Style Weekly
The Real Start of the Financial Crisis
“Dangerous Brew” (Back Page, Sept. 29) stirs up the popular misconception of a laissez-faire catastrophe in 2008. This isn't so! This crisis began to simmer with the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act during the Carter years. With the help of agitators from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, the Clinton administration turned up the heat, culminating in Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo's proud announcement on C-SPAN that his department had strong-armed the banks into making $2.1 billion worth of loans for houses to people unable to afford to purchase or maintain them. To see this remarkable 1998 announcement, look up “How the Democrats Caused the Financial Crisis: Starring Bill” on YouTube. I'm sorry if the title infuriates you, but the reality of the announcement cannot be denied.
Cuomo acknowledged during his appearance that some would default, but what are a few defaults when you're saving the world with stolen money.
Bankers, seeking protection from government thugs, figured out ways to profit from the bad loans they were forced to write. So it came to be that our own government undermined a previously stable housing market operating under time-tested rules.
To compound the problem, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd subsequently ignored the pleas of the likes of George Bush and John McCain by refusing to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The redistributionist poison was thus left to spread through the world's financial system, and here we are. Racism in lending has been nobly combated, or, uh … well, at least their intentions were good.
The tea party wants to save us from the next great plan.
Brenda Levy
Richmond
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