Kudos to CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, who really nails Rep. Barney Frank, the Democrat from Massachusetts who chairs the House financial services committee.
Mr. Frank on CNBC last week: "We should have done more to get affordable rental housing. My efforts have been towards affordable rental housing. I was very much in disagreement with this push into home ownership. I think the federal government should not be artificially doing that."
Mr. Frank on the floor of Congress in 2005: "Unlike previous examples we have had, where substantial excessive inflation of prices later caused some problems, we are talking here about an entity, home ownership. Homes, where there is not the degree of leverage that we've seen elsewhere. This is not the dotcom situation, where you had problems when people invested in a business plan where there was no reality. People building fiber optic cable for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see ebb and flow of price at a certain percentage level, but you're not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. So those of us on our committee will continue to push for home ownership.
Ms. Caruso-Cabrera's take: "These conflicting statements raise the following question: Why should we believe Congress gets financial regulation right this time around when a guy who is unanimously lauded as extremely smart (whether you like him or not) can be so wrong about housing? And so revisionist of where he stood on the expansion of home ownership?"
Thanks to reader-participant-content co-creator-community member-watchdog R. for sending the tip.