Barney Frank: We Should Have Done Things Differently

Yesterday, Congressman Barney Frank also spoke before the AFP conference, via video hook up.

The good news is that it is clear that Congressman Frank understands it was a mistake for government to drive the nation towards a housing market that resulted in more people buying homes than would otherwise occur, and that things should have been done differently..

The bad news is that he thinks the mistake was that not enough money was directed by government into the rental market!

The thought that the free market could handle both housing and rental market does not seem to have ever crossed his mind. The man is a regulationist. And, of course, he has no clue about the business cycle. He never even mentioned it.

Although, he took questions from the audience, questions weren't allowed by reporters, thus I was turned away when I reached the microphone.

This is the question I wanted to ask: Given that this weekend the Wall Street Journal reported that it is a dirty little secret that Paulson's Plan to buy up mortgages would not work and indeed would cause more problems for banks, and that is why Treasury shifted to infusing capital directly into banks, at what point was Congress notified of this situation, if at all? Further, given this huge error in the design of the $700 Billion Paulson Plan, do you think Secretary Paulson should resign?

I will be submitting these questions to Congressman Frank's office.