversely, the Republicans will win if the discourse is focused on stoking public cynicism, personality politics, small politics.
I was disgusted by how juvenile last night’s RNC was: with Guilianni and Thompson not being able to contain their contempt for open-minded thinking and with Romney not making sense in proposing more conservative/Republican thinking as the solution to a broken Washington.
Surprisingly enough, I finished watching the whole show; even stuck around for the analysis. After everything I saw and heard, I hope tomorrow will not be more of the same.
Otherwise, McCain risks degrading his great legacy as a public servant and slipping down the dirty abyss of Bush-Cheney-Rove-Limbaugh politics.
More importantly, no matter your political stripe, we deserve better. Period.
Here’s Gov. Palin’s speech in full: palin-sept-3-08-speech
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