How Bush Tried to Stop Predatory Lending (NOT) By Mike Whitney

[Demeter]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25212.htm

Whitney's thesis is that the predatory lending was a scam that Bush himself knew about and aided and abetted. MUST READ.

[rainy]

1. I've been wondering about this speech for a very long time. I remember hearing

it and being surprised that a republican could claim the highest rate of home ownership. I remember thinking something was up at the time and I was wondering if I was the only one in the world who heard this speech as it made me think after the housing bubble that it was a complete sham and the administration was a part of it.
Where are the media on this? If I remembered the speech why didn't they and why didn't they connect the dots? It makes me so mad.

[rainy]

2. THanks for posting even if no one else responded. Great find.

[JohnWxy]

3. here's a link to Eliot Spitzer's article: "Predatory Lenders Partner in Crime - how the Bush

administration stopped states from stepping in to help consumers.

In 2003 Attorneys-General from all 50 states were going to use consumer protection laws to rein in predatory lenders - which everybody knew THEN were making reckless, untenable loans. but the Bush administration as mentioned in OP, proceeded to stop them in their tracks. IF the 50 State Attorneys-General had NOT been stopped, and had reined in Predatory lenders, they would have stopped the creation of so many untenable loans and the Credit Catastrophe of 2008-2009 might have been avoided (or at the least ameliorated - depending upon to what degree they would have been able to stop the abuses by Pred. lenders).

Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.

Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.


What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.
(more)

good post! We need to keep reminding people of this.

[Demeter]

4. Thanks for this link! It certainly tells the story

which has many chapters and still goes on and on and...

[Bennyboy]

5. Nice find here...

What we get when we select the enemy of the people.