Posted on 09/25/2008 4:42:20 AM PDT by drpix
The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their own striving, is the key to their well-being.
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Even without a no-down-payment policy, the pressure on banks to make CRA-related loans may be leading to foreclosures. Though bankers generally cheerlead for CRA out of fear of being branded racists if they do not, the CEO of one midsize bank grumbles that 20 percent of his institution's CRA-related mortgages, which required only $500 down payments, were delinquent in their very first year, and probably 7 percent will end in foreclosure. "The problem with CRA," says an executive with a major national financial-services firm, "is that banks will simply throw money at things because they want that CRA rating." From the banks' point of view, CRA lending is simply a price of doing business—even if some of the mortgages must be written off.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
This is what the GOP ought to be publicizing to counter what Bawney Fwank, the Spitting Sissy, has been spewing all over TV since yesterday. He’s blaming deregulation and promising that the Dems will put many more regulations on business next year...which means more businesses will leave the US.
There goes the job market, and voters have no clue that they will be unemployed if Obama wins.
I read his book America'sTrillion Dollar Housing Mistake about a year ago and learned quite a bit.
The book is well-organized and clearly written.
There will be time for this to be hashed to high heaven after we get the present crisis addressed.
It does burn me up that the Rats over and over again did everything possible to create this mess.
I’m going to check that out. Thanks.
This should be shouted from the rooftops again and again and again by the GOP.
EVERY GOP/CONSERVATIVE PERSON ON TV SHOULD BRING THIS UP!
I posted this essay a few days ago but it needs more airing. Good find.
bumpity bump
BUMP!
Saw this last week. Its worth reposting.
Burn them now.
The longer this lingers, the more Americans notice that the Dems got us into this mess and blocked the reforms that Bush called for.
I did a Yahoo search on Bush 17 times reform "fannie mae." and got 1,280,000 results.
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