Thread: Affirmative Action Timebomb finally exploded

“Under [Bill] Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001. Instead of looking at ‘outdated criteria,’ such as the mortgage applicant’s credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named ‘Caylee.’ Threatening lawsuits, Clinton’s Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn’t a joke—it’s a fact. ... In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration’s affirmative action lending policies as one of the ‘hidden success stories’ of the Clinton administration, saying that ‘black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded.’ Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn’t get out of their loans by selling their houses. A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it’s gone off.â€

Shocking Video Unearthed - Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

CHECK OUT THIS BELOW ABOUT BARNEY FRANK!

QUOTE: 'THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."

That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' "

In fact, that isn't what Reagan said. His actual words were: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.

Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.

As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he'll find one suspect in the nearest mirror.

Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com.

And Amnesty John McCain just recently touted the expertise of Andrew Cuomo. Unbelievable.

My thought exactly Populist.

Ephesians 4:32

Given that minority members in general have lower FICO scores among those individuals with the same FICO score minority members are more likely to be tracked into higher cost higher interest programs than Whites are. I only hope that in your desire to seek justice against us minority members you do not overlook for minority members.

You know, I don't care who you are or where you live or what color your skin is. It is up to YOU as an individual to better YOUR life and to be a worker, parent or whatever you decide to be. It is not up to ANYBODY in this society to take care of those who refuse to do the right thing. STOP blaming everyone else because you did not better yourself or get an education. You can get scholarships, work extra jobs to get an education. America gives you the privilege to work and go to school. If you are a parent BE A PARENT and don't expect the government or tax payers to pay for your kids!!! Minorities should not be given special privileges no more than no one should give me any special consideration if I am irresponsible or chose not to pay my bills or buy things I can't afford or take care of my own children!!

I am tired of taking care of everyone else and it is up to everyone to take care of THEMSELVES and quit looking to the government or other tax payers to give them things that we can't afford ourselves.

This is the problem with liberal democrats and people who choose not to take care of themselves.

It is time for each American to take responsiblity!!!

Originally Posted by Richard

Given that minority members in general have lower FICO scores among those individuals with the same FICO score minority members are more likely to be tracked into higher cost higher interest programs than Whites are. I only hope that in your desire to seek justice against us minority members you do not overlook for minority members.

I'm missing your point, Richard. The Democrats and the Clinton Administration made it a racial/minority issue by forcing Fannie and Freddie to reach a goal of 50% in mortgage holdings for minorities. The faact that much of this turned out to be bad paper and is being pointed out by many, like me, makes me what...anti-minority? I judge people on their character, not the color of their skin or what country they originate from.

Watch this video, Richard...then get back to me:

Shocking Video Unearthed - Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Originally Posted by Richard

Given that minority members in general have lower FICO scores among those individuals with the same FICO score minority members are more likely to be tracked into higher cost higher interest programs than Whites are. I only hope that in your desire to seek justice against us minority members you do not overlook for minority members.

I am not against anybody - no matter who you are. I am against peope who are not responsible white, green, brown, black or blue!!! Who's responsibility is it when you say 'that minority members in general have lower FICO scores???' Who's responsibility is that and why??

There is a quote about the University of Pennsylvania has the democracy of a trolley car. I can see the same thing on ALIPAC it allows anyone to post here regardless of their ability to understand the facts. When mortgage candidates go to mortgage brokers and lenders two people of different races with identical FICO scores are very likely to be tracked in different directions. A higher per centage of Whites have favorable FICO scores but that should not effect individual candidates with the same FICO scores. Minority members are much more likely to be put in higher cost programs even if they are as credit worthy as White candidates.