To: i-node who wrote (429964 ) 10/24/2008 4:12:40 PM From: tejek Respond to The liberals CAUSED that particular problem. The Republicans tried to stop it but didn't have the political power. Dodd illegally accepted money from the lenders. Frank stood in the way of legislation that would have eliminated the requirement that loans be made to unqualified individuals. President Bush applauded Congress for authorizing this windfall of funding which will help meet the Administration’s “Homeownership Challenge” that is targeted to increase minority home ownership by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade." Message 25091993 "Here’s their story line: our current problems were caused not by people in high finance and government over the past eight years, but powerful antipoverty groups and the Clinton administration, which through their advocacy for the Community Reinvestment Act and homeownership goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bullied a Republican Congress and the titans of Wall Street into bringing global finance to its knees. There’s only one problem with this story: it isn’t true. During the 1990s, enforcement under the reinvestment act was strong, prime lending to low-income communities increased and it was done safely. In 2000, a Federal Reserve report found that lending under the act was generally profitable and not overly risky. By contrast, in the 2002 to 2007 period, the act’s enforcement was weak and its advocates had little influence with Congress. In 2003, President Bush’s chief thrift regulator — holding a chainsaw in his hands as a prop — boasted of his plans to cut banking regulations, including the scope of the reinvestment act and his enforcement staff, which he carried out over the next two years." Message 25082387
