Diana Marrero:
No serious person believes the Community Reinvestment Act had anything -- anything -- to do with the current financial crisis.
Yet, in a story on Monday, you let Rep. James Sensenbrenner get away with saying this:
For Sensenbrenner, who entered the House in 1979, the problem dates back to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 that required banks to offer credit in every market they served. The act forced banks to lend to “those who lack the ability to pay,” Sensenbrenner says.
You let Sensenbrenner -- a man who literally seems incapable of trimming his nose hairs let alone diagnose a financial meltdown -- get away with saying this without challenging him. Why? Does the fault lie with you or your editors?
The argument that CRA is somehow to blame for the mess we're in --a mess created in large part by financial institutions that were not even bound by CRA and were motivated by greed and stupidity vs. munificence (mandated or otherwise) -- is nothing more than Republican racebaiting. As Rick Perlstein sums up: "This financial mess is something black people have done to white people."
Diana Marrero: The Brawler's only real question: Does the fault lie with you or your editors that Sensenbrenner skates with this smear?
Brawler
Just in: Yeah, I could have saved myself some time by just linking to Folkbum. Then again, I would have missed getting yet another well-thought out comment from a reader somewhere, I believe, in Brookfield.
The brawler is so right... people who couldn't afford the loans they took out had nothing to do with this - nothing.
The government and groups like ACORN and their lawsuits (courtesy of Barak Obama and others) pushing banks to make subprime loans created the foundation for the crisis.
The bottom fell out when home values tanked.
Your attempts to link this to race are idiotic, but this is why nobody with a brain wants a liberal managing the economy.
Posted by: McCainStillSucks | October 14, 2008 at 03:00 PM