Oberweis Tele Town Hall on Credit Crisis

Just had an automated phone call from Oberweis inviting me to a Tele Town Hall he is having on the Credit Crisis.

I'll live blog it for a while...

First caller (I heard ) from Dekalb came down hard on Wall Street Execs. O talked about Obama's advisor Fredrick Raines.

Next caller on selling insurance vs buying securities... missed response getting set up here but this is O's turf for sure... he can rattle off on Sarbnes Oxely and so on....

O says Wall Street, not Tax Payors should fund the package. There are alternatives much less expensive then what's proposed.

Next Q: I have a big problem going into this with our hands over our eyes. If we don't get a hold of big gov spending period.... O says he couldn't agree more....that's why I'm running.

Next Q: Why can't they go ahead and rewrite these loans at 40 years instead of 30? Could we see this plan on the internet.

O would like to see it on the net. Stretching from 30 to 40 years is not going to fix things... help but not help...

(We ask pretty good questions out here in Kane County!) Question is were in the crisis because people got in over their heads... isn't it their problem? O says Yes and No...understand the Gov through Community Reinvestment Act pushed Banks to make risky loans.

Next Q: Under Bush the Gov grew and now we're turning to more regulation. Where are we going with this bailout? Is making the Gov work better, better than cutting cutting cutting?

O says there are a lot of parts...yes Gov has grown... grown faster than our rev base... it happened under GOP and why so many have lost faith. Making Gov work better... People have asked to we need more or less regulation? O says we need to update the Regs we have.

There are a lot of people on this call.... Q from a staunch GOPer saying the GOP is politicizing the issue... one women said we should go after CEOs but there is enough fault to spread around. Q asker wants to see CEOs hung by their thumbs. The bailout my end up not costing anything. This is a serious crisis that could wipe out our retirement savings.

O responds yes it is serious crisis but the original $700 billion not the solution. O says drop Market to Market rule from Sarbenes Oxely (I think this accounting rule on how loans carried on books). We don't want to take wrong Gov action as Japan did...that's the risk of writing the big blank check... that's what Paulson's plan would do.

Q: We need to end Iraq War, and send back the illegal aliens, freeze salaries of all civil servants, stop foreign aid, we're draining all US resources... problem is we're handing out money. O agrees... (I think on handing out)... O says if a Biz is losing money you look at the parts not working and fix it. O says Iraq war costs will decrease next year. O says the number of illegals has dropped 10% over last year, and we need to crack down on firms who hire them.

O says further we could bring trade into balance if we were energy independent. We have huge reserves of natural gas... wind solar etc i.e. every Pols response.

A loan secretary from a Bank says she had all these auditors come in and review all the loans. If a Bank wasn't making proper loans, you'd get zigged on the audit. This problem should have been caught by someone. Someone somewhere dropped the ball.

O what's wrong? You're speaking good common sense and our Gov dropped the ball forcing Banks to make subprime loans. Thank you for the comment.

A loan officer asks, the rules are changing and she has spent a lot of time with people not credit worthy to barrow $100k. She worked for company with a subprime unit. Long editorial.... I've lost the thread. It's the institutions loaning to people they shouldn't have loaned to... a para on page 3 of application says if the info you gave isn't True then you're in hot water. She struggles every month making her payment. Yet the CEOs are making money hand over fist. It's a hard business to work in.

O says you're exactly correct, I couldn't agree more: aggressive lending practices got us in this problem.

A guy in Huntly says O would have one the election if it hadn't been held on Sat. An excop from Huntly. He says if you can't afford it, you shouldn't buy it. Then the Gov getting involved makes it worse. What's too much regulation, what's too little...what should the Gov be in? Caller threw up over compensation to CEO for Exxon Mobile. How in God's name did this ever happen.

O says CEO comp out of control and talks Fred Raines again... it's crazy. Exec comp is out of control. O disagrees and says some people who bought homes who shouldn't have did so because the Gov encouraged it.

Sycamore, a Democrat calls and she is angry with Democrats on immigration and Free Speech on Radio... don't Democrat's realize they were elected to serve us... then she dumps on Pelosi and Reid.

O says this is exactly why he is running (gotta admit this Q sounds like a plant). O give us his biography now.... Congress isn't a job for him... it's a commitment to reform... ok..next question please.. hopefully from me.

O says he is impressed by Rep from Janesville. O says GOP has made a lot of mistakes and let spending get out of control.

O says he wants term limits: six for reps, and two for sens.

Another Mortgage Company employee says brokers sent false loan apps. Did everything to get their commissions.

O appreciates the statement.

One more from Huntly...thanks O for the call. If we need to bailout can't Cong take enough time to do it right. Does it need to be done by Monday AM?

It does not need to be done by Monday AM. We need to do something but lets be careful and we will have better results if we take our name.

Plato Center says all of her questions have been answered. Where are the hard signs. (planted Q too?)

Aurora wants to see everyone who goofed pay. O agrees.

Yorkville comments that Allen Greenspan the top of the chain for blame. We had GOP in charge of Congress for six years. GOP had their chance. Now were treating symptom and not problem. People cannot afford homes with people losing jobs and we could be back with another crisis.

O appreciates comment and says we need new direction and bring spending under control O says he did it in the private sector.

Call concludes. If you stay on line you can be connected to office and request signs.

PS A lot of angry people out there this one. Angry and knowledgable....