Comments for 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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mesodude1 year, 1 month ago
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So to sum up this story, McCain is desperate and overwhelmed because he now realizes the folly of trying to impress Americans by impersonating Mighty Mouse one day and of going into an anger-fueled trance and wandering all over the stage looking woozy during a Presidential debate. Is he saying he now understand why this kind of behavior doesn't exactly project an image of stability and competence? It's hard to tell from the story. ;-(
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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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dunkirk1 year, 1 month ago
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ROFLMAO, considering one only needs to go to the RNC website to see your posts I wouldn;t be casting stones. Hyper (and that usually denotes your tone) its fairly simple to tell what your topics will be in your posts all you need to do is look to see what the talking points of the day is at the RNC. The CRA is the cause of the meltdown? Yet for the last 8 years we;ve had a pretty much REPUBLICAN dominated government that you;re saying was totally incapable of dealing with this?? What you always fail to mention is that a bill the may have addressed some of the issues NEVER got out of a REPUBLICAN controlled committee. You do understand that to get out of committee it requires a simple majority, which in a REPUBLICAN controlled committee they had?
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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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Klarissa1 year, 1 month ago
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typical left wing mantra, we want to help poor people own homes. . . .that they can't afford.
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In my previous community there were several Vietnamese families who couldn't afford to buy a home. They went together and rented a home on a lease option.
Every member of the family found a job. One family started a restaurant, and the young children in all of the families worked there.
Guess what - after several years, they all had homes, and were supporting children in college.
It is known as personal responsibility, not a handout-
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mesodude1 year, 1 month ago
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"typical left wing mantra, we want to help poor people own homes. . . .that they can't afford."
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--But didn't cons help us into trillions of dollars of debt by supporting a GOP President we can't afford (and who all but browbeat Americans into spending beyond their means)? Cons have short memories to match their unbelievably tiny brains, apparently.
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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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tiedup1 year, 1 month ago
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Everything is a mess I agree, but don't you think that our tax dollars used to bail out these banks should be used to make things better and not send the big wigs at AIG and there cronies on vacations. I want my money back Mr. Bush and I want it back now. Let AIG use it's own money that they have taken in profit shareing and put it back where they stole it from
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saneman1 year, 1 month ago
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ROFLMAO! Its a good thing that none of you have been to law school and couldn't ever get into law school. The so-called lawsuit had nothing to do with forcing loan companies to give out bad loans. Try reading what really went on. The loan companies were granting loans to certain types of people but denying loans to others even though they had the same finances as the ones who WERE getting the loans. Had those loan companies denied everybody at the same financial levels then there would not have been a lawsuit. Its called discimination.
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jordan111 year, 1 month ago
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Actually, 'W', I was very grateful to my country for that chance, & learned from the experience to pass it on. Never will I complain about my tax dollars being used to help other Americans. And as I've paid more in taxes than the average person would pay in several lifetimes, I've more than paid my dues. I hope you appreciate that from me.
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jordan111 year, 1 month ago
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And again. The reason they can't be repaid is the way in which they were written, to raise interest levels above the homeowners ability to pay, and telling them they could buy more than they could afford. Do you pay attention to anything other than the voices in your head?
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jordan111 year, 1 month ago
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Based on my income, I was given a set amount I could afford for a house.>>>>
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That's right. And it's no more than was asked of fannie and freddie....to make loans available to low income people they could afford. NO ONE told them to offer loans people could not afford. No one told them to make loans with adjustable rate mortgages, that would increase payments beyond the buyers ability to pay. ALL that Obama asked was that the loans were not decided by redlining.
NO ONE said make their lives worse by getting them into financial trouble. You have to make that distinction before you can claim to have any understanding of this.
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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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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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Fly
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Apparently, you are an apologist for the people who have sacked and looted or financial institutions using bad law enacted by a democrat congress to enable this to happen.
If banks didn't play the game they were threatened with law suits, ie,the article I posted, and forced to play.-
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flyonthewallzz1 year, 1 month ago
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I think, what we have here is a failure to communicate.
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No bank, ever, was forced to make a sub-prime loan.
The law suit mentioned spoke about some folks with equal credit status being able to get a loan and others not.
I think if you are going to talk about sacking and looting, maybe you should look into that $400 g+ party that AIG held after they got $85 Billion of our bucks.
The system was set up during the depression and it gave a way for banks to sell off their dept. Nixon sold it off to hide some of his spending.
I am an apologist to no one.-
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nostalgia1 year, 1 month ago
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ONE key pioneer of ACORN's subprime-loan shakedown racket was Madeline Talbott - an activist with extensive ties to Barack Obama. She was also in on the ground floor of the disastrous turn in Fannie Mae's mortgage policies.
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Long the director of Chicago ACORN, Talbott is a specialist in "direct action" - organizers' term for their militant tactics of intimidation and disruption.
In February 1990, Illinois regulators held what was believed to be the first-ever state hearing to consider blocking a thrift merger for lack of compliance with CRA. The challenge was filed by ACORN, led by Talbott. Officials of Bell Federal Savings and Loan Association, her target, complained that ACORN pressure was undermining its ability to meet strict financial requirements it was obligated to uphold and protested being boxed into an "affirmative-action lending policy." The following years saw Talbott featured in dozens of news stories about pressuring banks into higher-risk minority loans.-
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nostalgia1 year, 1 month ago
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IN April 1992, Talbott filed an other precedent-setting com plaint using the "community support requirements" of the 1989 savings-and-loan bailout, this time against Avondale Federal Bank for Savings. Within a month, Chicago ACORN had organized its first "bank fair" at Malcolm X College and found 16 Chicago-area financial institutions willing to participate.
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Two months later, aided by ACORN organizer Sandra Maxwell, Talbott announced plans to conduct demonstrations in the lobbies of area banks that refused to attend an ACORN-sponsored national bank "summit" in New York. She insisted that banks show a commitment to minority lending by lowering their standards on downpayments and underwriting - for example, by overlooking bad credit histories.
By September 1992, The Chicago Tribune was describing Talbott's program as "affirma- tive-action lending" and ACORN was issuing fact sheets bragging about relaxations of credit standards that it had won on behalf of minorities.-
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nostalgia1 year, 1 month ago
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And Talbott continued her effort to, as she put it, drag banks "kicking and screaming" into high-risk loans. A September 1993 story in The Chicago Sun-Times presents her as the leader of an initiative in which five area financial institutions (including two of her former targets, now plainly cowed - Bell Federal Savings and Avondale Federal Savings) were "participating in a $55 million national pilot program with affordable-housing group ACORN to make mortgages for low- and moderate-income people with troubled credit histories."
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What made this program different from others, the paper added, was the participation of Fannie Mae - which had agreed to buy up the loans. "If this pilot program works," crowed Talbott, "it will send a message to the lending community that it's OK to make these kind of loans."
Well, the pilot program "worked," and Fannie Mae's message that risky loans to minorities were "OK" was sent. The rest is financial-meltdown history.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292008/postopinion/o...-
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flyonthewallzz1 year, 1 month ago
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You made your point well Nostalgia:
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"She insisted that banks show a commitment to minority lending by lowering their standards on down payments and underwriting - for example, by overlooking bad credit histories."
This is the first sentence I have read about the ACORN thing that did not have some kind of trick in it.
I have a neighbor who works for ACORN, and I have been meaning to visit him and ask a bunch of questions. He is a smart dude and not a Radical, most of the arguments I have read up to now he could shred to easily.
Being a lib it is hard for me to step away from a knee-jerk reaction.
I have yet to read anything from either side of this issue that did not come from an obviously bias source.
If you do come across such an article please feel free to send me a message about it.
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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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Klarissa1 year, 1 month ago
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try again
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lots of info - do a search on: rezko obama apartments
this is one
www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/757340,CST-NWS-wat...
and somewhere there is an article that says some of the money rezko got for the rehabs came from a group that Ayres and Obama were board members of. -
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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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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Well wolfie, since CRA loans are a miniscule part of the current economic crisis and absolutely dwarfed by "derivatives" gambling on Wall Street, your insistence in spreading these smears makes it look like 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
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/09/29/racism-a...
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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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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...First, the Community Reinvestment Act only applies to banks and thrifts that are federally-insured. This means that the independent mortgage brokers, who are responsible for half of all the nation's sub-prime lending--and who have been writing such loans at more than twice the rate of banks and thrifts--aren't even covered by the law. And make no mistake, it was the hand of the mortgage broker, more than any other, that precipitated the housing bubble.
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... CRA-related loans, for instance, the fact is, these represent nearly one-fourth of all loans written, but less than 10 percent of the high-cost, high-risk loans that precipitated the current crisis. These loans actually have lower default and foreclosure rates than non-CRA connected loans, and are twice as likely to be retained in the portfolios of the banks that originated them than other loans. In other words, it is not CRA loans being dumped into the hands of greedy speculators, and then falling flat, taking the economy with them....
.... So there you have it: white conservatives who simply cannot bring themselves to blame rich white people for anything, and who consistently fall back into old patterns, blaming the poor for poverty, black and brown folks for racism, anybody but themselves and those like them. That anyone takes them seriously anymore when they prattle on about "personal responsibility" is a stunning testament to how racism and classism continue to pay dividends in a nation whose soil has been fertilized with these twin poisons for generations. Unless the rest of us insist that the truth be told--and unless we tell it ourselves, by bombarding the folks who send us their hateful e-mails with our own correctives, thereby putting them on notice that we won't be silent (and that they cannot rely on our complicity any longer)--it is doubtful that much will change.-
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doggammitComment removed: Retracted by user
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Wolfie20071 year, 1 month ago
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FTA
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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.-
hyperbolaComment removed: Spam
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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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cassio421 year, 1 month ago
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wolfie you are right on.
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Once banks were forced to make these loans there wasn't any way out. Race was already cited as a major factor and to dispute the loan requirement would'nt do any good. Wherever attention is desired RACE and DICRIMINATION are used.
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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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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Sorry Georgia, but you are lying again. Had the count been carried out in Florida aunder the guidelines stipulated by the Florida Supreme Court, Gore would have won. Only an unconstitutional coup by the US supreme court allowed bushie to be appointed as president.
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From Research in Review Magazine, Florida State University, Fall/Winter 2005:
Al Gore really did beat George W. Bush in 2000.
.... It’s an embarrassing outcome for George Bush because it showed that Gore had gotten more votes. Everybody had thought that the chads were where all the bad ballots were, but it turned out that the ones that were the most decisive were write-in ballots where people would check Gore and write Gore in, and the machine kicked those out. There were 175,000 votes overall that were so-called “spoiled ballots.” About two-thirds of the spoiled ballots were over-votes; many or most of them would have been write-in over-votes, where people had punched and written in a candidate’s name. And nobody looked at this, not even the Florida Supreme Court in the last decision it made requiring a statewide recount. Nobody had thought about it except Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the statewide recount when it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. The write-in over-votes have really not gotten much attention. Those votes are not ambiguous. When you see Gore picked and then Gore written in, there’s not a question in your mind who this person was voting for. When you go through those, they’re unambiguous: Bush got some of those votes, but they were overwhelmingly for Gore. For example, in an analysis of the 2.7 million votes that had been cast in Florida’s eight largest counties, The Washington Post found that Gore’s name was punched on 46,000 of the over-vote ballots it, while Bush’s name was marked on only 17,000.....
http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/winter2005/features/battle...
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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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nostalgia1 year, 1 month ago
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How many times has the Obama campaign denied any ties to ACORN??
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Obama camp downplays payments to ACORN
Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's campaign distanced itself Thursday from its $800,000 payment linked to the liberal ACORN organization, which is under investigation in several states where it is suspected of filing fraudulent voter registrations.
Federal Election Commission reports show ACORN-affiliated Citizens Services Inc. got $832,598 from the Obama campaign for get-out-the-vote work during the primaries. But those payments stopped in May and the Obama campaign says they should not be an election issue.
Still, the contributions to Citizens Services draw the Obama campaign closer to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and the growing voter-fraud scandal that this week spread to the battleground state of Ohio.
The elections board in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, is reviewing about 65,000 voter cards submitted by ACORN after flagging 50 cards filled out for duplicate names, fictitious addresses, noncitizens and recycled names and addresses of currently registered voters, said board spokesman Mike West.
Similar probes reportedly are under way in other large Ohio counties.
Citizen Services is inextricably tied to ACORN. Along with nonprofit sister organization Project Vote, Citizens Services and ACORN share the same New Orleans address and the same executive staff while money flows freely between the three entities. In 1996, Project Vote's tax returns show it paid ACORN more than $4.6 million for campaign services and Citizens Services more than $779,000 for legal and administrative services.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/10/ob...-
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Well here is nostalgia screeaming the chants fed to her by corrupt politicians again! Can't you find some new ones nostalgia? The ACORN chanting has been known to be a fluffed up GOP fake for at least four years already.
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GOP's ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Lie Ramped Up
I had been intending to post an answer to the ongoing -- and quickly escalating -- ACORN smears being issued of late by the GOP enemies of democracy out there, who have decided to intensify their unsubstantiated assaults on the community organization, given its effectiveness at registering millions of low-income voters across the country....
... Doubtless you've heard the smears by now: that ACORN is committing "voter fraud", on behalf of Obama, in hotly contested swing states. The media has been all too happy to pass that garbage on, without bothering to note that, in fact, the organization attempts to authenticate every registration form their workers submit and by law they must turn in every form to election officials -- even if they find a registration to be fraudulent when they call the phone number submitted on the form, or if the forms are otherwise suspect or incomplete.
They do so, and they flag all questionable registration forms as being suspect before turning them in to officials.
The thanks they receive for registering millions of new voters that nobody else has bothered with, and for notifying officials about questionable registration forms when they turn them in, is that the GOP's democracy-hating propagandists and election officials run to the media shouting, "ACORN is committing voter fraud! They've turned in hundreds and thousands of fraudulent registration forms!"
Of course they have. They have to by law. But what those GOP despots of democracy always forget to mention is that it was ACORN themselves who notified officials about the potentially fraudulent and/or incomplete forms in the first place!
For the quickest idea of how the GOP ACORN scam has run amok, dutifully forwarded by the often clueless corporate media, and then the rightwing wankers in the blogosphere who are only to happy to help enable those who are lying to them -- by putting truth, democracy and country second -- take a look at the following game of rightwing "blogosphere telephone" concerning a recent news conference called by a Lake County, Indiana GOP chair in order to sound the phony alarm about "fraud" committed by ACORN....
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/10/gops-aco...
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markmawn21 year, 1 month ago
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Your favorite President. God I'm going to miss him!
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From 2002:
"Homeownership is also an important part of our economic vitality. If -- when we meet this project, this goal, according to our Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, we will have added an additional $256 billion to the economy by encouraging 5.5 million new home owners in America; the activity -- the economic activity stimulated with the additional purchasers, the additional buyers, the additional demand will be upwards of $256 billion. And that's important because it will help people find work.
Low interest rates, low inflation are very important foundations for economic growth. The idea of encouraging new homeownership and the money that will be circulated as a result of people purchasing homes will mean people are more likely to find a job in America. This project not only is good for the soul of the country, it's good for the pocketbook of the country, as well.
To open up the doors of homeownership there are some barriers, and I want to talk about four that need to be overcome. First, down payments. A lot of folks can't make a down payment. They may be qualified. They may desire to buy a home, but they don't have the money to make a down payment. I think if you were to talk to a lot of families that are desirous to have a home, they would tell you that the down payment is the hurdle that they can't cross. And one way to address that is to have the federal government participate.
And so we've called upon Congress to set up what's called the American Dream Down Payment Fund, which will provide financial grants to local governments to help first-time home buyers who qualify to make the down payment on their home. If a down payment is a problem, there's a way we can address that. And when Congress funds the program, this should help 200,000 new families over the next five years become first-time home buyers.
Secondly, affordable housing is a problem in many neighborhoods, particularly inner-city neighborhoods. You may -- we may have qualified home buyers, but if there's no home to buy, this initiative isn't going anywhere. And so one of the things that we're going to -- that I'm doing is proposing a single-family affordable housing credit to encourage the construction of single-family homes in neighborhoods where affordable housing is scarce. (Applause.)
Over the next five years the initiative will provide home builders and therefore home buyers with -- home builders with $2 billion in tax credits to bring affordable homes and therefore provide an additional supply for home buyers. It's really important for us to understand that we can provide incentive for people to build homes where there's a lack of affordable housing.
And we've got to set priorities. And one of the key priorities is going to be inner-city America. Good schools and affordable housing will help revitalize our inner cities."-
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markmawn21 year, 1 month ago
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TWO KEY WORDS HERE: "OWNERSHIP SOCIETY". Yup, blame them uppity colored folks for wanting homes. It's all their fault.
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President Bush's 2002 Speech at the Conference on Minority Home Ownership
George Washington University
President Bush said that there is a home ownership gap for minorities. President Bush said that it was important to make monies available for down payments.
He said that minorities often have a difficult time getting the down payment for a home, trouble acquiring home loans and trouble making monthly mortgage payments.
President Bush mentioned the billions of dollars spent in vouchers for Section 8 Housing for leased apartments. President Bush said that as it is, Section 8 Housing encourages leases rather than home ownership.
President Bush said that he would like to see the Section 8 vouchers used as script for down payments and as payment for mortgages instead of leases.
President Bush said that he would like to have those Section 8 vouchers used instead to help those who can't afford to make a down payment on a home. President Bush said that he would like Section 8 vouchers to be used as script to help those who have trouble making monthly mortgage payments on a home.
Help 5 1/2 Million More People Own Their Own Homes
President Bush spoke of his dream to help 5 1/2 million more people to own their own home within the next five years.
President Bush called the program "American Dream Down Payment Fund."
Section 8 sounds like Socialism to me. How Unamerican.-
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markmawn21 year, 1 month ago
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Here is the Butt Cheek Clencher!
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Freddie Mae -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- I see the heads who are here; I want to thank you all for coming -- (laughter) -- have committed to provide more money for lenders. They've committed to help meet the shortage of capital available for minority home buyers.
Fannie Mae recently announced a $50 million program to develop 600 homes for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Franklin, I appreciate that commitment. They also announced $12.7 million investment in a condominium project in Harlem. It's the beginnings of a series of initiatives to help meet the goal of 5.5 million families. Franklin told me at the meeting where we kicked this office, he said, I promise you we will help, and he has, like many others in this room have done.
Freddie Mac recently began 25 initiatives around the country to dismantle barriers and create greater opportunities for homeownership. One of the programs is designed to help deserving families who have bad credit histories to qualify for homeownership loans. Freddie Mac is also working with the Department of Defense to promote construction and financing for housing for men and women in the military.
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Georgia501 year, 1 month ago
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Now extend the problem--theoretically--past an 11-3-08 Obama win. Not one single minority will be removed from their home due to inability to make a mortgage payment. A law enforcement official in Chicago is already vowing not to remove evictees. End result? Deeds will be handed over--free and clear of encumbrance--to deadbeats who can't make a mortgage payment, and we the taxpayer will be left holding the bag. An Obama win this year means that in 5 years, we will be arguing about providing free utilities to today's deadbeat borrowers. Why the hell should they man up? They're special. They're entitled.
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The door is open. The rhinoceros wants in.-
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Well Georgia, you have made it abundantly clear that you prefer welfare for the super-rich. Are these your buddies?
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After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Resort
After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Resort
UPDATED: 11:31 a.m.
Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000,....
.... AIG lost over $5 billion in the last quarter of 2007 due its risky financial products division, Waxman said. Yet in March 2008, when the company's compensation committee met to award bonuses, Chief Executive Martin Sullivan urged the committee to ignore those losses, which should have slashed bonuses.
But the board agreed to ignore the losses from the financial products division and gave Sullivan a cash bonus of over $5 million. The board also approved a new compensation contract for Sullivan that gave him a golden parachute of $15 million, Waxman said.
Joseph Cassano, the executive in charge of the company's troubled financial products division, received more than $280 million over the last eight years, Waxman said. Even after he was terminated in February as his investments turned sour, the company allowed him to keep up to $34 million in unvested bonuses and put him on a $1 million-a-month retainer. He continues to receive $1 million a month, Waxman said....
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/2008... -
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hyperbola1 year, 1 month ago
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Curious things seem to be happening on this site. Censorship?
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I made a two part comment above some 19 hours ago, with a link to further information after the second part. Both parts were shown when I submitted them. 15 hours ago pc25 replied with a comment to the second part, i.e. 4 hours after my original post.
Today, the second part of my post has been deleted as "spam" (with the link so you could check the validity of the source)?
After 4 hours a comment suddenly becomes spam? Why? Someone didn't like the comment?
By the way the link was to this story, which I don't understand why it is spam in this thread, but not elsewhere on propeller.
Why Are We Surprised? From Enron to the Current Meltdown
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/09/why-are-...-
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amazed1 year, 1 month ago
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hyper, I can rarely make myself read even one of your entire missives per thread, but I agree that it was either spam immediately, or it never was.
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There have been many strange and disturbing things going on since the "new and improved" propeller. My absolute favorite are the whole missing second and third pages in long blogs-- often just disappearing mid-comment.
Don't take it personally, I try to remember to copy my comments before I submit them, because I'm finding on some days not quite a 50-50 ratio as to what gets posted and what just evaporates into the ether.
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insuranceeseComment removed: Hard Banned
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