CRA to Blame for Mortgage Mess? (How Government created the problem that they now must solve)

Townhall ^ | September 18, 2008 | Matt Lewis

[Eric Blair 2084]

This morning on "Morning Joe," Larry Kudlow was asked about some specific reforms that could help the economy.

He noted that the federal government helped create this financial crisis in the mid-nineties by passing the Community Reinvestment Act. According to Wikipedia:

"The purpose of the CRA is to provide credit, including home ownership opportunities to underserved populations and commercial loans to small businesses. The CRA was passed into law by the U.S. Congress in 1977 as a result of national grassroots pressure for affordable housing, and despite considerable opposition from the mainstream banking community. Only one banker, Ron Grzywinski from ShoreBank in Chicago, testified in favor of the act. [1]"

The CRA mandates that each banking institution be evaluated to determine if it has met the credit needs of its entire community. That record is taken into account when the federal government considers an institution's application for deposit facilities, including mergers and acquisitions.

... The Clinton Administration's regulatory revisions [1] with an effective starting date of January 31, 1995 were credited with substantially increasing the number and aggregate amount of loans to small businesses and to low- and moderate-income borrowers for home loans. Part of the increase in home loans was due to increased efficiency and the genesis of lenders, like Countrywide, that do not mitigate loan risk with savings deposits as do traditional banks using the new subprime authorization. This is known as the secondary market for mortgage loans. The revisions allowed the securitization of CRA loans containing subprime mortgages. The first public securitization of CRA loans started in 1997 by Bear Stearns. [2] The number of CRA mortgage loans increased by 39 percent between 1993 and 1998, while other loans increased by only 17 percent. [3] [4] In short, the federal government began forcing banks to make subprime loans to people who couldn't afford them.

Update: This is from April 15:

KUDLOW: Would you consider, by the way, rolling back the Community Reinvestment Act, which a lot of people say triggered this, mandating banks and other lenders to make substandard loans in the first place, and the creator of the subprime mortgages back in the middle '90s? Is it time to take a look at the Community Reinvestment Act?

Sen. McCAIN: Absolutely, Larry. There were people who predicted that the Community Reinvestment Act might lead to reckless and unsound lending practices just to sort of fill a--you know, a amount of--I don't like to use the word "quota," but certain percentages of a--of a home--of the bank's lending practices. Yes, it has to be re-examined, it has to be judged by its effect, and we need to find out how this particular system affected the overall insolvency of the subprime lending issue. And I think it--I'm not saying it needs to be repealed, but it certainly needs to be re-examined and what its effects have been. And we'll be able to figure that out.

[org.whodat]

The mortgage market is a very small part of this total mess, but it is what they are hiding the big turkey behind.

[kcvl]

Housing Activist Bruce Marks Named the Boston Globe Magazine’s Bostonian of the Year for 2007

In a special edition appearing Sunday December 30, The Boston Globe Magazine selects housing activist Bruce Marks as its 2007 Bostonian of the Year. In choosing Mr. Marks, the Globe Magazine cites “his relentless advocacy and sensible innovation in working to find a way out of the mortgage crisis that affects so many.”

http://tinyurl.com/4a4z85

[ExTexasRedhead]

Hundreds of politicians and former politicians need to be in jail and/or thrown out of office in disgrace. Mortgage and banking thieves all the way down the ladder need to go to jail as well. When will the American people demand accountability for this national disgrace? They’ve stolen our children’s futures and Osama Obama wants to accelerate that process. God help us all!

[listenhillary]

How is Bruce Marks organization doing today?

[VOA]

A couple of days ago, Rush played an audio of an interview with
Robert B. Reiche (of the Clinton Admin.)

IIRC, it was a pretty recent interview.

And it just blew me away as Reiche said that Bill Clinton had really
gotten the housing mortgage debacle rolling...by threatening private
lenders if they didn’t start approving plenty of home loans in minority area.

I almost had a heart attack. As NOTHING is every the fault of Democrats.

And if you don’t believe that...just ask a Democrat.

[kcvl]

Consider this press release from Citigroup in September of 2004, which finds ACORN and Citi happily holding hands and pushing “the goals of both organizations to promote homeownership in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, especially in immigrant communities.”

From the press statement:

“With this agreement, ACORN will be able to expand our mission of strengthening communities by helping low- and moderate-income families, including new immigrants to this country, become homeowners,” said Maude Hurd, National President of ACORN.

It’s not as if Citi and ACORN were the only ones jumping deep into subprime lending together, either. Economic policy research at the time centered on how lenders were denying loans to those with poor credit, often minorities; consider the following conclusion from a September 1999 study:

The Urban Institute report issued today says that “not all Americans enjoy equal access to the benefits of homeownership, in part because of unequal access to capital.”

“Fair lending” essentially became synonymous with a universal lowering of credit standards — and as lenders loosened credit standards, community groups cheered, and the White House lauded the commitment to “expanding homeownership.”

Legislatively, President Bush went so far as to propose eliminating down payment requirements altogether. In a September 2004 press statement, administration officials touted a so-called “Zero-Downpayment Initiative” that would eliminate the statutory requirement of a minimum three percent down payment for FHA-insured single-family mortgages for first-time homebuyers.

Even when we had clear data suggesting that lending to people who couldn’t afford their loans would likely end up badly, we ignored it. Consider this story from April 2004, which noted a Fannie Mae study that found that 49 percent of English-language Hispanics, 46 percent of Spanish-language Hispanics, and 42 percent of African Americans cited “credit concerns” as the primary reason they had not yet bought a home.

That sense of entitlement has given traction to guys like Bruce Marks at the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, whose boorish tactics would be universally condemned at any other point in our nation’s history. Instead, the use of those tactics get him named “Bostonian of the Year” by the Boston Globe, and find him putting banks in a veritable vise grip — perhaps even rightfully so — over their lending tactics.

http://tinyurl.com/44tp6d

[Presto]

EVERYONE: Freep the Gretawire.com poll asking whether Todd Palin should honor the Witch-hunt subpoena issued against him! (HINT: “NO”) - Just takes ten seconds and a mouse click.

[Presto]

EVERYONE: Freep the Gretawire.com poll asking whether Todd Palin should honor the Witch-hunt subpoena issued against him! (HINT: “NO”) - Just takes ten seconds and a mouse click.

[kcvl]

Nonprofit Groups Press
For Subprime Relief;
Deciding Who Gets Help

Paulo Perez, a graphic artist, hasn’t made payments in months on the $330,000 mortgage on his ranch house in La Puente, Calif. It fell to Citigroup Inc.’s mortgage-servicing unit to decide what to do about that.

After Citigroup moved to foreclose on him, Mr. Perez, who is 28 years old, asked the financial giant to cut his monthly payments to a level he can afford. Citigroup representatives eventually said no, offering him a less appealing suggestion: Sell your house, turn over the proceeds, and we won’t go after you for any unpaid balance.

Acorn and other nonprofit community groups contend that mortgage servicers have no right to play hardball with borrowers. Subprime lenders, these groups say, talked customers into loans they couldn’t afford by encouraging them to overstate their incomes and by basing the loans on inflated appraisals. Anyone with steady enough income to make regular monthly payments should get a restructured mortgage, the groups argue.

On the other hand, Douglas Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, argues that lenders aren’t the only ones to blame for the subprime-lending debacle. Among the many culpable parties, he says, are the borrowers who didn’t follow through on their obligations.

Bruce Marks, executive director of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, or NACA, another national nonprofit group, characterizes Ameriquest and Argent as “the worst of the worst” subprime lenders. “They incentivized brokers and lenders to throw money at people knowing they couldn’t afford these loans....These homeowners were never qualified correctly and they deserve modification.” (In an unrelated case in 2002, Household International Inc., which has since been acquired by HSBC Holdings PLC, agreed to a $484 million settlement over alleged lending abuses.) A spokesman for ACC declined to comment.

For years, groups such as Acorn and NACA have pressed Citigroup and other lenders to step up mortgage lending to lower-income customers. When subprime mortgages began going bad, these groups began pushing banks not to lower the boom on borrowers. They have leverage. The Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to help meet the credit needs of communities in which they operate, and regulators often seek feedback from the groups when deciding whether to permit financial institutions to open new branches. The groups sometimes organize boycotts.

In Granada Hills, Calif., Natalie Brandon is fighting to keep the three-bedroom ranch house she bought in 1985 for $105,000. Mrs. Brandon, 51, does medical billing for doctors; her husband is a dispatcher for a local gas utility. Last year, she got a $625,500 mortgage from Argent, now owned by Citigroup. Her 7.99% interest rate isn’t set to rise until next June, but she already is behind on payments.

Over the past five years, she has refinanced her home five times, each time taking out cash and paying prepayment penalties. Last year, all she had to do to refinance was state that she and her husband earned a combined $100,000. She says she used the proceeds to pay off $30,000 owed on her white Lexus.

Mrs. Brandon figures if she sold her home today, she wouldn’t get more than $450,000 — what a nearby home sold for in foreclosure.

http://tinyurl.com/45v63x

[Eric Blair 2084]

You da man! You are right on top of this. Keep me posted and ping me please to other articles. Keyword is CRA.

Mark Levin led off his show talking about this today. So the word is getting out.

The truth shall set you free.

[Eric Blair 2084]

I confess that I was down in the dumps for the last few days thinking that the Keynesian Big Gubmint folks were right. I should never have doubted my dear Old GrandDad.

The wise words of my adopted Grandfather:

"What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself. The essence of political freedom is the absence of coercion of one man by his fellow men. The fundamental danger to political freedom is the concentration of power. The existence of a large measure of power in the hands of a relatively few individuals enables them to use it to coerce their fellow men. Preservation of freedom requires either the elimination of power where that is possible, or its dispersal where it cannot be eliminated. It essentially requires a system of checks and balances, like that explicitly incorporated in our Constitution..."

-- Milton Friedman, The New Liberal's Creed: Individual Freedom, Preserving Dissent Are Ultimate Goals," May 18, 1961

"There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income."

---Milton Friedman

[Molly T.]

Bruce Marks must surely be “a man after Hussein Obama’s heart”.....Lord help me, but I'm just sick and tired of these far left radical libs who are as determined to destroy our way of life as the Islamic terrorists are...and believe me, in my eyes, the likes of this guy Marks and that devious Hussein Obama..are a real threat to our very existence and the nation we have always loved..and the most disgusting, maddening part of this whole mess are those damned people in Washington DC who have been in bed with the likes of those two.....it's all about power and greed...damn the whole lot....I tell myself that one day they will answer to this...we may not have the power to touch the so and so’s but they, like all of us will be called to answer for our lives and deeds...I'm no angel, but I wouldn't want to trade places with that traitorous lot...they are willingly selling not only their souls , but our country right down the tubes...I wish I could feel sorry for them....but so far....

[mac_truck]

It should be made clear that Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) loan guidelines do not impose income limits on or make preferences based on gender or ethnicity of the borrower. The ONLY criteria for qualifying for CRA lending is that the PROPERTY be located in an under performing census tract area.

See here. Community Reinvestment Act

No lender was compelled to make a bad loan under CRA, borrowers were qualified for their loans using standard procedures with regard to credit worthiness and DTI. Furthermore lenders did not make CRA loans available to outside mortgage brokers or wholesalers where much of the preditory and abusive practices took place.

The simple fact is that Donald Trump could qualify for a CRA loan provided the property he was puchasing was located in an underserved location. To blame CRA lending for the credit/mortgage crisis we're facing is simplistic and misleading.

[Kimberly GG]

Interesting article. Once again, I see no where on this thread is this even mentioned. In his own words, this is about accountability and IMO, HE must be held accountable & responsible for his role in this mess, pandering to illegals, NOT ignored:

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 17, 2002

President Calls for Expanding Opportunities to Home Ownership
Remarks by the President on Homeownership
St. Paul AME Church
Atlanta, Georgia

Play Video Video (Real)
Play Real Audio Audio

Fact sheet Policy in Focus: Home-Ownership

11:10 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for that wonderful Atlanta welcome. It’s nice to be back in this incredibly important community.

You know, our nation faces a lot of huge challenges. Right now, we’ve got 60,000 troops fighting terrorism so that we can be free, all of us can be free. I appreciate so very much the resolve and unity and determination of this great land. I appreciate our military for their sacrifices. We’re also doing everything we can to secure the homeland, to make sure that those who hate us won’t take innocent life again.

President George W. Bush and new home owner Al Smith tour Pryor Road Corridor Development in Atlanta, Georgia, Monday, June 17. White House photo by Eric Draper. And as we work for a more secure world, we’ve got to work for a better world, too. (Applause.) And that means as we work on our security from possible attacks by terrorists, we also work on economic security. The two securities go hand in hand. Anybody who wants a job who can’t find one means we’ve got a problem. In Washington, they talk statistics all the time, and that’s important — people who count numbers need to make a living, too. (Laughter and applause.)

But my attitude is, if somebody can’t find work and they want to work, we’ve got to continue to work on expanding the job base. And part of economic security is owning your own home. (Applause.) Part of being a secure America is to encourage homeownership. So somebody can say, this is my home, welcome to my home.

Now, we’ve got a problem here in America that we have to address. Too many American families, too many minorities do not own a home. There is a home ownership gap in America. The difference between Anglo America and African American and Hispanic home ownership is too big. (Applause.) And we’ve got to focus the attention on this nation to address this.

And it starts with setting a goal. And so by the year 2010, we must increase minority home owners by at least 5.5 million. In order to close the homeownership gap, we’ve got to set a big goal for America, and focus our attention and resources on that goal. (Applause.)

And I picked a good man to help realize that goal, in Mel Martinez. I don’t know if you know Mel’s story, but — (applause) — it’s an interesting story. Mel was born in Cuba. (Applause.) Yes. Mel brought his cousins with him. (Laughter.) All two of them, anyway. (Laughter and applause.)

But Mel’s mother and daddy — Mel’s mother and dad put him on an airplane to come to America when he was a young boy, because they didn’t want his son growing up in a country that wasn’t free. Think about that, think about the courage of a mom or a dad, and their love for freedom — love freedom so much, they had put their child in the hands of loving Americans, and mom and dad eventually came. And here he now sits, as a member of the President’s Cabinet. What a great country we have. (Applause.)

My point is, Mel understands what it means to dream, and then to work to realize the dreams. I’ve also picked a fine friend of mine from Texas, named Alphonso Jackson, to serve as the Deputy of HUD. And where are you, Alphonso? There he is; I appreciate you. (Applause.) These are can-do people. So when we set a goal, they understand their job is to work toward that goal.

I also want to thank the Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, Shirley Franklin, thank you for coming Madam Mayor. (Applause.) Much of the success of this program is going to depend — depends upon the ability for the federal government to work with state and local governments. And I know the Mayor has got a strong commitment to housing for all people, and to end the ownership gap. Madam Mayor, thanks for coming.

I appreciate as well Johnny Isakson and John Linder, members of the Georgia congressional delegation for coming today. Thank you all for being here. (Applause.) I want to thank Franklin Raines, of Fannie Mae and Leland Brendsel of Freddie Mac. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)

Today I had the pleasure of seeing an entrepreneur’s work first-hand. An Atlanta citizen who also dreamt a dream, and that is to develop a piece of blighted property, so others could benefit from her vision and hard work. Masharn Wilson is here. (Applause.) She is a President and CEO — Masharn is the President and CEO of her own company. Part of the economic security is not only owning a home, part of it is if you have the entrepreneurial instincts is to own your own business, as well. (Applause.) So I want to appreciate you, Masharn. I appreciate your hard work.

And one other person I want to announce is a fellow named Darryl Hicks. Where are you, Darryl?

MR. HICKS: Right here.

THE PRESIDENT: There you are. Darryl Hicks is here. I want to — Darryl is — one of the things I remind our fellow citizens, if you’re interested in defeating evil, do some good. You see, we’re going to fight with our military, but we can also fight with our hearts. And a country which has been under attack can respond by loving your neighbor like you’d like to be loved yourself.

And this man right here is a fellow — Darryl Hicks — who works for Habitat for Humanity programs. He’s interested in lending his heart and his talents to helping a neighbor in need. America can be changed one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time, so long as we are willing to love a neighbor like we’d like to be loved ourselves. (Applause.)

I want to thank you, Darryl. I want to thank Darryl for being a soldier in the army of compassion. And I also want to thank Reverend Dr. Thomas Bess for opening up this beautiful church. You know, one of my passions is the faith-based initiative. It is important that Congress not fear faith-based programs, but welcome faith-based programs, so we can help change people’s lives. (Applause.)

I find it most interesting that we would be talking about how we help people in a church. After all, that’s why churches exist.

AUDIENCE: Mm-hmm.

THE PRESIDENT: And so I am — I want to thank the church staff for opening up this beautiful facility to the army which follows me around. (Laughter.)

I do believe in the American Dream. I believe there is such a thing as the American Dream. And I believe those of us who have been given positions of responsibility must do everything we can to spotlight the dream and to make sure the dream shines in all neighborhoods, all throughout our country. Owning a home is a part of that dream, it just is. Right here in America if you own your own home, you’re realizing the American Dream.

You know, today I went to the — to some of the home — met some of the homeowners in this newly built homes and all you’ve got to do is shake their hand and listen to their stories and watch the pride that they exhibit when they show you the kitchen and the stairs — so people like Ken Beatty, who is an environmentalist; or Al Smith, a probation officer; or Geary Jefferson a data base administrator; or Darrin West, an Atlanta police officer, Tamika Henry — Tomika Henry Cole.

These are all people that I’ve met; they’ve come over here today. They showed me their home. They didn’t show me somebody else’s home, they showed me their home. And they are so proud to own their home and I want to thank them for their hospitality, because it helps the American people really understand what it means.

And what we’ve got to do is to figure out how to make sure these stories are repeated over and over and over again in America. Three-quarters of white America owns their homes. Less than 50 percent of African Americans are part of the homeownership in America. And less than 50 percent of the Hispanics who live here in this country own their home. And that has got to change for the good of the country. It just does. (Applause.)

And so here are some of the ways to address the issue. First, the single greatest barrier to first time homeownership is a high downpayment. It is really hard for many, many, low income families to make the high downpayment. And so that’s why I propose and urge Congress to fully fund the American Dream Downpayment Fund. This will use money, taxpayers’ money to help a qualified, low income buyer make a downpayment. And that’s important.

One of the barriers to homeownership is the inability to make a downpayment. And if one of the goals is to increase homeownership, it makes sense to help people pay that downpayment. We believe that the amount of money in our budget, fully approved by Congress, will help 40,000 families every year realize the dream of owning a home. (Applause.) Part of the success of Park Place is that the city of Atlanta already does this. And we want to make the plan more robust. We want to make it more full all across America.

Secondly, there is a lack of affordable housing in certain neighborhoods. Too many neighborhoods, especially in inner city America, lack affordable housing units. How can you promote homeownership if people can’t afford a home?

And so what I’ve done is propose what we call a Single Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, to encourage the development of affordable housing in neighborhoods where housing is scarce. (Applause.) Over five years, the initiative amounts to $2.4 billion in tax credits. And that will help. It will help a lot to build homes where people can — where when fully implemented, people will be able to say, I own my home.

A third major barrier is the complexity and difficulty of the home buying process. There’s a lot of fine print on these forms. And it bothers people, it makes them nervous. And so therefore, what Mel has agreed to do, and Alphonso Jackson has agreed to do is to streamline the process, make the rules simpler, so everybody understands what they are — makes the closing much less complicated.

We certainly don’t want there to be a fine print preventing people from owning their home. We can change the print, and we’ve got to. We’ve got to be wise about how we deal with the closing documents and all the regulations, but also wise about how we help people understand what it means to own their home and the obligations and the opportunities.

And so, therefore, education is a critical component of increasing ownership throughout America. Financial education, housing counseling, how to help people understand that there are unscrupulous lenders. And so one of the things we’re going to do is we’re going to promote education, the education of owning a home, the education of buying a home throughout our society. And we want to fully implement the Section 8 housing program, homeownership program. The program will provide vouchers that first-time home buyers can use to help pay their mortgage or apply to their downpayment.

Many of the partners today, many of the people here today, many of the business leaders here today are creating a market for the mortgages where Section 8 vouchers are a source of the payment. And that’s good — see, it’s an underpinning of capital. It helps move capital to where we want capital to go.

And so these are important initiatives that we can do at the federal government. And the federal government, obviously, has to play an important role, and we will. We will. I mean, when I lay out a goal, I mean it. But we also have got to bring others into the process, most particularly the real estate industry. After all, the real estate industry benefits when people are encouraged to buy homes. It’s in their self interest that we encourage people to buy homes. (Applause.)

And so one of the things that I’m going to talk about a little bit today is how to create a sustained commitment by the private sector that will have a powerful impact. First of all, we want to make sure that we help work to expand capital available to buyers, and as I mentioned, overcome the barriers that I’ve delineated, as well as provide the education component. In other words, this is not just a federal responsibility.

That’s why I’ve challenged the industry leaders all across the country to get after it for this goal, to stay focused, to make sure that we achieve a more secure America, by achieving the goal of 5.5 million new minority home owners. I call it America’s home ownership challenge.

And let me talk about some of the progress which we have made to date, as an example for others to follow. First of all, government sponsored corporations that help create our mortgage system — I introduced two of the leaders here today — they call those people Fannie May and Freddie Mac, as well as the federal home loan banks, will increase their commitment to minority markets by more than $440 billion. (Applause.) I want to thank Leland and Franklin for that commitment. It’s a commitment that conforms to their charters, as well, and also conforms to their hearts.

This means they will purchase more loans made by banks after Americans, Hispanics and other minorities, which will encourage homeownership. Freddie Mac will launch 25 initiatives to eliminate homeownership barriers. Under one of these, consumers with poor credit will be able to get a mortgage with an interest rate that automatically goes down after a period of consistent payments. (Applause.)

Fannie Mae will establish 100 partnerships with faith-based organizations that will provide home buyer education and help increase homeownership for their congregations. I love the partnership. (Applause.)

The Enterprise Foundation and the local initiative support corporation will increase efforts to build and rehabilitate more homes in inner cities at affordable prices by working with local community development corporations.

In my home state of Texas, Enterprise helped turn the once decaying ideal neighborhood of Dallas into a vibrant community, by building homes that were sold to residents at affordable prices. The National Association of Home Builders will team up with local officials, home builder associations and community groups in 20 of our nation’s largest housing markets, to focus on how to eliminate barriers, and encourage homeownership.

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation will dramatically expand financial and home buyer education efforts to 380,000 minority families. The Neighborhood Housing Services of America will raise $750 million to promote homeownership initiatives in many communities. We’re beginning to use the Internet better, so that realtors all across the country will be able to call up programs all designed to help minority home buyers understand what’s available, what’s possible, and what to avoid. The National Realtors Association will create a central data bank of affordable housing programs, which will be made available to agents, real estate agents, to help people.

So these are some of the beginnings of a national effort. And I want to thank all those who are responsible for the organizations I just named for lending your talents to this important effort for America. You know, one of the things Presidents can do, is they can call the old conference. So I’m going to call one — (laughter) — just to make sure people understand, not only are we serious, but to let them check in. If they’ve signed up and said they’re going to help, this will give everybody a chance to say, here’s what I’ve done to help. It’s what we call accountability. (Applause.)

And so this fall, we’re going to have a White House conference. It is a White House conference specifically designed to address the homeownership gap. It is a White House conference that will not only say, what have you done to date, have you got any new ideas that we can share with others as well. I’m serious about this. This is a very important initiative for all of America. See, it is a chance for us to empower people. We’re not going to talk about empowering government, we’re talking about empowering people, so they have got choices over their lives. (Applause.)

I want to go back to where I started. I believe out of the evil done to America will come incredible good. I believe that as sure as I’m standing here. I believe we can achieve peace. I believe that we can address hopelessness and despair where hopelessness and despair exist. And listen, I understand that in this great country, there are too many people who say, this American Dream, what does that mean; my eyes are shut to the American Dream, I don’t see the dream. And we’d better make sure, for the good of the country, that the dream is vibrant and alive.

It starts with having great education systems for every single child. (Applause.) It means that we unleash the faith-based programs to help change people’s hearts, which will help change their lives. (Applause.) It means we use the mighty muscle of the federal government in combination with state and local governments to encourage owning your own home. That’s what that means. And it means — it means that each of us, each of us, have a responsibility in the great country to put something greater than ourselves — to promote something greater than ourselves.

And to me, that something greater than yourself is to love a neighbor like you’d like to be loved yourself. In order to change America and to make sure the great American Dream shines in every community, every community, we must unleash the compassion and kindness of the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

I’m honored to be here today. I want to thank you for your interest. God bless you all, and God bless America. (Applause.)

[Eric Blair 2084]

The American people just want the truth. Whatever it may be. There are no angels here.

It depends on your definition of "compelled". You are correct that no bank had a gun pointed at their heads and forced to loan money to busboys making minimum wage to buy a 300K condo. They were free to disobey the edict. Of course, with the wave of bank mergers that required Gubmint approval...

It's very subtle. The left has plausible deniability. Nobody forced anyone to do anything, but it's the equivalent of waking up with a bloody horse head next to you in bed if you don't.

[matthew fuller]

"In short, the federal government began forcing banks to make subprime loans to people who couldn't afford them. "

Affirmative Action home loans- the cause of this mess that we are observing in the financial markets this week.

[matthew fuller]

FYI Ping.

[NoLibZone]

So we have blamed Clinton and are heading towards blaming Johnson.

What did we do in the last 8 years to stop any of this from happening?

[M. Dodge Thomas]

You can blame Clinton for allowing the securitization of loans to residential property owners if you think it was unwise, but wise or unwise, that was a act of deregulation

As a result by 1995 80% of sub-prime loans were being made by essentially unregulated independent mortgage companies or affiliates of banks or thrifts, which were subject - depending on their method of organization - to either minimal federal supervision (including CRT requirements)or to none at all.

As for underwriting standards, I've not seem more recent figures, but at least as late as 1995 there was little if evidence that loans made to archive CRT requirements were especially prone to non-performance, and I suspect that when this all shakes out the smaller, local institutions subject to CRT scrutiny will have been shown to have better evaluated borrowers than larger unrelated institutions such as Countrywide.

In an unregulated environment of ultimately securitized lending no-one was subject to long-term market discipline short of the melt-down we are now encountering. This was a quire straight-forward case of market failure, completely predictable, and likely to repeated in the future as it has been in the past once the current lessons are unlearned by financial engineers two generations hence.

[Myynnxx]

Post #12 - “This is interesting, but it doesn’t explain $60 trillion in credit default swaps. That’s more than the entire world’s GDP! That doesn’t even include the value of the mortgage backed securities and other asset based derivatives ginned up by Wall Street. [DING DING DING DING!!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!]
They made a hell of a lot of money from what amounted to hot air and now that the entire card house has collapsed the taxpayers are left holding the bag.” PRECISELY.

I apologize, I haven’t read the rest of the thread YET - and there’s a lot to say (and read) have a shoot to get to, but this is spot on!

I’ll post more later.