Obama Sued Citibank Under CRA to Force it to Make Bad Loans »
Posted By Wolfie2007 1 year, 1 month ago in NewsDo you remember how we told you that the Democrats and groups associated with them leaned on banks and even sued to get them to make bad loans under the Community Reinvestment Act which was a factor in causing the economic crisis (see HERE and HERE ) … well look at what some fellow bloggers have dug up while researching Obama’s legal career. Looks like a typical ACORN lawsuit to get banks to hand out bad loans.
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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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FTA
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THE seeds of today’s financial meltdown lie in the Community Reinvestment Act - a law passed in 1977 and made riskier by unwise amendments and regulatory rulings in later decades.
CRA was meant to encourage banks to make loans to high-risk borrowers, often minorities living in unstable neighborhoods. That has provided an opening to radical groups like ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to abuse the law by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in “subprime” loans to often uncreditworthy poor and minority customers.
Any bank that wants to expand or merge with another has to show it has complied with CRA - and approval can be held up by complaints filed by groups like ACORN.-
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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It is time to label the constant smear attempts for what they really are: extremist, anti-american, anti-democracy rants by goons.
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Obama the Subhuman
Increasingly, right-wing conservatives and Republican political leaders are issuing dire warnings to the American public that they – and only they – are the legitimate rulers of the United States and the world. This basic contempt for anything but one-party rule is manifested in a number of dire threats repeated by the party, with its members promising the end of Western civilization as we know it if they lose their dominant status in government. A review of Conservative and Republican contempt for bi-partisan politics is in order....
- On the culture war front, Republicans and conservatives have been unrelenting in their religious fanaticism and racism. Residents of West Virginia and Arkansas have received mailings directly from the Republican National Committee warning that liberals will ban the bible....
- Right-wing pundits, echoed by major conservative political leaders, have warned that a victory for Barack Obama will be a victory for Islam, radical terrorism, and anti-Americanism....
- Conservative legal officials have essentially declared war on the Democratic Party, not for violating the law, but due to their own ideological prejudices. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was recently exposed for allowing politically motivated prosecutions against prominent Democratic political officials....
None of these right-wing hit jobs or smear tactics should strike voters as merely "more of the same" negative politicking in an election season....
The Democrats' attempt to appeal across party lines has clearly not been the preferred tactic of the Republican Party. Angry over their likely loss of power in the upcoming election, they have become increasingly desperate in their attacks on the Democrats and the legitimacy of the two party state. This is particularly disturbing at a time when it is becoming harder and harder to discern concrete or substantive differences in the economic policies of the two parties. In reality, Obama and Biden's vague references to "regulation" don't amount to a whole lot when they fail to follow them up with actual policy proposals. That these Democrats are demonized by Republicans as sub-human, dangerous, or terrorist is more a sign of the growing extremism of conservatives than of the moral weakness or treachery of the Democrats. The Democratic Party today may be morally bankrupt, spineless, and bland, but none of those are anywhere near as dangerous as the Republican Party's fundamentalist contempt for multi-party elections and bi-partisan politics.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/09/obama-th... -
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Well Wolfie, your comment starts out with a lie. The total of the bad debt in the mortgage business is $300 billion at present (it averages about $150 billion in recent years), which is less than half of the cost of the bailout already passed by congress. Amongst that mortgage debt, CRA mortgages have a better record of non-faulting and paying-off than the unregulated mortgages written by unregulated financial institutions.
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The real problem, that is hundreds of times bigger, are the "derivatives" gambling by unregulated "investment" banks, insurance companies and hedge funds.
Your CRA diatribes are distractions designed to keep the ignorant marching in goosestep.
Why Are We Surprised? From Enron to the Current Meltdown
Given the myriad warnings that came via Enron – and the years-long neglect of any meaningful efforts to have serious policing of Wall Street – why are we surprised to find out that the financial engineers have robbed us blind? The warnings from the Enron meltdown could scarcely have been more clear. Indeed, two key lessons were obvious: financial regulators needed lots more funding, personnel and support; and derivatives markets that operate without proper regulatory oversight and reporting pave the way for financial engineers to privatize profits and socialize costs.
Over the past few weeks, it’s become obvious that the SEC was largely co-opted by the companies it was supposed to be regulating. On September 25, the agency’s Inspector General, David Kotz, issued a report which that it is “undisputable” that the SEC “failed to carry out its mission in its oversight of Bear Stearns” – the investment bank the collapsed earlier this year and was taken over by JP Morgan. The report said that the agency missed “numerous potential red flags” prior to the company’s collapse and failed to require the investment bank to rein in its risk taking. (The full text of the report is available at: http://www.sec.gov/about/oig/audit/2008/446-a.pdf.... ... -
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lfergie8121 year, 1 month ago
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Typical right wing rag making accusations without facts to back them up. The Community Reinvestment Act was put into law to force banks to reinvest a percentage of the money back into the community that placed the money in their bank. Now by law these banks were required to loan money in the community that gave them the money to invest so if these banks were not breaking the law, the case would have been thrown out of court.
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Now with that being said, there is nothing in the article that these loans were bad of if any of them had been foreclosed. Assuming that some were foreclosed, how did they compare with the national average? You see, this article is garbage just as the accusations that ACORN is illegal because with Bush's attorneys ordered to find and prosecute any claims of voter fraud (believe me the Republicans are actively at work looking for them), the courts would be overcrowded with cases and that isn't happening. Why?? Because there isn't any organized fraud by ACORN except in the feeble minds of neo-con right wing nuts like you.
Now have a good day. -
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jordan111 year, 1 month ago
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The whole purpose of fannie and freddie was to bring low income families into the sphere of ownership. If fannie and freddie were making a disproportionate number of loans to some areas, and redlining others, they should have been brought to task. Ownership is a win/win situation, especially in impoverished areas. It gets rid of slum lords, it gives pride of ownership to families, & reduces stress in an already stressful environment for children. How do I know this? I lived it 40 years ago.
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Then I learned about a HUD loan for low income families. I applied, but didn't have much of a credit rating. They asked me to write a letter to explain, and I did. Based on my income, I was given a set amount I could afford for a house. I found one in a neighborhood of mixed incomes, my home being the smallest and in very bad condition. With a fixed interest rate, I moved in & began to fix up my home. For the first time, my kids could go out and play without my worrying about those who roamed our old neighborhood. My new neighbors gave advise on how to fix things, and even pitched in to help when I rebuilt the fence. I loved that funny old run down house, and it changed our lives.
That's what people want from fannie and freddie. No one told them to make loans that would rise in interest rates, or have a balloon payment stuck on. Asking fannie an freddie to do what they were created to do, has nothing to do with this crisis. For 70 years fannie mae helped low income people, and there was no crisis. Predatory lending practices that allowed people to buy houses that cost too much, and interest rates that would grow beyond their means to pay is what caused this crisis. Obama most certainly did NOT ask lenders to do that.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2007/0507k... -
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nolikebush1 year, 1 month ago
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Great observation ! Do not forget how the high price of energy, due to the lack of additonal clean nuclear capacity, agrivated this problem. And that we have more people using energy due to increased immigration. This agrivated the problem too. Also did you know that Obama never pushed for state matching funds for two mass transit line extentions, previously approved by congress! Obama is not green, he is a egotist who wants to be President of the Universe!
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earthlingerer1 year, 1 month ago
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You mean there was, like a law??? A law that said banks HAD to do something, and these banks WEREN'T???
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So, Like, the banks were BREAKING THE LAW??? And doing that, they were liable to be sued BECAUSE THEY WERE BREAKING THE LAW???
That's like telling the fat guy he can't go to the all-you-can-eat buffet because he doesn't fit your business model. -
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100419861 year, 1 month ago
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All well and good but the the fact is, for the last 8 years, CEO's, celebrities, lawyers, physician specialits and sports stars have raked in Trillions of $ and haven't paid fair taxes. This is the main cause of our recession today. In the old days, before Reagan helped changed the tax code, they would have paid close to 80% to be re-distributed among the majority 95%. When you import more than you export, by the tune of $500 billion annually, and add an average of $1 Trillion per year to the DEBT you can'nt give these people tax breaks.
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We need someone on office who will get these $ back!
Can anyone do the math?? And you want McCain? Are u serious?
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redtomatoComment removed: Spammer10 Replies
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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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FTA
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Case Name
Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank Fair Housing/Lending/Insurance
Docket / Court 94 C 4094 ( N.D. Ill. ) FH-IL-0011
State/Territory Illinois
Case Summary
Plaintiffs filed their class action lawsuit on July 6, 1994, alleging that Citibank had engaged in redlining practices in the Chicago metropolitan area in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), 15 U.S.C. 1691; the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3601-3619; the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and 42 U.S.C. 1981, 1982. Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendant-bank rejected loan applications of minority applicants while approving loan applications filed by white applicants with similar financial characteristics and credit histories. Plaintiffs sought injunctive relief, actual damages, and punitive damages.
U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo certified the Plaintiffs’ suit as a class action on June 30, 1995. Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 162 F.R.D. 322 (N.D. Ill. 1995). Also on June 30, Judge Castillo granted Plaintiffs’ motion to compel discovery of a sample of Defendant-bank’s loan application files. Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 162 F.R.D. 338 (N.D. Ill. 1995).
The parties voluntarily dismissed the case on May 12, 1998, pursuant to a settlement agreement.
Plaintiff’s Lawyers Alexis, Hilary I. (Illinois)
FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-7501 | FH-IL-0011-9000
Childers, Michael Allen (Illinois)
FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-7501 | FH-IL-0011-9000
Clayton, Fay (Illinois)
FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-7501 | FH-IL-0011-9000
***mings, Jeffrey Irvine (Illinois)
FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-7501 | FH-IL-0011-9000
Love, Sara Norris (Virginia)
FH-IL-0011-9000
Miner, Judson Hirsch (Illinois)
FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-9000
Obama, Barack H. (Illinois)-RIGHT HERE THE BIG "O" WAS THEIR LAWYER!!!!!!!!!!!!
FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-7501 | FH-IL-0011-9000
Wickert, John Henry (Illinois)
FH-IL-0011-9000-
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flyonthewallzz1 year, 1 month ago
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"Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendant-bank rejected loan applications of minority applicants while approving loan applications filed by white applicants with similar financial characteristics and credit histories."
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"The parties voluntarily dismissed the case on May 12, 1998, pursuant to a settlement agreement."
Justice is blind.
Redlines are drawn on maps.
A sub-prime loan is one with a very high Usury (interest) rate.
It sucks that ACORN paid folks by how many voter registrations they achieved, but they stood in sharp opposition to Sub-prime lending rates. I can not prove it, but I doubt that they ever helped anyone get a sub-prime loan.
In Pennsylvania it is a felony to charge more than 6% interest, unless the loan originates from a bank that is headquartered in a state with more lax usury laws.
The houses that are getting foreclosed on are not predominantly inner city row homes.
The criteria for being able to receive a loan should be based purely on the ability to pay it off, not on the color of your skin, your religion, or the neighborhood you happen to live in.
If the banks where not taking advantage of the revolving credit lines and insurance that was paid for with taxpayer money, they could have played by their own rules. But they took the money, so they have to play by the rules. The rules are that if a black dude living in north Philly, earning the same amount of money, and with the same credit rating has an equal shot at getting a loan as the white dude in Chestnut Hill.
If the banks did not want to play the game they should not have sold off the mortgages or accepted the insurance. They could have used their own capitol.
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RedRiverJ1 year, 1 month ago
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Barack Obama, senator and former community organizer.
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What does a community organizer do? Pressure banks to make bad loans
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/29/what-does-a-... -
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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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Klarissa, the media keeps talking about homes but I keep hearing about apartment buildings. I know the American dream is to own a home. How does owning apartment building fit into that dream. I would like to know the names of those who originally sold these apartment buildings just to see where there connections might take me.
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KlarissaComment removed: Spam
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mesodude1 year, 1 month ago
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Hehe...Klarissa, you slay me. If you devoted even a fraction of the time you obviously spend "researching" and spreading sleaze and lies about Obama to examining GOP corruption... Well, come to think of it, I'd still think you were a complete whacko...Nevermind. ;-
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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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In fact, intimidation tactics, public charges of racism and threats to use CRA to block business expansion have enabled ACORN to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and contributions from America’s financial institutions .
The Woods Fund report makes it clear Obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by ACORN’s Madeline Talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. Yet he supported Talbott in every conceivable way. He trained her personal staff and other aspiring ACORN leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts.-
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Well Wolfie, given that CRA is peanuts in the present economic crash as compared to "derivatives" corruption on Wall Street, your insistence on these smears makes it seem that you are either a white supremacist or an apologist for corruption by the rich. Which is it?
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Racism as Reflex - Blaming the Community Reinvestment Act
If hypocrisy were currency, conservatives would be able to single-handedly bail out the nation's free-falling financial system in less than a week, without the rest of us having to front so much as a penny.
We have Neil Cavuto of Fox News, followed by Rush Limbaugh a few days later, along with smaller-market talk radio hosts and commentators, insisting that the nation's current financial mess is not the fault of greedy investors, free-wheeling bankers, speculators and other assorted rich people taking advantage of a largely deregulated market for bogus investments. Rather, it is the fault of poor people and those who seek to serve their communities, and especially folks of color, and those who insist on such things as civil rights.
How so? Simple: according to these blowhards, laws like the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which seeks to steer investments to economically marginalized communities so as to stimulate economic development and reverse the longstanding process of racial and economic redlining, is the real culprit. If banks hadn't been forced to throw good money after bad, and make loans to "minorities and risky folks" as Cavuto said on September 18th, none of this would have happened.
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Natureboy1 year, 1 month ago
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"Federal regulators began using the act to combat “red-lining,” a practice by which banks loaned money to some communities but not to others, based on economic status."
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Way off base. It is not and never has been illegal to deny a loan based on economic status. And the loans in question were not to communities but to individuals.
REDLINING is denying loans to individuals based on race, ethnicity, gender or other factors unrelated to their economic status.
This article is based on a false premise. It is garbage.-
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amazed1 year, 1 month ago
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sorry Natureboy, YOU"RE mistaken. Redlining is the refusal to grant loans/mortgages on properties located in certain neighborhoods. These neighborhoods were ALWAYS undesirable -- rundown, often dangerous, few owner/occupiers, etc. They were also often largely minority. However, it has long been accepted that neighborhoods with a high rate of owner occupancy tend to be far more stable, safer and less likely for the real estate to lose value (relative to other areas).
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Even after redlining was outlawed, it was still practiced --largely against white suburban types trying to buy condos. If the association becomes more than 10% rental, most banks either will not issue mortgages at all or require more expensive commercial mortgages, even if it is the buyer's intention to occupy it themselves.
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HannibalBarca1 year, 1 month ago
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What ? just like time will tell how great shrub will be?
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As was stated earlier, blaming Carter or clint when Reps controlled everything from 2000-06 and nothing was done shows that both have contributed, and all the arguing about who was worse is just BS. -
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amazed1 year, 1 month ago
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While I'm certainly in agreement that Democratic fingerprints (especially my illustrous Senator who's now going to be our hero -- Dodd) are all over this, don't even think for a minute that the Republicans are blameless. They are just as culpable as the dems.
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In fact, the only action that has any hope of correcting the deep rooted problems that caused this (career politicians) is to vote AGAINST each and every incumbent. We can replace one-third of the Senate this year and the ENTIRE House of Representatives, but it requires US, the people to throw ALL the bums out -- not just call for everyone else's bums to go, because mine's not so bad.
Then we must repeat this in two years -- totally turn the house over again, and another third of the Senate.
If we were to do this a few times, I think they might get the hint, and start governing the country instead of playing gotcha, covermyass, linemypocket == and most importantly -- make sure the other party doesn't get credit for anything good.
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pgagne2301 year, 1 month ago
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wolife/hyperbola - Is what your saying, Obama, as a lawyer, did what he had to do in order to equalize/stimulate the economy in "riskier communities" a bad thing? What about the investor who wanted in on the gains via the derivatives and securitizations of high risk credit/loans? The ones who have money to gamble with, have lost. The people I feel the most for are the ones who have lost thier retirement savings and jobs that they have worked years in and are now out of thier houses. This creates "riskier communities". The Lenders/Banks lend per FICO score only now, no DtI, or income based loans so people can't qualify. All is a herd mentality, no individuality.
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pgagne2301 year, 1 month ago
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wolife/hyperbola - Is what your saying, Obama, as a lawyer, did what he had to do in order to equalize/stimulate the economy in "riskier communities" a bad thing? What about the investor who wanted in on the gains via the derivatives and securitizations of high risk credit/loans? The ones who have money to gamble with, have lost. The people I feel the most for are the ones who have lost thier retirement savings and jobs that they have worked years in and are now out of thier houses. This creates "riskier communities". The Lenders/Banks lend per FICO score only now, no DtI, or income based loans so people can't qualify. All is a herd mentality, no individuality
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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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pgangne
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Spin all you like but Obama assisted ACORN in forcing banks to loan money to people who had no way to pay it back. You would have to be totally braindead to defend this practice. Did you know that banks loaning money to people who couldn't repay it caused Freddie and Fannie to go bust which caused the banks on Wall Street to go broke which caused the crash of the stock markets all over the world, don't you. Even CNN will tell you that. -
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Georgia501 year, 1 month ago
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pgage,
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As Thomas Sowell so astutely pointed out. black activists wanted to force banks to employ their money in neighborhoods where the black activists themselves would not want to walk at night.
BTW, every major news orgranization examined the Florida ballots after 2000. Not one single organization found any possible way for Gore to win Florida. Every single claim by the Civil Rights Commission was investigated. Not one allegation could be substantiated, much less determined to have an impact on the results of the election. We can dredge up the "Sore/Loserman" label if you wish, but seriously...we've moved on.
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VocalOp1 year, 1 month ago
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The right wing has snapped. No, we haven't been under Republican policies for eight years. Our service men and veterans aren't committing suicide in record numbers nor are ordinary citizens who've lost their jobs. Well, as one gentleman in a Republican Town Hall Meeting In Waukesha, WI said, "We're mad!" How right he is. Madly insane and showing it to the rest of the world.
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seemlynn1 year, 1 month ago
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I have never in my life seen smearing such as this in an election. Instead of speaking about the facts YOU PEOPLE are just trying to find dirt that does not exist. Its enough already. Just let the eledtion go on. You are totally disgusting.
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most_reasonable1 year, 1 month ago
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"We don't like to look backward says the GOP" we want "forward".
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That's unless they can dig up and smear from the deep past.
McCain claims that the trouble with today's marketplace stems from the destruction of the Confederacy and there would be a problem NO under slavery.
The problem with the current financial meltdown had its birth id the days of good ol' Ronald (Medicare is the WORST thing that happened to America) Reagan and the beginning of the destruction of banking laws and Anti-Trust legislation.
Followed by the Bush follow-up, and now fostered by McSame and his sidekick the ***** of Babylon. McSame's financial adviser Phi (American's are a bunch of Whiners) Gramm was the flag waver for the Bush administration, and the "I like degregulation" McSame, is as equally to blame. -
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most_reasonable1 year, 1 month ago
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Interesting program on CNN right now, showing how home buyers were brought in to buy homes with a 7.5% mortgage rate still outrageous
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considering the prime was well under that, and then had their rate brought to 11.5%.
It's always America's fault claims the GOP. Now bail us out. Interesting how McSame pointed to Hoover as the cause of the great depression (because he wanted to raise taxes, lol. He didn't mention that Hoover was an Republican or that it took a democrat to to bail America out. -
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Blondy281 year, 1 month ago
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It's a little baffling that people keep trying to point to things that happened in the 90's or prior for the mortgage crisis. The timeline doesn't fit. Whether or not you believe that various legislation was "bad" or "good", the fact is that many (most?) of the subprime mortgages were adjustable rate mortgages. Those tend to be 1, 3, 5, or 7 year mortgages. My guess would be that the people currently losing their homes did not have 7-year adjustable rate mortgages, because if they were able to make their original payments for 7 years, unless they took out a home equity loan, they wouldn't be in the group of people unable to re-fi out of it. If if their home values had fallen for the past two years, they probably have enough equity in their homes to re-fi, and they also have probably paid their mortgages down enough that even with a higher rate, their payments would stay about the same as their original payments. The same may apply for a 5-year ARM, but it's more of a gray area. So, more than likely, the foreclosures are happening to people who took out 1 or 3-year ARMS or, worse, an interest only loan. So, I really think this crisis is due to loans taken out from 2003 thru 2006 (give or take). I assure you that nothing that happened with a lawsuit filed in 1994 has anything to do with the current subprime crisis.
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