In a Rare Political Comment
We try to maintain a fairly objective and only mildly editorial real estate blog. Admittedly, the road to Hades is paved with our good intentions at times. So in the interests of keeping a clear conscience, I tell you unashamedly that the following is total editorial and opinion. Read no further if that bothers you. Thank you for taking the time to read this if you do:
Chris Dodd and Barney Frank may have had some good intentions in the Dodd-Frank Act, but all I see as I read it is a leftist agenda. The same way that Obama Care is micromanaging our healthcare and insurance systems and driving up the cost of the final product to the consumer, Dodd-Frank has caused real estate lending to be more expensive and more time consuming. The length of disclosure documents and the lack of clarity, far from protecting consumers in the shopping process, has only discouraged them from actually reading the documents. I do feel the 3 day advanced provision of disclosures is a good rule and has made good sense for consumer protection. But that took about 2 pages to draft in a Bill that is over 800 pages long. There are fewer mortgage lenders today than there were before Dodd-Frank, thus less competition and choice. It is a failure. I am inclined to support any politician who is dedicated to eradicating Dodd-Frank or at least trying to fix it.
Now I must hold my nose and actually give a shout out to a candidate for whom I’ve had very little respect to date. Stylistically offensive. Non-presidential. And “style” in his campaigning has “trumped” substance for much of the election cycle thus far. As of today, I must endorse the Trump Substance on economic matters as set forth in this Wall Street Journal Article:
“If elected, Donald Trump says he’d dismantle Dodd-Frank law
Published: May 17, 2016 6:45 p.m. ET
Presumed GOP candidate calls Wall Street reform law ‘a very negative force’
Reuters
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he intends to release a detailed economic policy platform in two weeks that would dismantle nearly all of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, he said in an interview Tuesday with Reuters.
“I would say it’ll be close to a dismantling of Dodd-Frank,” Trump said, according to the Reuters report. “Dodd-Frank is a very negative force, which has developed a very bad name.”” Read more here: Dismantling Dodd-Frank
Before the article today in the Wall Street Journal today, I would have considered voting Libertarian. But the scales are tilting for me toward supporting the only candidate in the race who has always opposed bloated government and at least recently claimed to be pro-life and most certainly could not be less pro-life than his likely opponents from the party that currently holds executive power. When you read the candidate’s website, it actually does have substance which is mildly encouraging that maybe we can prune away the choking vines of a government that is trying to run all the affairs of our health care, business, home-ownership, view of gender identity, etc..
Governments are supposed to protect the constituents from outside tyranny. That is job 1. For the current administration, including the former Secretary of State, protection for US citizens and our freedoms is simply not a priority.
