Maybe CRA's didn't contribute after 2001, but how can a business justify lending money at a low interest rate (ARM) mortgage, knowing that these borrowers are highly likely to default (especially when the interest rate jumps), and then scream foul when lots of them default and drag them into bankruptcy. Of course, not all blame should fall on the lenders, what were the borrowers thinking about, an ARM by definition means the rate changes, what did they think they were going to do when the rate went up instead of down? I see enough blame on both sides, lender & borrower, that I really don't care in we bail out the lenders. I know, I know, the economy will crash, but that's part of why we n...

Maybe CRA's didn't contribute after 2001, but how can a business justify lending money at a low interest rate (ARM) mortgage, knowing that these borrowers are highly likely to default (especially when the interest rate jumps), and then scream foul when lots of them default and drag them into bankruptcy. Of course, not all blame should fall on the lenders, what were the borrowers thinking about, an ARM by definition means the rate changes, what did they think they were going to do when the rate went up instead of down? I see enough blame on both sides, lender & borrower, that I really don't care in we bail out the lenders. I know, I know, the economy will crash, but that's part of why we no longer have small family farms because of the land values crash in the 70's. It will only add to our income taxes, sooner or later the people who work, pay taxes or who invest & pay taxes, will foot the bill if we bail them out. The paper is worthless, so the government will not be getting anything for their money that they can convert to cash to keep the rest of us from paying more income taxes.

I loved this comment by Rick Perlstein:

Rick Perlstein said:

the right-wing smear du jour: the Community Reinvestment Act caused the meltdown, not greedy bankers and the oily politicians who love them. As regular readers at OurFuture.org know, we've called the idea a modern day equivalent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion—a Big Lie narrative that blames a despised, outcast social group for problems they had nothing to do with, in order to aggrandize the ability of the dominant group to hate and oppress.[1]

In another blog entry, Rick Perlstein also notes the hypocrisy of it all, si...

I loved this comment by Rick Perlstein:

Rick Perlstein said:

the right-wing smear du jour: the Community Reinvestment Act caused the meltdown, not greedy bankers and the oily politicians who love them. As regular readers at OurFuture.org know, we've called the idea a modern day equivalent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion—a Big Lie narrative that blames a despised, outcast social group for problems they had nothing to do with, in order to aggrandize the ability of the dominant group to hate and oppress.[1]

In another blog entry, Rick Perlstein also notes the hypocrisy of it all, since Republicans were crowing in their 2004 convention about how minority homeownership increased under their watch.[2]