Ben Bernanke, Bushite chair of the Federal Reserve, is another prime example of this regime's no regulation, deregulatory policies acolyte who bails out the perpetrating financial institutions who caused the mortgage fiasco, but regular Americans who were scammed by greedy banks and home loan companies and lost or are losing their homes are told to go pound sand. 

Now, Ben, the film-flam man has decided to close the barn door after all the livestock got out.  Talk about too little, too late and the personification of Bushite incompetence, Bernanke is it.

From the NYTimes article, "Fed to Clamp Down on Exotic and Subprime Mortgages, comes this: "With no end in sight to the turbulence in the housing and financial markets, the chairman of theFederal Reserve said on Tuesday morning that it would issue new lending rules next week to restrict exotic mortgages and high-cost loans for people with weak credit.

"At a forum in Arlington, Va., on lending for low- and moderate-income households, Mr. Bernanke said Bear Stearns’s difficulties had highlighted weaknesses in the financial system that policy makers were trying to address. He said they included poorly underwritten mortgages, regulatory gaps, tight credit and insufficiently capitalized financial institutions."

And since the warning signals were being sounded by many economists as far back as two years ago, what the hell were Bernanke and Hank Paulson at Treasury doing since they were appointed?  Twiddling their thumbs, protecting lending institution cronies, and issuing "no problems" statements. 

"But new housing figures released Tuesday morning showed that the chill in the housing market was continuing. Pending home sales fell 4.7 percent in May, far more than expected, according to the National Association of Realtors. Compared with a year earlier, sales were down 14 percent.

“ 'These new rules, which will apply to all lenders and not just banks, will address some of the problems that have surfaced in recent years in mortgage lending, especially high-cost mortgage lending,' Mr. Bernanke said. 'We received many helpful comments on our proposal and we incorporated a number of them into the final rules.'

"The proposals were made after the Fed came under criticism for being captive to the lending industry and had failed over many years to supervise it adequately. They would not cover existing mortgages, but would apply only to new ones."

So, again, the typical subprime mortgage homeowner who was lied to and scammed so that appraisers, realtors, homebuilders, and mortgage lenders could make gazillions are taking it on the chin while the big boy perps made out like the avaricious bandits they are.

As I wrote a few weeks ago when Bernanke was covering his posterior, "The Fed has become as politicized and deliberately incompetent under this administration as the rest of federal departments and agencies under this criminal Bush regime.

"But Democrats in Congress continue on their Alice in Wonderland quest of trying to fashion a bill that Dubya won't veto, while many myopic un-American Republicans in Congress believe that government shouldn't intervene to help regular American home mortgage borrowers, even though its OK to bailout the greedy, lying corporate criminal lenders who caused this mortgage disaster."