There are several obvious connections between Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Joe Biden. Among the more evident are illustrated in the photo collage above. Former President Barack Obama’s White House and the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award. As a related programming note, there will be a special report on Bill Gates soon, perhaps as soon as Monday 5.26.2021. Watch for it. That noted, genuine ties exist between the “Three Bs” of “Bill, Buffett, and Biden.” Which is why a rational view of the authentic potential of the manufactured home industry during a growing affordable housing crisis question is reasonable. Indeed, in mere minutes, this exercise sheds useful and significant light on the reality in the manufactured home industry today. The reality of the affordable manufactured housing industry should be considered as it impacts professionals, the some 22 million Americans living in manufactured homes per the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), and the roughly 111 million Americans who rent, per the Apartment List. Millions among those renters are minorities and others that the Joe Biden campaign website made certain written “guarantees” to during the 2020 election cycle.
Also impacted by the tragic lack of affordable housing in America are the over 500,000 that HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge recently said are homeless in America.
Then, tens of thousands of migrants are de facto being permitted to cross the southern border with Mexico into the U.S. since Biden’s inauguration. Besides the drugs, crimes, human trafficking, and deaths involved in those illegal crossings, they are also creating additional demands on the national housing supply.
This Three Bs (or 3Bs) exercise intersects with each of those topics and others too. With that brief into, let’s dive in.
Newcomers should know, and longer term MHProNews readers should recall, the following facts. While these are alphabetized for later reference, there is no particular order of importance. The facts outlined in the lettered bullets are partially but not always in chronological order. These lettered bullets will begin to form an insightful picture.
A) The 20th anniversary is approaching of Chairman Warren Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) formally entering manufactured housing in 2002. That was the year that Buffett-led Berkshire made its initial investments into bankrupt Oakwood Homes Corporation (OKWH) and their vertically integrated manufactured home production, retail, and financial services (lending and insurance) arms.
B) In 2003, Clayton Homes was acquired by Berkshire as part of a legal battle that even Kevin Clayton referred to as “ugly,” per a video interview and transcript linked here. Let’s note that Kevin’s “ugly” reference is quoted in the top-line headline. That “ugly” battle in hindsight makes it obvious that Buffett wanted Clayton Homes badly.
C) An informed inside source told MHProNews that Buffett had his eyes on the manufactured home industry for over a decade before he made his Oakwood-Clayton moves. Ultimately, Oakwood was rolled under the Clayton Homes umbrella of brands now held in the Berkshire empire.
D) Buffett, along with his vice chairman and longtime partner Charlie Munger, J.D., are not young men. Munger is 97, born on January 1, 1924, says Wikipedia. Buffett is 90 and was born on August 30, 1930, per that same source which adds that Buffett is personally worth $100.6 billion as of April 2021.
E) The Seattle Times reported on December 14, 2004 that “Bill Gates joined the board of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment company.”
F) Per the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website, “In 2006, Buffett pledged most of his fortune to the Gates Foundation and to four charitable trusts created by his family—the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Susan A. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation (led by Peter A. Buffett). His gift to the Gates Foundation of 10 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, to be paid in annual installments, was worth approximately $31 billion in June 2006.” That page also states: “Along with Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett is a [Gates] foundation trustee, helping to shape our vision and develop strategies to address some of the world’s most challenging inequities.”
G) So, Buffett and Gates, have openly worked with each other for some 17 years. The duo made a joint trip to Eastern Tennessee to see Clayton Homes together, per WBIR News and other sources on October 5, 2018.
H) That TN trip to see Kevin Clayton and Clayton Homes were significant items in local media at the time. Locale media oddly were not given the chance, or missed their opportunity, to ask enough of the obvious questions, starting with the basic news question of why? Per the video transcript, is the following (I) bullet.
I) Per the video transcript, Clayton Homes “SPOKESPERSON RYAN WILSON SAYS WARREN BUFFETT AND BILL GATES ARE HERE [in East Tennessee/Knoxville area] FOR A “QUICK TRIP”. BUFFETT’S BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY BOUGHT MARYVILLE-BASED CLAYTON HOMES IN 2003. AND THE GATES FOUNDATION IS ONE OF BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY’S LARGEST SHAREHOLDERS. IT‘[s] NOT CLEAR WHY THE TWO BILLIONAIRES ARE IN EAST TENNESSEE. WILSON SAYS THERE ARE NO PLANNED PUBLIC EVENTS.”
J) The bullets above clearly reflect that Gates and Buffett have deep financial and other ties. Each received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President Barack (another B…) Obama. These facts make it clear that manufactured housing professionals should not ignore Gates and his potential and actual influences on our profession. Why? Because Buffett-led Berkshire didn’t ignore Gates and manufactured housing. Buffett personally met with Gates to show off part of the Clayton Homes operation. Buffett gave the Gates Foundation billions in Berkshire stock. Berkshire owns Clayton Homes. Clayton Homes General Counsel is currently the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) Chairman.
K) Restating for emphasis to illustrate a point, Buffett’s so-called Giving Pledge of some $31 billion dollars worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the now ironically named Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made Bill Gates one of the major financial influences on our industry. They obviously share so-called “philanthropic,” media, political, nonprofits, and other connections too. Investopedia in a May 2021 update said that: “Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft, the largest software company in the world, and the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His estimated net worth is $124 billion.” “William Henry [Bill] Gates III is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation,” said. Wikipedia, which cites Forbes and Trending to put his estimated net worth at some “$125.5 billion USD (2021).”
L) Beyond the 2Bs estimated personal fortunes totaling some $225 billion, there are even larger financial capabilities they could wield through their respective corporations (Berkshire, Microsoft, etc.) and nonprofits. If Gates and Buffett agreed to do something, in a practical sense, is there anything that the duo could not do to advance affordable housing in general, and HUD Code manufactured housing in particular? The answer is obvious, of course they have the potential to dramatically improve the profession’s performance, if they wanted to do so. That implies that they have not yet wanted to do so.
M) To illustrate bullet L. Between one to two billion dollars can get Joe Biden into the White House. Several billion more can get a cadre of largely Democratic candidates elected and/or installed into office to support their mutual goals. While many in fact were part of that 2020 campaign effort, Buffett and Bill could have funded that personally, and it would have barely dent their net worth. In 2011, Kevin Clayton said that they were prepared to do a national campaign to promote manufactured housing. Really? What happened to that campaign? But setting that now obvious disconnect aside, Buffett and Bill have the financial resources to do whatever they want to, Kevin Clayton said as much in that same video interview. Buffett assured Clayton he could have whatever he needed. So, is there any connection – financial, media, political, nonprofit, or other temporal power – that Bill and Buffett lack with Biden in place at the White House? Do they not have the money, media, and governmental resources to advance whatever agenda that they wish? More facts and evidence will shed light on the obvious answer.
We’d previously estimated that the 2020 election would cost $11 billion.
We’ve reevaluated—It now looks like total cost of the 2020 election will be closer to an unprecedented $14 BILLION.
That’s twice as expensive as 2016.https://t.co/8oI22f9frc pic.twitter.com/KlVE5KaXQc
— OpenSecrets.org (@OpenSecretsDC) October 28, 2020
N) The 3Bs (Three Bs) and their apparent Civic Alliance allies are a reality. Buffett and Bill have Biden in the White House. They have a largely Democratically dominated Congress. They have hundreds of billions of dollars available to use as they wish, within whatever legal and practical limits may exist. Once more for emphasis: what is there that the 3Bs could not get done to spread the word about affordable manufactured homes, if that was their goal?
Like it or not, legitimately ‘elected’ or not, Biden now apparently heads up the federal bureaucracy. With that in mind, and understanding the structure of the federal government, ponder these 3 bullets.
- Could White House Resident Biden, or one of his staffers, call or message HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and ask her to fully and properly implement the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA or 2000 Reform Law)? Of course. The linked letter by Congressional lawmakers demonstrates that point.
- Could Biden or a staffer call or message Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mark Calabria and push him into having the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs or Enterprises) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fully and properly implement the Duty to Serve Manufactured Housing provision of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008? Sure, Biden could have that done too. (See evidence further below).
- Could Buffett and or Bill put a call or message into the Biden White House and get those wheels turning? Is the Pope Catholic? Are rabbis Jewish?
By simply lining up the facts and related evidence, and then taking an objective look at the national reality, several matters come into sharp focus. Because those who understand the federal laws involved, which at least on paper, reflect the point that manufactured housing has the legislation that it needs already in place.
The problem for years has been that the favorable legislation passed by widely bipartisan margins in Congress has largely been thwarted. While they obviously disagree on strategy, MHI and MHARR agree on the core facts.
Doug Ryan, who is focused on affordable housing programs with CFED, which is since rebranded as Prosperity Now, dots the i on one of the key issues.
While Gooch denied Ryan’s charge, ironically, former MHI chairman and Berkshire owned 21st Mortgage Corporation CEO said in an MHI meeting a few months ago that he was glad that the DTS project for personal property (home only or chattel loans) had failed. That leaves no logical wiggle room for MHI, or anyone else, to logically claim otherwise. Given repeated opportunities to change to amend or correct the record, Williams, MHI, Berkshire, and connected attorneys stayed mute instead.
Let’s note that before enacting favorable to manufactured housing legislation, Congress took testimony and had evidence entered that underscores the durability, safety, energy efficiency, consumer safeguards, and value that manufactured homes now enjoy. Manufactured homes are not the trailer houses of the 1930s nor the mobile homes of the 1950s into the mid-1970s.
Buffett and Gates clearly have everything possibly needed required to see manufactured housing sales soaring and roaring. There is an affordable housing crisis that is only going to get worse with a largely open southern border.
Now, let’s step back in time to President Barack Obama Vice President Joe Biden’s early 2009 to early 2017 term in office.
I) Stating the historically obvious, wasn’t there a similar reality as the outline above made clear also available during the Obama-Biden era? If someone wants a clue as to what is coming, there is only a need to look back to the Obama-Biden years.
II) While Buffett and Gates did not have the same net worth then as now, the dynamics in 2009-early 2017 while Obama and Biden were in office were similar. But during those years, the MHIA was not properly enforced either. Similarly, instead of implementing the Duty to Serve Manufactured Housing, Rural and Underserved Markets (DTS) plan that was supposed to turn millions of Americans into homeowners has been largely thwarted. Yet, that program was designed by Congress to allow prospective home buyers to get their part of the American Dream. Objectively and in fairness, for whatever reasons, those roadblocks with DTS and/or “enhanced preemption” under the MHIA were not implemented during the Trump-Pence years either.
III). Looking more carefully at the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA or 2000 Reform law). That law had several important provisions. Among them, was perhaps the strongest national home buyer safeguards for any type of housing at any price. Installation, energy, durability, third-party inspections and more are all part of the 2000 reform law. Why is that so little known? Is it possible that Buffett and Bill want it to be so? Rephrased, if Bill and Buffett wanted the nation to know, don’t they have the media and money to make that knowledge widely public? Obviously yes, they have the ability. So, for whatever reasons, the duo have not exercised that power. If the 2Bs won’t pull that trigger, is there any hope that the B of Biden will do it, contrary to the duo’s combined will?
IV). The MHIA also has enhanced preemption. There have been literally decades of research that point to the simple fact that local zoning problems have kept affordable housing limited throughout the U.S. Congress saw that and addressed it in the MHIA. That 2000 Reform law has occasionally been invoked and successfully so. But far more common is the fact that the law has not been invoked at all.
V). If what the first program Office of Manufactured Housing Programs Administrator, Bill Matchneer, said on a group phone call is true – and the evidence supports his contention – then the Office of General Counsel at HUD has deliberately engaged in food dragging on asking locals to honor the “enhanced preemption” provision of federal law. More specifically, the law says that it “preemption” is to be “broadly and liberally construed” – which is why informed insiders refer to this as “enhanced preemption.”
Mark Weiss, J.D., President and CEO of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) – pointing to Freddie Mac data – stated the obvious, in a report cited in our headlines for the week below.
As we enter the new 3B era of American history, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have now completely thumbed their nose at the DTS provision that would make home-only lending possible at lower, more competitive rates. Chattel, personal property, or home only lending reportedly accounts for about 76 percent of all single-family manufactured home financing, says MHI. One must keep in mind that Fannie and Freddie are under FHFA conservatorship. For some years, there has been a plan to allow Fannie and Freddie to be re-capitalized and then exit that conservatorship.
There has perhaps been no better time than during this period of FHFA conservatorship for the federal government to make Fannie and Freddie live up to their DTS mandate of manufactured housing. Yet, those ‘mandates’ were not fulfilled. Furthermore, in exiting conservatorship, the GSEs must keep in mind – where is that capital going to come from? Isn’t it reasonable for the leaders of Fannie and Freddie to ponder the point that Warren Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway once held stock in both? Or that Buffett and Bill have the capital that they need in order to make that exit a reality? Hold those thoughts.
On March 25, 2021, Mark Weiss called what is happening with DTS on a live “listening session” call with FHFA what is seems to be – a “shell game.” Some 3 years ago, MHARR’s CEO spoke about the “illusion of motion” that involves MHI and the industry’s insiders.
On March 25, L. A. “Tony” Kovach in that same listening session call, cited an array of facts, quoted and referenced sources in the document posted on the FHFA website at this link here. What was being said apparently scared and/or mortified one or more at the FHFA. How so? Because that call was reportedly deliberately cut short by the FHFA before the entire presentation was finished. One of FHFA’s team members began to explain to other listen session attendees why that call from Kovach was cut off. It was part of the official record of the transcript. But now that video and transcript have been modified. Isn’t that a coverup in plain sight? And wasn’t that an ‘over the target’ reaction was to these linked facts and evidence? Isn’t the obvious answer to both of those questions, yes? That is documented at this link here.
Given that FHFA has such a strong reaction to that, the entire presentation is show below. It happens to be relevant to this 3Bs discussion, affordable housing in general, and manufactured homes in particular.
— The entire FHFA Kovach Listen Session 3.25.2021 Statement. —
Enterprise Housing Goals FHFA Listening Session Address
Remarks as Prepared by L. A. “Tony” Kovach
3.25.2021
“A Pimple on an Elephant’s Ass.”
That’s how a Manufactured Housing Executives Council (MHEC) member described to MHProNews the comparative losses on manufactured homes to losses incurred in conventional housing during the 2008 housing-financial crisis. He compared those trillions in losses on houses to the far more modest losses experienced by lenders operating in HUD Code Manufactured Homes in the late 1990s into the early 2000s.
Despite that comparative pimple, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others periodically point back to that problematic so-called “GreenSeco era.” That’s 2 decades in the rearview mirror. How can that be an excuse for treating manufactured homes so differently than conventional housing in access to lending?
The FHFA website says that Enterprise Housing Goals are supposed to “FOSTER competitive, liquid, efficient, and resilient (CLEAR) national housing finance markets that support sustainable homeownership and affordable rental housing…”
Before and after passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008 and the Congressional mandate of Duty to Serve (or DTS) for manufactured housing by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac – FHFA and other regulators have paid lip service to supporting manufactured homes.
That negatively impacts millions. Who says?
HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge spoke recently about the tragedy of increased homelessness in America.
HUD’s sad report is fascinating because James Schmitz Jr. – a researcher for the Minneapolis Fed, and three colleagues – published reports accusing HUD and builders of collusion in deliberately undermining manufactured housing.
Schmitz and those researchers argued that collusion between HUD and builders is a case of “sabotage monopoly.”
They said that sabotaging collusion between HUD and builders increased homelessness, harmed minorities, and cut off the lower income class of all backgrounds from the benefits of affordable manufactured home ownership.
Schmitz and his colleagues wrote positively about the manufactured home option.
Scholastica “Gay” Cororaton’s research for the National Association of Realtors also praised modern manufactured homes.
What makes Schmitz and his colleagues’ charge of HUD’s role in “sabotage monopoly” more compelling are comments from Bill Matchneer. Attorney Matchneer is the former HUD administrator for the Office of Manufactured Housing Programs (OMHP).
Matchneer said HUD’s Office of General Counsel consistently failed to enforce the enhanced preemption clause made law when the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA or 2000 Reform law) was enacted.
Jim Gray, formerly with the FHFA Duty to Serve program, said in his exit message that FHFA and GSEs – “[W]e have not made as much progress [toward meeting the Duty to Serve mandates] as many of us would have liked; so much remains to be done to reach these [DTS] markets.”
In December 2019, I made two different listening session presentations on the DTS mandates; one virtual and another live in Washington, D.C.
In both presentations, I made the evidence-based case how disgraceful it was that the FHFA and GSEs have ignored the law to the harm of millions.
GSEs and FHFA failures arguably included key corporate members of the Manufactured Housing Institute or MHI.
Several scheduled to present today are aware of the issues I’m raising. Because some worked for HUD, FHFA, GSEs, or are otherwise connected to the manufactured housing industry.
For instance. Lesli Gooch, Ph.D., with the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) made statements in her filed EHG comments letter that sound supportive of manufactured homes.
But upon closer examination, Ms. Gooch focused on an unproven plan that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) owned Clayton Homes – which supports MHI – in their push for their branded CrossModTM homes scheme.
Where was Gooch’s similarly robust support for all other mainstream manufactured homes?
- Fannie calls CrossModTM MH Advantage®.
- Freddie calls their version of CrossModTM CHOICEHome®.
- The known data reveals that these programs are market failures.
Supposedly there have been double-digit sales nationally of CrossModTM – under whatever name – in the last few years. That’s in a market producing some 95,000 HUD Code manufactured homes annually.
Attorney and manufactured home finance veteran Marty Lavin – an MHI award winner – did consulting for Fannie Mae. Lavin told MHLivingNews that MHAdvantage ® was likely to be as successful as MH Select®.
Lavin said MH Select® was also a virtual goose egg.
David Dworkin, CEO of the National Housing Conference in federal comments said that manufactured housing was necessary for affordable housing.
Dworkin was fully confident that the GSEs could successful do manufactured home loans.
Dworkin previously worked for a GSE as a Vice President.
Edward Golding worked for HUD and the FHA.
In 2018, Golding and 3 colleagues did a post for the Urban Institute. It was a entitled “Manufactured homes could ease the affordable housing crisis. So why are so few being made?”
Citing FHFA data, Golding and his co-authors in that Urban Institute report said manufactured homes appreciated in value. They said manufactured homes could appreciate even more given access to affordable sustainable GSE loans.
What that Urban Institute post didn’t disclose on that specific page is that Berkshire chairman Warren Buffett is a lifetime trustee of the Urban Institute.
The applied logic of Golding, Dworkin, MHARR’s Mark Weiss, and others should make it plain that the GSEs could and should be doing robust lending in manufactured housing.
Oxford Bank has made personal property loans on manufactured homes for some 2 decades. Oxford reportedly loans with credit scores that mirror those of Berkshire owned 21st Mortgage.
Oxford purportedly does so profitably and sustainably and at lower interest rates than 21st.
Given those facts and legal mandates, what possible excuse can FHFA and the GSEs give for not robustly making mainstream manufactured home loans for both personal property as well as mortgage lending?
- Why did the GSEs and MHI hold closed door meetings some years ago and never released those meeting minutes?
- How did the MHAdvantage ® CHOICEHome® and CrossModTM magically come to be so similar?
- Why is it that MHI postures support, but has backed or tolerated plans that leave Berkshire owned 21stand Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance as the 2 runaway largest lenders in manufactured housing?
I am consultant L.A. “Tony” Kovach. I’ve worked in the insurance, RV, trade show, and other professions. But all told, I have some 30 years’ experience in manufactured housing retail, communities, with financial service firms, and builders of HUD Code manufactured homes.
Keep in mind that I was an MHI member for years. I was elected by my peers to sit on the MHI Suppliers Division board.
For a time, I was arguably fooled by the purported paltering and posturing of the MHI flim-flam that has undermined manufactured housing.
That paltering pattern harms millions of Americans while thousands of independent retailers, producers, and others went out of business or sold out at discount.
- Is it mere coincidence that this history fits the Warren Buffett “castle and moat” methodology that Kevin Claytonhimself bragged about in a video interview?
- Have you viewed or read the transcript of Kevin Clayton saying that Buffett preaches that Moat to make it hard on Clayton’s competitors?
Applying the “Iron Triangle” notion and Schmitz’s “Sabotage Monopoly” principles suggest that insiders rigged the market in ways that undermine the interests of various competitors.
The late Democratic Senator William Proxmire said that in Washington, two things shed light on what occurs.
- There are no coincidences.
- The other is follow the money.
I encourage all to Google each of these topics yourself!
For instance, Google “Sam Strommen from Knudson Law” on manufactured housing research.
Strommen’s report called what is happening in manufactured housing a case of “Felony” antitrust violations with possible RICO aspects involved.
Strommen has no axe to grind in our profession.
Strommen concluded that manufactured housing was being subverted from within and mentioned Clayton, MHI, other MHI members, plus the Buffett “castle and moat” method too.
Given the degrees, evidence, and experiences of those involved, I have a hard time making the argument for incompetence causing the status quo.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr said:
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
What comes next should include a full and proper implementation of federal laws that include the
- Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000,
- and the Duty to Serve Manufactured Housing as part of the Enterprise Housing Goals.
- It should also include enforcing antitrust and RICO laws too.
Those good laws need to be fully and properly implemented to restore the free market and liberate millions who want affordable home ownership made possible by mainstream manufactured homes. Pax et bonum.
##
— End of Kovach 3.25.2021 FHFA Listening Session Statement. —
The shell game Weiss referred to is not technically over, because the apparent obstruction of federal law persists. What is now historically evident during the Obama-Biden years is once more taking shape in the 3Bs era of affordable manufactured home history. Thus, thanks to a clear historic record and reams of facts, that claimed shell game is coming into sharper focus.
Therefore, the next step is to make the broader public more aware of the issues. The following is an exclusive from the WND Newscenter and is used with permission.
The solution to Big Tech and the oligarchs
Anyone who thinks Big Tech will be reined in by regulations has not been paying close attention. The following cases exposed years of documented corporate, regulatory and accounting failures. They spotlight massive corruption and mainstream media misses.
- Enron
· Theranos
· WorldCom
· VW “Diesel-Gate”
· Solyndra
· Bernard “Bernie” Madoff
· WeWork
· Lehman Brothers
· Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (Government Sponsored Enterprises/GSEs).
Collectively, that list involved hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by investors. Various types of fraud, corruption and deception occurred. Because taxpayers and the broader economy were impacted by Lehman Brothers and GSEs housing-finance scandals, those cost Americans trillions of dollars.
John Kenneth Galbraith said: “Regulatory bodies, like the people who comprise them … become, with some exceptions, either an arm of the industry they are regulating or senile.” Bingo.
Modern robber barons are dominating information and capital. Cold Fusion’s documentary about the Theranos’ scandal observed: “It’s the illusionary effect where if you repeat a lie enough times people start to believe it, especially if you have credible names surrounding the product.”
Problematic products are from corrupt companies.
Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes is shown with then Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. In the massive Enron scandal, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are shown with then President George W. Bush (R). Those establishment politicians are sufficient to make the point of the “illusionary effect” of “repeating a big lie enough times” when “credible names” are involved.
Harry Markopolos and his colleagues spent years trying to get public officials and mainstream media to expose the massive Bernie Madoff fraud they knew existed. Forbes says Madoff losses may have exceeded $50 billion.
Other regulatory failures are hiding in plain sight. The New York Times quoted Warren Buffett: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Buffett’s “class” profited wildly in the 2008 and 2020 economic upheavals. How? CNBC quoted billionaire Bill Gates: “I didn’t even want to meet Warren because I thought, ‘Hey this guy buys and sells things, and so he found imperfections in terms of markets, that’s not value added to society, that’s a zero-sum game that is almost parasitic.'”
The CDC defines parasitic: “A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host.”
Buffett said, “The most important thing for me is figuring out how big a moat there is around a business. What I would love, of course, is a big castle and a big moat with piranhas and crocodiles.”
When carefully examined, these oligarchs and their businesses employ “parasitic” “moat” and “sabotage monopoly” methods. They create a slow-motion monopoly of various markets. Experts like James Schmitz say monopolies “inflict great harm on low- and middle-income Americans.”
The solution? Enforce existing laws. Break these pernicious giants up. They cause social, economic and moral harm. Once broken up, watch the economy and America soar.
L. A. “Tony” Kovach
## End of WND Op-Ed. ##
Let’s sum up, before we pivot to the headlines for the week.
- Between Bill, Buffett, and Biden, the 3Bs could do pretty much what they want in Washington, D.C. Their media, money, and other methods of influence have all that are required to advance the MHIA and DTS. That in turn could make modern affordable manufactured homes readily available to millions. Research linked here makes it clear that some $2 trillion dollars in additional economic activity annually would be naturally generated by implementing good, existing laws that already exist and are useful to the public and manufactured housing professionals.
- Furthermore, while Bill and Buffett did not have the same level of control over the Trump-Pence Administration years, they certainly did during the early part and much of the Obama-Biden years. There are reasons to believe that an iron triangle has formed and that what senior Minneapolis Federal Reserve researcher James A Schmitz Jr and several of his colleagues have called sabotaging monopolies are at play. Schmitz and his colleagues make an evidence-based claim that federal officials, in tandem with builders and trade association efforts, are causing poverty and homelessness.
- But the 2Bs did not act during the Obama-Biden years either to press their potential to advance affordable home ownership. Indeed, as alluded to earlier, there were 3Bs during the Barack, Bill, and Buffett years too. Thus, despite all of the pleasantries that are espoused by numerous voices about caring about racial equity and social justice for minorities, that did not happen during Obama-Biden. That same patterns is evidenced in the first 100 days of Biden-Harris. The above review arguably makes it crystal clear that MHI’s Lesli Gooch is merely posturing once again, when she and her colleagues could have acted years before to accomplish what they now claim to want to do.
- These are intelligent people. These are successful people. These are mostly men, but also some women, that know how to get things done if they want them to get done. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that whatever they may say, their actions are speaking louder than their words. If something is or isn’t happening, it is because they do not want it to happen.
- Whenever money for “homelessness,” or “housing subsidies” or anything else are mentioned by the Biden-Harris team, one must keep these realities in mind. These programs may help a limited number, but they do so while ignoring the long term solutions passed by Congress on a widely bipartisan basis in 2000 and 2008 are not being properly enforced. The 3Bs – now or during the President Barack Obama-Biden Administration – clearly have not want them to be enforced.
- Additionally, antitrust (anti-market rigging, anti-monopoly), RICO, and other laws could be invoked, but have for the most part have not been. This pattern has occurred under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Don’t miss the postscript.
What could be or should be is not. Tensions and disruption in society are the outcome. Tens of millions are harmed. The powers that be must want it to be so. Because the 3Bs, if they wanted it to be different, could make it so. But they have not.
Keep the above in mind as you read the headline reports for the week that was. With no further adieu, here are the headlines from 5.16 to 5.23.2021.
What is New from Washington, D.C. from MHARR
What is New on MHLivingNews
What is New and the Latest on the Masthead
What is New on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 5.22.2021
Friday 5.21.2021
Thursday 5.20.2021
Wednesday 5.19.2021
Tuesday 5.18.2021
Monday 5.17.2021
Sunday 5.16.2021
Postscript
Congress is supposed to reflect the will and interests of “We the People.” The limits and authority for Congress and its powers are spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.
Then, Congress is supposed to give oversight to agencies it has created as well as to the moneys allocated by the laws they have enacted.
But if those three Congressional claims were all literally true, let us merely note for now that much of the very premise of the MHIA or DTS are being thwarted. Why did good laws passed by widely bipartisan margins – laws meant to advance affordable home ownership in America – largely fail to get properly implemented and administered?
The truth is hiding in plain sight. The truth has been hiding in plain sight for years, as the survey of facts and related logical and evidence-based analysis makes clear. The pull quotes below illustrate key points that only further underscore the 3Bs facts, evidence, and obvious conclusions noted above. Note that the sources cross the left-center-right divide and are from within and outside of manufactured housing.
![DidntWantToMeetWarren[Buffett]BecauseGuyBuysSellsFoundImperfectMarketNotValueAddSocietyZeroSumGameParasiticBillGatesPhotoMicrosoftLogoGatesFoundationLogoQuoteQuotableQuoteMHproNews](http://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/DidntWantToMeetWarrenBuffettBecauseGuyBuysSellsFoundImperfectMarketNotValueAddSocietyZeroSumGameParasiticBillGatesPhotoMicrosoftLogoGatesFoundationLogoQuoteQuotableQuoteMHproNews.jpg)
That said, while money is clearly a big mover of Congress, at the end of the day, Congress still needs voters. Especially in the House of Representatives, whose members are up for re-election ever 2 years, the ability to bring heat on them to cause them to live up to their oversight mandates is available.
When elected officials feel the heat, sometimes they can be made to see the light. Stay tuned for more, once again reminding readers a special report that is planned on Bill Gates. Years of history show us what has occurred. To change the status quo, it must be demanded by enough voters to make politicos, media, and others want to cover the decades of problematic actions by powerful individuals that include the 3Bs.
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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