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In what could be a repeat of the easy-lending cycle that led to the housing crisis, the Justice Department has asked several banks to relax their mortgage underwriting standards and approve loans for minorities with poor credit as part of a new crackdown on alleged discrimination, according to court documents reviewed by IBD. [snip] Another Reno protege, Perez has compared bankers to Klansmen. Only difference is, he said, bankers discriminate "with a smile" and "fine print." He said this kind of racism, though more subtle, is "every bit as destructive as the cross burned in a neighborhood." Perez has put...

Rep. Raul Grijalva should slide to reelection in a district where Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans, but his call for a boycott of his state over a harsh immigration law has made him a target.

It was widely reported this week that ethical consumerism has gone mainstream, following revelations that spending in Britain on ‘ethical’ products now outstrips retail sales of alcohol and cigarettes. The facts tell a different story. What is really striking is just how irrelevant ethical consumerism remains, despite ever-increasing media hype and the enthusiasm of retailers. ... ... [C]an you really change society for the better by changing people’s shopping habits?

President's economists still feel some spending is needed for insurance Congress on Wednesday may give up on passing an economic stimulus plan. But the White House's top economists said Tuesday a recovery is "in the offing" even without it. In an annual report to Congress released Tuesday, President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers predicted a second-half recovery would boost GDP by 2.7% in the fourth quarter over last year. A stimulus plan would add 0.5% to that growth, the CEA said. "The timing of a capital recovery is never absolute," said Glenn Hubbard, CEA chairman. "The downside risks . . ...

<p>ATHENS — About 130 years ago, as Ottoman rulers struggled to hold together their crumbling Muslim empire, a noted writer and political adviser returned from Central Europe with a gloomy report.</p> <p>"I passed through the lands of the infidels. I saw cities and mansions," wrote Ziya Bey. "I wandered in the realm of Islam. I saw nothing but ruins."</p>

The Islamic fanatics who chant “death to America” focus much of their hatred on our freewheeling popular culture. They condemn the corrupting influence of the entertainment industry in terms that oddly echo the denunciations of Hollywood by U.S. cultural conservatives. Noting those echoes, an old friend suggested, only half in jest, that I ought to feel some sympathy for the Taliban. “After all,” he told me, “they worry about the influence of Hollywood, and you worry about the influence of Hollywood. They don’t like the messages in pop music, and you don’t like the messages in pop music. They banned ...

“Every man deserves his day in court,” goes the saying. This sounds good, but it is not true. Savages like Osama bin Laden, who live beyond the norms of civil society, deserve none of its benefits. Imagine the travesty of this mass murderer standing trial, exploiting all of the Western niceties he and his disciples are determined to destroy. How exactly would such a trial play out? Would bin Laden receive a court-appointed attorney? Or would his assets be freed up so he could hire Alan Dershowitz? Or a dream team of legal gunslingers? Would a jury of his peers ...

All cultures are not equal. Some are wicked. The moral horror of Sept. 11 is a vivid reminder of this truth. Unfortunately, relativists in the West don’t see it. They continue to insist on a perverse cultural neutrality. Consider the heckles last week that greeted Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s tribute to Western civilization. “We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and – in contrast with Islamic countries – respect for religious and political rights,” he said. Many in the Western elite pounced on Berlusconi. “It’s totally ...

ONCE UPON a time, the term "rights" meant something very different than it means today. When the New Hampshire and federal constitutions were enacted, it was considered self-evident that all men had certain unalienable rights, which came from our Creator, and that the purpose of government was to secure these rights, which included life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is safe to say that today "rights" connotes something altogether different than at the end of the 18th century. Government, not our Creator, is considered to be the source of our rights. Additionally, rights no longer are freedom ...

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said Friday that to be fair to Colorado voters, freshly switched Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell should resign and run in a special election this year. But Campbell said he'll not do that, arguing that Coloradoans voted for him, not his party. His term lasts through 1998. "Perhaps he should resign and run for re-election as a Republican and let the voters make up their minds whether they want him back in that capacity," Daschle said moments after Campbell had called to say he was switching parties. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, resigned and won re-election ...

Hollins University officials decided not to pursue indecent exposure charges against two students who staged an on-campus protest in the nude. Sophomores Chris Chappell and Ann Liv Young were among the students who demonstrated outside a campus building Tuesday to demand more diversity among students and faculty, more money for student services and more power for students in campus affairs. Miss Chappell, Miss Young and Ashlea Hitchcock also asked for a commitment that the university will never admit men as undergraduate students. All three were nude, with red paint on their bodies and scarves in their hair. When students thought ...

If the Georgia Republican Party showed the same enthusiasm for trying to elect statewide candidates that it does in choosing a party chairman, businessman Guy Millner might be governor, and Mack Mattingly could be back in the Senate. Alas, such is not the case. For reasons not readily apparent, the Grand Old Party of Georgia traditionally reserves most of its enthusiasm for the thrilling spectacle of deciding who will chair the state’s No.2 political organization. That may account in part, for Georgia’s failure to become a true two-party state. The ruling Democrats concentrate on winning elections. They choose their ...

More Americans are bearish than bullish about the economic outlook, but they don't expect whatever deterioration they sense to hurt them personally. In fact, more Americans think their personal financial situation will be better six months from now. More also think the country is headed in the right direction under President Bush, whose leadership gets high marks. But Americans remain troubled about the country's morals and ethics. These are some of the findings in a new, wide-ranging series of monthly tracking surveys that IBD is launching today with its polling partner, TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetricaMarket Intelligence of Oradell, N.J. ...

Over the course of the last year, the U.S. economy has gone from white-hot to red-hot to merely lukewarm. Now some economists are starting to ask whether it could turn stone cold next year. The latest report of gross domestic product did little to ease their fears. GDP grew at just a 2.4% annual rate in the third quarter – the slowest pace in nearly four years. Also, retail sales slipped, and corporate profits showed weak growth. The Commerce Department report on gross domestic product, the country's total output of goods and services, harshly underscored the impact of soaring oil ...

Not too long ago, the economy wasn’t an issue. “The greatest economy in a generation,” as President Clinton called it, was spewing out jobs and growth at a dizzying pace. Now the Clinton-Gore bear market is on us, and things are grim. This is not, to put it mildly, the best of times. Heck, we can’t even pick a president. But the nation’s next leader, and it’s looking like George W. Bush, will find the new economy’s gold has turned to dross. Just run down the partial list of woes: * The economy slowed to a 2.4% annual pace in ...

By: Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer October 31, 2000 A 1967 murder of a young Warren woman has emerged as an issue in the U.S. Senate campaign, with Sen. Spence Abraham charging that his opponent, Debbie Stabenow, advocated parole for the convicted murderer, who is serving a life sentence. The "soft-on-crime" charge against Stabenow comes three days after Abraham was accused by the Stabenow campaign of trying to win early release for a wealthy Wall Street trader who served prison time in California for securities fraud. Stabenow, shortly after winning election to the state House, took an interest in ...

Nov 1 2000 3:40PM ET More on Market Commentary... The Message of the Markets and The Election by Ron Insana CNBC Anchor Markets are useful for many things. Sometimes they can even predict the next occupant of the White House. There is even a futures market in which investors make their bets on the outcome of both the presidential and congressional elections. The University of Iowa makes the market in president futures. Investors can buy real futures contracts on Vice President Al Gore, Gov. George W. Bush and Ralph Nader, the Reform Party candidate. The prices reflect who is the ...

We knew Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a hero of ours. And George W. Bush is not Ronald Reagan. Still, we notice enough similarities to confirm our belief that the Texas governor has the right stuff to be president. Maybe it’s the way his detractors talk about George W. that got us thinking about the greatest president of the last half-century. Like how he doesn’t seem smart enough, as if B.A.s from Yale and MBAs from Harvard are easy to come by. Reagan “only” went to Eureka College. Or how inexperienced Bush is, as if 22 years as an executive ...

Al Gore’s recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine raises more questions about his brain than his body. The giggling over his allegedly air-brushed nether region should turn to belly laughs when you hear what’s on his mind. Meditating on the death of John Lennon, he lamented the “loss of any chance the Beatles would come back together and bring us a new sensibility, from the standpoint of that incredible gestalt that they had.” He continued: “They had something almost impossible to describe. I went to their first concert in Washington, D.C., which was on their first tour. I remember the ...

History, if the media glee is any guide. Rick Lazio and Hillary Clinton have agreed to ban soft money ads in their Senate race. We think Shakespeare’s original quote is more apt, though. This soft money pledge really isn’t much of anything. But we weren’t surprised to see the press treat this symbol-over-substance deal as news from heaven. Somehow the announcement about what two candidates pledged they would not do was found more newsworthy than where each stands on, say, tax cuts. It seems to us the media were far too breathless over a deal that pollster John Zogby said ...