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[Reaper527]

http://www.ldsmag.co...81017light.html

QUOTE

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

this is just the beginning of the article, i strongly urge everyone to click the link and read the whole thing (and pass it around if you like it).

[lostboyz]

The answer of who did all this, is clinton and democrats

just because it happened during bush's time in office it must be his fault though right?

[throwingks]

Clinton wasn't in office at the time. Carter was.

Citizens are to blame, not a political party.
http://en.wikipedia....inancial_crisis
Even if the CRA was 100% the direct reason for this, there have been many times Republicans have had power and could have changed the course of action. Especially, if it was "known this would happen."

[lostboyz]

I didnt read the whole article, but the section of it says late 90s

[lordvader129]

QUOTE(lostboyz @ Oct 22 2008, 02:56 PM)

I didnt read the whole article, but the section of it says late 90s

people who blame bush arent the only shortsighted ones, the seeds of the current problems go back. waaaaay back.