A cat named Wallison at the American Enterprise Institute makes an extraordinarily astute observation about what has turned out to be a calamity. I'm going to paraphrase him. Basically what he's saying is that the Clinton Administration took the wrong tack in enforcing the CRA. In search of affordable housing and increased home ownership they forced bank regulators to change the very nature of lending instead of subsidizing constituents.
The difference is between the attitude that the system was corrupt because blacks weren't getting what was considered politically appropriate and the attitude that blacks needed help to get up to the standards of the system.
This is a very specific and important distinction to be made and part of the subtlety that is required in a review of the sorts of politics that got us to where we are today.
It is also important to note that Wallison understands that a great deal of attention has not been paid to what is known in the biz as 'rental stock'. Affordable housing starts at ground zero with low rent apartments. Part of the corruption of banking lending standards has to do with the fact that non-owner occupied housing was a big part of subprime lending.
Additionally, when people get tired of mouthing off about greed, they should think twice and three times about what incentives are created by regulations. So long as banks were able to bundle up and sell mortgages that they originated and those bundles were still allowed to have the Fannie & Freddie stamp of approval, why would anybody not?
Once upon a time we had a Savings and Loan industry.
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