To: simplicity who wrote (467344 ) 1/26/2012 4:35:52 PM From: Nadine Carroll 5 Recommendations Respond to I am not asserting that the banks were innocent 'spectators' in the housing crash, but politicians (and 'community organizers'), and unconstitutional laws that were passed as a result of incessant pressures from Obama, Frank, and their ilk, were at least as much to blame for the ill-issued mortgages. Reckless Endangerment , which I am reading now, since the mortgage industry was heavily regulated, the government had to take the lead position in the decision to toss decades-old lending standards in pursuit of a "affordable housing". She gives a lot of the credit to Jim Johnson, the head of Fannie Mae in the 1990s. His predecessor had been content to run Fannie as an extremely cushy quasi-Governmental utility. Johnson, who was a thoroughly political animal (head of Mondale's 1984 campaign), knew how to spend Fannie's money, on Congress (over 20 years, Fannie donated $100 million to Congressional campaigns), lobbying, and housing activists such as ACORN and La Raza (so they would protest in directions profitable for Fannie). The price, for Fannie, was buying up the new subprime mortgages, but as Johnson badly wanted to grow Fannie's portfolio, and it was extremely profitable to him personally as far as the eye could see, he took an Apres moi, le deluge attitude to it from the beginning.
