Barney Frank May Have Reason To Worry: Greg Mankiw's Newest Blog Post Tells It All

For the record, for when the White House decides to defame Dr. Mankiw as a Tea-Baggin-Astro-Turfin-Racist-Nutter:

I am a professor of economics at Harvard University, where I teach introductory economics (ec 10) among other courses. I use this blog to keep in touch with my current and former students. Teachers and students at other schools, as well as others interested in economic issues, are welcome to use this resource.

OK, that's out of the way.

Dr. Mankiw's latest post simply points to the public record, showing that the Bush Administration in 2003 had urged Congress to help them reign in Fannie and Freddie, lest a crisis occur. Barney Frank vociferously opposed the idea.

Skip forward to this week. He's campaigning to keep his seat, opposed by Republican Sean Bielat, and claims:

Frank, a leading liberal who has represented the state’s Fourth Congressional District for nearly 30 years and became chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007, said he and other Democrats fought to curb predatory lending practices before the recession but were thwarted by Republicans. He said he had supported efforts to help low-income families rent homes, rather than buy them.

“Low-income home ownership has been a mistake, and I have been a consistent critic of it,’’ said Frank, 70. Republicans, he said, were principally responsible for failing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the government seized in September 2008.

Time to put us all out of his misery. Here is Mr. Bielat's campaign donation page. Let's all throw a few shekels his direction, and see if we can't retire Barney for good.

Bye, bye, Barney!

Thanks, Dr. Mankiw, you radical nutter, you.