Study: Bush Administration Blocked Attempts to Prevent Mortgage Crisis
Via Raw Story, this very enlightening news that the Bush administration blocked efforts to enforce laws against predatory lending. We are so shocked:
Federal regulators in the Bush administration blocked attempts by state governments to prevent predatory lending practices that resulted in the financial crisis now stalking the American economy, a new study from the University of North Carolina says.
In 2004, the Office of the Currency Comptroller, an obscure regulatory agency tasked with ensuring the fiscal soundness of America's banks, invoked an 1863 law to give itself the power to override state laws against predatory lending. The OCC told states they could not enforce predatory-lending laws, and all banks would be subject only to less-strict federal laws.
Now, a research paper (PDF) from UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for Community Capital shows that those anti-predatory lending laws had actually worked. States that had stricter regulations on issuing mortgages were found to have fewer foreclosures.
"We believe that these findings are remarkable, since they suggest an important and yet unexplored link between [anti-predatory lending laws] and foreclosures," the study's authors state.
The study may be the first scientific evidence to back up claims made by many critics that the Bush administration and earlier administrations allowed last year's financial crisis to happen by not enforcing common-sense regulations on lenders.
Last year, seven months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing government banking bailout, then-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer wrote a Washington Post column in which he described how the Bush administration blocked states' efforts to prevent a crisis in the mortgage industry.
Spitzer wrote:
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.
Spitzer's Post column ran a month before the New York Times reported that federal authorities were investigating Spitzer as a patron of high-end hookers, ending his political career and long-running crusade against corporate malfeasance. Some observers, including investigative reporter Greg Palast, say this was not a coincidence.
This should be FRONT page news worldwide. But it won't be. Maybe Michael Moore was right.
This story has had no legs for a while. It's been reported in various MSM outlets since late 2007 or early '08. I thought the same thing you wrote, then.
If there was an ounce of journalistic integrity in this country this story- about which there is no debate, the facts of which are in the public record- would've hounded those responsible out of office well before the election last November.
The amount of systemic, blatant, official malfeasance "We the People" will tolerate is just astonishing.
Do you mean the "Dead Peasents?"
Seems like We The People have become Rip van Winkles...
There are no 'coincidences'. Everything that has happened over the past couple decades has been carefully orchestrated. Laws were changed, staffing appointments were made, oversight was negated, and people like Spitzer were brought down. All so Government-Sachs and their cohorts in the elitist 1% could defraud America and destroy the middle class.
'Those who do not know when enough is enough, can never have enough." Lao Tsu
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
I'm still convinced that Spitzer was targeted b/c he was about to expose this all
Me too. I have read the details of how they got him. But no one knows what drew their suspicion towards him. Supposedly it was a teller at a bank filing SARS (suspicious activity reports triggered by sizable deposits). But his deposits were not all that large, or suspicious.
was walking around with a big target on his back for years - he spent most of his time as NY AG trying to rein in the Wall street thieves and corp pigs.
I still have hope that he may yet 'rise again' - to fight crime - and maybe to inspire others to do what is right. Cuomo is trying to follow in NY.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
based on repub Senators who've done worse, why isn't Spitzer in some sort of "czar" position. He knows where the bodies are buried, why isn't he back in the game? We need him, now more than ever! He was good. We certainly could use him now!
Also, Bldg. 7 had all the proof. Oops, that one fell too. BOGUS!!!!!
I don’t think that when the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was passed these gentlemen expected to see a collapse of our financial infrastructure. I think they expected bank profits to rise and the economy to sail on (and they all get rich). I don’t think they expected it, but they should have known better.
The Banking sector had been relatively stable from 1933 (Glass-Steagal) through 1980. Almost Fifty years of stability. Then came the deregulation euphoria starting in ’80, and it was one failure, one boom-bust cycle after another – until it all collapsed again.
http://www.moneymorning.com/2009/01/13/deregu...
But those were the people deregulating.
The Bush cabal on the other hand was complicit. They abjectly refused to see any problems. Bad things didn’t happen under Bush – only patriotic things. Yeah, right. Anybody warning of or exposing these bad things must be unpatriotic. It was the culture.
Well, the universe abhors a vacuum. The idiots created the vacuum so the Crooks moved in – and here we are.
..once regulation was removed it allowed the GREED to grow. None of this might have happened if regulations were in place to control, greed! I'm sure there are righteous wealthy people just as there are righteous poor people so I'm not profiling but there's that element of society who sees an advantage, specifically a way to make a buck at the expense of someone else with impunity and bingo! And, no remorse either because no crime, no foul..easy when you're a piece of pshht of a person.
Gee, and speaking of w, isn't it time he be charged with War Crimes? Isn't that an obligation of the new administration? When are you going to follow the law Mr. Obama? When its too late?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Yeah, greed was the fuel and deregulation was the flame. I still contend that the deregulation was only myopic, short-sighted, ignorant and foolish. Not criminal – just stupid. The machinations in the last half of the Bush regime WERE criminal.
Last year's bailout was nothing more than the theives cleaning out the last of what they hadn't already stolen while they still could.
"When people show you who they are, believe them." Maya Angelou
Maya is right about that one too...
Gomer Pile....Surprise surprise.
and who from the bush admin will be held
accountable for this? DUH NO ONE !
and when will an investigation be initiated?
DUH NEVER !
And we must continue banging our farking heads against the wall too.
Bipartisanship simply means that politicians are trying to push a crooked agenda larger than usual on us.
..the time we vote for the next President, the day after Election Day in 2012, I'll start asking for investigation of the Obama Administration for FAILING to investigate the w administration for War Crimes as well as the allegations of torture and as he will have lost my support, I won't vote for him!
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
If you don't hold the people accountable then their actions as such are eventuality seen as ok, and that's why things will not change. Words don't mean a thing you can talk about how bad deregulation and lack of enforcement was till your blue in the face it will not matter. Only actions like holding these people who knew they were pushing a fraud onto the American people accountable and/or placeing back regulation with huge penties will change things.
I'd like to add that many of the current penties for the regulation we have left mean nothing. The companies are allowed to stall for decages or the fine is so small compared to what they made off the scam there more then willing to just pay the fine after the fact. A fine should never be less then what they made brakeing the rules. If it means they go out of business so be it.
Sounds like a story ripped straight from the pages of the mafia. Not the first time I have said that about some of the things that administration did. The ultimate crooks and liars.
Not for one second do I think Spitzer's problems were just coincidental to the publishing of his piece. No sane person would.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Crusader Bunnypants just did as he was told.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
The FBI broke ground in the Spitzer case by arresting hookers the first time in its history.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
F.W. Engdahl or Greg Palast, you'd have known about this several years ago.
gettin all kinds of evil done for his corporate masters.
I hope you rot in hell bush.
GWB was actually the evil one.
I rather suspect he was used, quite thoroughly too.
Think..."permanent republican majority" and the funds necessary to maintain the stranglehold on the media and election cycles.
What ever happened to accountability?
That's only for us peons who make up the bottom 95%. For the bankster's, accountability means being bailed-out by said peons.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
He was the idiot cheerleader/ liar in chief...
Fuck him.
but, GWB didn't do a thing without Turdblossom's blessings.
That includes appointments at SEC, Justice, EPA, FED et al...
That's where the real evil lives. In the turdblossom.
Excuse me....PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
I assume you will follow your logic to its rightful conclusion with regard to the present President's INHERITED problems.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
They should ALL be held accountable!
Every last one in the bushco administration!
..pressure and stress.
#1 - constantly broke, lost my savings, lost wages
#2 - w still walking around with impunity for his crimes
#3 - the lies w told us
#4 - obl still breathing air on this planet
She didn't know what to say!
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
What else is new?
Of course the revelations about Spitzer's liaisons was not a coincidence.
Gosh, just how naive are people.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I shout this from the roof tops to every damn soul I know.
He praised bush for trying to prevent the sub-prime crisis. No surprise; no truth.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
or be held accountable.
When this is reported on FoxNews they'll leave out the part about Bush administration blocking attempts by state governments to prevent predatory lending practices..
It was all Clinton's fault.
They will put a "D" next to Bush's ugly mug, and the conservatard zombies who watch Fucks won't know any different.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
They'll all be saying "thart godarm librul!!!"
he emphasized the point that the laws already on the books were more than adequate to prosecute the Wall Street crooks.
The Bush appointees looked the other way on purpose, and Wall Street knew it. Once there was demand for more securities, the lenders were only too happy to supply all they could want. But it was the multiple "bets", per bundle, all hoping for failure, that bankrupted the system.
The crooks at the credit rating agencies rated everything AAA, and the rest of the market treated them as golden, when they weren't.
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
Lady, OCC is in some regards the center of the universe of nationally chartered bank regulation. You'd do well to get inside the OCC and cultivate sources because some of the guys there have been watching the advance of gangland banking with increasing horror over the past 15 years.
And I don't want to hear about how "he wasn't a TRUE conservative" from the eejits on the Right who applauded his every psychotic cowboy move when he was in office.
Republicans supported every irresponsible deregulation, war, privatization -
I'm so angry I can't think right.
Another George W Bush failure (did he do anything right?). Gave predatory lenders the green light to give questionable loans to the unqualified. Just another republican bubble created to expand their base. This political ruse is causing record number of foreclosures. Crooks made a lot of money.
This is not my father's America
..NO.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
There can be no investigations or looking back at the Bush/Cheney family of evil doers.
We must look forward to our agenda of moving the country forward. You know, kind of how the healthcare debate is moving forward. Kind of like closing Gitmo is moving forward. Kind of like DADT is moving forward. Kind of---
Oh, never mind. We all get the picture.
No one will pay - oops - except us, the duped American public.
Worse then his naivety with healthcare reform is this that Obama has lead the charge against holding anyone accountable for well anything. This idea that we can just ignore the past has been proven time and time again all throughout history as a no-win plan.
Yup.
Change you can believe in?
My "hope" has been reduced to "changing-in" Obama in three years for a real democrat.
I hate the DLC as much as I hate the repukes. This is exactly what I voted against, and what he ran against in his platform. Lying sellout sack-of-shit!
Obama is not naive, he's selling corporate fascism wraped-up in fancy speeches. Basically - as Carlin use to say, "he's full of shit!"
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
If the criminals aren't held accountable for the illegal war against Iraq and torture the working people of America will end up paying a horrible price. We're already reaping the tragedy of not putting the war criminals behind bars. NO I don't mean just having to see the Cheneys on TV either. Notice WHICH countries are not significantly recovering from the global financial crisis. YUP the ones that lead the charge into illegal wars of aggression and the use of torture. imagine that! And who in those countries is suffering because of it? The greedy criminals behind it? Or the working poor and middle-class? If the Obama administration continues to refuse to hold the Bush administration criminals accountable it will be up to the people to deliver them to the Hague just in order to be able to have shelter and food for ourselves.
Without evidence, whatever prompted Eliot Spitzer investigation remains speculative.
that Eliot Spitzer knows what went down... I'm thinking he's got the evidence too and it's just a matter of time before we hear some of it. I doubt we'll ever hear the whole story, but there you go... no such thing as total transparency or even a whiff of honesty from most of this crowd.
I've gotta say... I'm pissed at the myriad injustices, buffoonery, outright graft, and on and on. Stop the world! I want to get off...
Yes the Eunuchs in Congress will pick a appropriate time and give a National Award to the RACIST NAZI CHRISTIAN (RNC), with accolades of praise for him and his party in the destruction of the US and please have no fear the right wing will hit the air waves with the backing of the Nazi,Fascist, Communist declaring in the face of all evidence that is a witch hunt.
Then BackUp Reid and Cave-In Pelosi will ask that all be forgiven as they seek to work even harder to prove to America that they have NO BACK BONE. I do Not see what the right wing fears from the Eunuch party, Don't ask Don't tell dead in the water, Afghanistan withdrawal that ain't happening, Public Option hahaha lots of noise and the SELL OUTS WILL bow you need a Spine something the EUNUCHS do not have.
Excuse me, but that was one clumsy attempt at transitions.....
Having watched the HP video of Michael Moore on Hannity, I think Hannity needs to read this. Of course,
it's obvious from the exchange that Hannity hasn't read any of the objective studies/books that have come out in the last year.
what about Acorn and poor brown people??? Banks wouldnt do anything to hurt the long-run economic outlook just for short-term profits. Its the poor people trying to undermine capitalism that has caused this crisis . . .
Glenn Beck was right about one thing: Oligarhy [sic].
I ask again WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT IN JAIL?
That is the question I ask myself on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It's nauseating, isn't it? But, I guess we really know the answer: those who are bound and have the duty to uphold the law are bought and paid for by these same corporations and financial institutions.
Many banks or financial institutions can choose which regulating entity regulates them. Most choose the OCC or the OTS, or more plainly whichever one will let them get away with the most bullshit.
Sure, I am mad as hell that the Bush administration blocked efforts to reign in predatory lending. But, I am still mad as hell that Lawrence Summers, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Arthur Levitt opposed Brooksley Born's efforts to regulate derivatives. Born saw the potential nightmare that unregulated derivatives posed, but the entire Clinton economic team save for the CFTC opposed her and kept their precious derivatives market safe from regulation because their own personal portfolios and their friends on Wall Street might stop making inordinate sums of money for no reason with regulation of derivatives. These four men should be sitting in jail for being accessories to the greatest heist in American history. Instead, we have two of them serving as economic advisors to our current president.
I guess the only cause that both democrats and republicans stand united, in a "bipartisan" manner, is that of screwing over the American public out of their money and out of any protection from the financial industry. Way to go Republicans and Democrats! Hooray for bipartisanship.
Edit: Also, with the derivatives market completely unregulated, many financial institutions had incentives to make bad, predatory loans because they could just sell them as MBS and make CDS as well, leading to some instant gratification money. These two issues go hand in hand.
from the judges in Italy...
"Today's ruling marked the second time in five years that Italy's most august tribunal had rejected an attempt by the right to put its leader above the law."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/07/s...
Sure wish the U.S. would learn a good lesson here... people must be held accountable for their actions; as should corporations masquerading as people. You do the crime; you do the time... it's that frickin' simple. No immunity to those who commit crimes, period.
The Bushies obviously hate America. Why do bushies hate America?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
as a cash cow, and her citizens as just so many marks.
The American government saw the collapse of the American empire as far back as 1972 and when Nixon visited China for the first time.
It was also in 1972 when Richard Nixon enacted a purely fiat dollar which repudiated the gold standard.
This was done by imperial decree.
Without a gold standard, Pax Americana was financed with the American printing presses running 24-7.
The gold standard was replaced by an American system of conceit, delusion, debt and deceit.
People need to remember as far back as 1980.
In 1980, every futurist realized that the U.S. was bankrupt.
The Federal debt was $1.142 trillion in 1982.
When George W. Bush took office in 2001, the U.S. debt stood at $5.6 trillion.
The 2009 budget plan calls for raising the ceiling to $15 trillion.
Between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. has been spending 7% more than what it produces or earns each and every year.
The only reason America "appeared" to be recovering since the 1982 recession is because the Americans borrowed 15 trillion dollars and polluted every bank in the universe with 600 trillion in derivatives holding collateral of 6 cents on every dollar. Not to mention corporate and consumer debt.
In 1980, Free Trade was introduced as a means of gaining access to every bank vault on the planet. It was never about manufacturing goods and services but rather manufacturing a fraud.
I quite well remember watching an interview with Dick Armey (R-Tx) about 5 years ago. He chuckled aloud mockingly when detailing how the world was giving America goods and services in trade for a simple piece of paper.
Before the collapse of the British empire after WWI, Britain turned to Free Trade and did the same thing as America is now doing.
Every sector of the economy has been bailed out since 1980.
Latin American wars bailed out the Auto Sector and military contracts bailed out Chrysler and the rest of the Boys.
The Y2K bug scare bailed out the technology sector by allowing every business to buy computers and stuff completely tax free. The bubble burst immediately after Y2K failed to occur.
After 9-11, every airline was bailed out and laws to reduce the amount of luggage resulted in fuel cost savings.
The housing boom bailed out the retail sector. Every house sold meant a new fridge, stove and other furnishings and essentials.
Look back at history .... read about how the British empire collapsed and realize that the U.S. is not immune and that it is doing the exact thing which Britain did in order to stall the collapse of empire.
These are excellent articles:
Calm
An Empire Like No Other
National Review
September 01, 2003
http://olimu.com/Journalism/Texts/Commentary/...
Oil and the origins of the
'War to make the world safe for Democracy'
By F. William Engdahl
June 22, 2007
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/History...
That's what George Bush is. A vandal and a murderer. Vandalising lives and property. How I hate that "man".
how much contempt the boosh admin had for people.
Some stuff you can't make up!
"Spitzer's Post column ran a month before the New York Times reported that federal authorities were investigating Spitzer as a patron of high-end hookers, ending his political career and long-running crusade against corporate malfeasance. Some observers, including investigative reporter Greg Palast, say this was not a coincidence"
Wow. Huh. Imagine my surprise.
Spitzer knew what was going on and the Bush crime family pulled a hit job. Everyone in New York with a brain knew it then.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
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