Did Bank of America write the Dodd bailout bill?

Those following the progress of the Dodd-Shelby mortgage rescue plan in the Senate might want to check out two solid pieces of enterprising reporting on the bill this weekend.

First, the Examiner's Tim Carney reports that the bailout section of the Dodd-Shelby bill is, in the words a lobbyist, "exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted." 

Is there a connection between Bank of America and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.)?  There is. Carney: "Bank of America's political action committee (PAC) has donated $20,000 to Dodd since he became chairman of the banking panel 17 months ago. From January 2007 to March 2008, Bank of America employees have donated at least $50,400 to Dodd's campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."

National Review's the Corner follows up, citing an internal Bank of America document:

"National Review Online has obtained an internal Bank of America "discussion document" (PDF here) on the subject of the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008, a.k.a. the Dodd-Shelby mortgage-lender bailout bill .... This discussion document (dated March 11, 2008) would appear to support the contention that BofA essentially wrote the bailout section of the bill."

Faithful readers of the blog will remember that Bank of America has been pushing hard for a big federal intervention for months. This was from a New York Times story on BofA's lobbying efforts back in February: "Bank of America suggested creating a Federal Homeowner Preservation Corporation that would buy up billions of dollars in troubled mortgages at a deep discount, forgive debt above the current market value of the homes and use federal loan guarantees to refinance the borrowers at lower rates. 'We believe that any intervention by the federal government will be acceptable only if it is not perceived as a bailout of the bond market,' the financial institution noted. In practice, taxpayers would almost certainly view such a move as a bailout."

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tips: Mr. Mortgage, The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter and MN via e-mail.

Comments

[johnnyelevator]

Having a Bank write legislation which would protect homeowners stinks. Something tells me they are gonna protect their own interest and not ours.

Does this have anything to do with BofA pending purchase of Countrywide and their portfolio of bad loans?

Does this have anything to do with Countrywide giving Dodd a sweatheart loan?

[LA-renter]

Remember how the Fallujah slaughter starting a day or a week after election day...

Be forewarned:

I predict that Congress (both parties) & Bush will be bailing out "important" financial interests --in ways that are politically unpallitable now-- soon after the November election.

[Don't Say Uncle]

Ok, so I go over to a nice blog called naked capitalism, that has excellent analysis on a daily basis, and what do I see but a big fat square banner ad for incorporating in the tax friendly british virgin islands. My tummy doesn't feel too good right now. This is almost as sick a relationship as the one between malls and the tenants (profitless tenants) that they *pay* to become tenants. (though I think this is done to pump up the net income before putting it on the market).

Anyone know who BoFA's major shareholders are currently? I looked it up last year, but now I can't seem to find it anywhere. Isn't it supposed to appear in their sec filings? If I remember, the top two were Barclays and Fidelity. Barclays (say it the same way Seinfeld said "Newman"). Barclays is showing up in all sorts of inconvenient places lately.

MLTPB will love this bit -- the chairman of the Barclays board is named "Marcus Agius." He is married to a Rothschild.

Uh, off on a tangent. Anyone know who the BoFA major shareholders are, and why it's so darn hard to find out who they are?

Big bank writing a bail-out bill for themselves? Sure, why not. This is america... they've learned they can do whatever they damn well please, and with only positive consequences. We're the best bet in the world.

[John]

Outrageous!!!!

Chris Dodd
Bank of America
Congress

Shifting big business's blunders to the taxpayers.

Peter, this is outrageous. Please please please do all you can to stop the madness.

[Laker]

"...Bank of America's political action committee (PAC) has donated $20,000 to Dodd since he became chairman of the banking panel 17 months ago. From January 2007 to March 2008, Bank of America employees have donated at least $50,400 to Dodd's campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. So, while Dodd's sweetheart loan from Countrywide saves him personally $200 per month, his chairmanship earns him politically more than $1,000 per week...."
"...Bank of America is kind of like an investor trying to "flip" a house: they buy a run-down property (Countrywide) for a discount, shell out some campaign contributions and earn some "sweat-equity" through lobbying. If Dodd gets his way, it will be a good investment for Bank of America...."

OK, if this Dodd crook is not behind bars, there is no justice in this country. He belongs in jail, this thief, stinky, scumbag politician.
I'm disgusted, that we let the cat guard the milk, Dodd chairman of the Senate Banking Committee controls the money...got paid $70,000...WHERE IS THE FBI? HERE IS ONE OF THE BIG FISH STILL SWIMMING... CATCH HIM!

[sdny]

great analysis here: http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

Heads need to start rolling. I don't care what political party you support. Let's think of this as the opposite of a prisoner exchange. Republicans will put one of their own in prison and democrats will do the same.

[Steve Matulis]

Folks, visit the following blog

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
archives/496-Did-Bank-Of-America-CFC-Write-The-
Housing-Bill.html

if you don't call your congress people and complain until something happens, all of us (including you) will be on the hook for trillions of dollars while these banksters (fraudsters) walk away with your money. are you just going to sit there and take it?

[Nick]

Why does this surprise anyone any more? Dodd is dirty, corrupt, and pushing legislation which is bad for Americans but bought and paid for by the corrupt, bribing corporations which routinely buy legislation. For all the bad things people say/think about Bush favoring big business over the people, it's Dodd and the Democrats who have been bought for the housing bailout.

But, I ask again, why is anyone surprised? Richardson speculated on housing, milked her lenders for preferred treatment, and wrote housing legislation... and then got re-elected by a landslide. It's not like the entire country doesn't know that Dodd and his supporting Democrats are corrupt and in the pockets of the banks. It's not like anybody thinks bailouts for the banks are a good idea (except the banks, of course). It's not like anybody thinks Congress is acting in the country's best interests any more; they have a lower approval rating than Bush, by a large margin, and he's not exactly popular at the moment.

In today's news, Congress is corrupt, and Dodd is the poster child for corruption who, if we the people actually cared about corruption, should rot in jail for a long time with his bailout plans and bought legislation. In other news, it was hot today...

[nirad]

when did this become a wingnut political blog? next you're going to tell us that there were WMDs in Iraq.

[Dean Ross]

Save this statement on your computers. The FDIC is going to be closing banks in San Diego County before the end of 2008.

[Sing Expat]

Shocking revelations!

What next? no tooth fairy? No Santa Clause?

A couple of dozen neutron bombs on Washington and Wall Street and many of America's (and the world's) problems will be solved.

We can build new banks and elect new officials. Maybe the next generation would learn from the previous? Then again , probably not.

[FairEconomist]

The document - if you read it - clearly shows BoA did NOT write Dodd-Frank. It's a presentation - not the bill - and is written entirely from the point of view of the government, not BoA. It's also dated March 11, 2 days before Dodd-Frank was publicly proposed, and I can GUARANTEE you Chris Dodd didn't write a FIVE HUNDRED page bill in one day!

Somebody at BoA was obviously informed about the bill before its release and put out a heads-up memo to relevant people in so they would know what was coming at them. Probably they had been asked for comments by somebody involved with Dodd-Frank; if the bill was supposed to be passed and not just be grandstanding Dodd and Frank *should* have been soliciting comments from the banking industry. It's not responsible to pull a 300 billion dollar reform out of your @$$.

[CD]

Calculated risk does not seem to agree with your version on BOA..... Off subject, but concerning the Little Tokio lofts advertised in the Times every week as luxury condos :Janet Portman: "Neighbors a bit too edgy for downtown loft dwellers". Page K7 La Times today.
It seem tenants want to break their lease due to a battered women shelter moving downstairs in the retail spaces. Not exactly a "haute couture" neighbor. It seems it is possible to brake the lease due to personal safety.I have the feeling many will try to get out of there....

[Louis Cabeza]

Wow, great work in pulling this together. Thank you. It seems in this golden age of crony capitalism that the Democrats and the Republicans are in a race as to whom can be the most loathsomely corrupt.

This is exactly why many people want the government to do nothing. They do not trust it to do the right thing and fear that it will only make things worse.

[sfvrealestate]

Thanks, Nick. Seriously, folks, did you just fall off the turnip truck? Were you born yesterday? Lobbyists own the state and federal government and most of the people in it. How do you think these politicians' campaigns get financed? Bake sales? And, this will continue until truly meaningful campaign finance laws are passed and enforced. So, posters, get a sense of perspective and save your outrage for issues where it's really deserved -- like phony wars that kill hundreds of thousands of civilians.

[Jeffriez]

Funny, nothing on the front page of the Times this morning.
Understandable since they had to use that space to take a jab at McCain.

Hmmm, not anywhere in the Times today?

OHHHH, got it, the Times covers it by burying it in a blog.

[MikeW]

Slaughtering ants to feed grasshoppers.

[StephenF]

What times does the revolution start?

[Jay]

Congressman Dodd is not only a crook but also a sucker of American people. He should be behind a bar.

[AndyJ]

DODD needs to be taken out back, pure and simple.

How much pride and integrity one must have, to allow such criminal banks to USE YOU like a cheap HO in pushing their filthy agenda through??

RESIGN NOW DODD-- You are everything that is wrong with politics in America.

Sickening beyond words--

[sollly]

Dodd is a known dirtball. That aside, will these homeowners bailed out by this bill be forfeiting particpation in any subsequent price appreciation of their homes?

[tealeaf]

sfvre: should we let everything slide until there is complete clarity on the direction for the war?

since there's a stupid, moronic, indefensible war going on, let's just let the idiots in Congress continue their field day with no accountability.

Right.

[Housing Bull Chorus]

Screw Obama, McCain and the rest...

Dodd for President!

[sheila]

first of all, the "smoking gun" doc is an internal corporate ANALYSIS of an existing bill, not "proof" that they wrote it. Anyone who has been on an executive team has had to review this crap. Since Enron wrote the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and Cheney has gone to ridiculous extremes to prevent us knowing (including claiming that he is not part of the Executive Branch of government), we all know that lobbyists write legislation, so i'm not putting it past B of A or Dodd, just saying that this is very amateurish reporting.

Secondly, if taking money from B of A makes you a crook (and i am opposed to all campaign contributions/lobbyist bribes), then John McCain will have the bunk above Dodd's, with his $64,000 in bribes from B of A, as compared to Dodd's $70K...

nice try. again.

[Steve]

What is the surprise? This practice has been going on for years in politics. Look at pharmacutical, aerospace, gambling, developers it is a simple and legal method to pay off a politicians. They all have lobby staffs that actually write legeslation and pay the politicians with donations under the table. This is the way it has been and always will be and both parties do it. Get real nothing will ever change. I assume the LA Times even particicpates in this practice.