Sorry, Wingnuts: McCain's Campaign Manager Pushed For Boost In Minority Homeownership
An emerging meme on the right, one that's being championed by the likes of Neil Cavuto and others, is that the mortgage crisis happened not because of deregulation, but because brokers were pressured into making loans to "minorities and risky folks," as Cavuto tastefully put it.
But guess who actively sought to boost minority homeownership? John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis.
As The New York Times reported today, Davis was president for several years of the Homeownership Alliance, an industry advocacy organization formed mainly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Alliance's core mission is to boost the number of mortgages granted.
But take a look at this picture from the alliance's annual report in 2004, unearthed by a reader, showing Davis at a Congressional reception praising minority homeownership (click to enlarge):
"We have an opportunity in the next decade to increase minority homeownership and significantly reduce the minority homeownership gap," Davis is quoted saying here. "The future of the housing market rests heavily on the economic success of minorities. Homeownership is likely to grow faster among minority Americans in the next decade if all the stakeholders in the housing industry work together to make it happen. The Homeownership Alliance is working toward this goal."
Hmmm. Wingers agree McCain's campaign manager helped cause mortgage crisis?
Any post that starts with "Sorry wingnuts" and ends with
is a just read. Nice work, Greg and Eric.
September 22, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
@#$$$!###
That should be "is a must read".
September 22, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
For that to not be redundant, minorities would have to be mostly non-risky folks. Just another gratuitous bit of race-baiting.
BTW, where would such so-called "pressure" come from?
September 22, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, white females are the minority that is considered non-risky along with Asians. All other ethnic groups of color are not just risky but high risk.
September 22, 2008 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess I put it a bit awkwardly.
If risky folks includes minorities, then what he said was redundant. Of course, just saying risky folks doesn't push the button he wants.
September 22, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clearly there is a button being pushed here. Otherwise why say "minorities" at all?
September 22, 2008 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right on, Bob!
September 22, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
praise bob!
September 22, 2008 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because that is exactly what the wing-nuts are pushing. Have you seen all of the articles lately (first and foremost by that AP slug)
referencing race? They are the ugliest when they are like this.
September 23, 2008 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh no you didn't put it ackwardly.
Neil Kavuto - what a racist pig. Perfect
in his Fox world.
September 23, 2008 12:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
What's new? If the GOP wants to rally their base, just blame everything on blacks and minorities. It's always their fault. Everything that is wrong in the government has to wind up having a black face in order for the GOP to racially polarize the issue and make their base come out and vote against blacks getting handouts!!
Southern strategy...is endless in it's permutations.
September 22, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed.
I'm hoping that turnout across the south will either end the southern strategy as a can't-miss strategy, or at least put a big dent in it.
September 22, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hate to say this and give more rope to SFC Wallace with which to hang himself, but there's a reason why the southern strategy works in more places than just the South.
September 22, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well of course the southern strategy is not limited to the south. This is America for pete's sake and race, unfortunately, is an issue from sea to shining sea
September 22, 2008 9:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not true. It has to have a black or brown face... OR, a pink/lavender hue about them.
September 22, 2008 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Steve Davis has a punch-me face. Just pointing that out.
September 22, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. Rick Davis.
Weren't we supposed to be getting Preview?
September 22, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, although I might call it an "already punched" face.
September 22, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since he was raking in millions from Fannie/Freddie to push loans and deregulation, you'd think he could have ponied up some cash to buy himself a chin.
Just saying.
PEACE
September 22, 2008 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
He looks like Tom Goes to the Mayor.
September 22, 2008 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know it doesn't matter any in the general scheme of things, but the guy has got the biggest nostrils I've ever seen.
September 22, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my. You didn't actually post that setup line did you?
September 22, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm proud to say, I don't have a clue what you're talking about.
September 22, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh no, this guy looks like Jeffrey Dahmer. Really scary looking.
September 23, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt.
Those two deserve to be brutally ass kicked.
Liars deserve no mercy!
September 22, 2008 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
What next? Steve Schmidt worked at the New York Times?
September 22, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
And was a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood.
September 22, 2008 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but he didn't inhale.
September 22, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm confused. Which was the sin, advocating for increased minority ownership or actually working to make it happen?
September 22, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Neither. The sin was the intimation by McCainiacs that the only black candidate in this race had promoted black homeownership to the detriment of the national economy in general, and whites in particular. But of course you knew that already.
September 22, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn you're smart!
September 22, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice to see your avatars growing progressively more racist...
September 22, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, my fan base!
September 22, 2008 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only fan around here involving you is the one you keep trying to shot-put turds into.
September 22, 2008 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sin is the hypocristy of blaming the collapse on increased lending to "risky minorities" pushed on the industry by "liberal guilt".
That's the meme the right-wing is trying to push. I know it's difficult for you, but you should try and keep up, fogu.
September 22, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone have actual figures? How many minority homes foreclosed vs. how many white?
I would suspect, like the image from the Reagan era of all welfare recipients being black, that we'd see a deferent picture if we looked at the real numbers.
September 22, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not in this case. Matter of fact, minorities and blacks were specifically preyed on in this subprime mortgage market. They have been foreclosed on disproportionate to the majority white population.
The reason they shifted to subprime was because they ran out of other folks to capitalize on the securitize mortgages.
This was nothing but a scam for wall street to prey on the little person while they made gobs of money off selling the mortages. The higher the risk the greater the pay out.
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Here's what really happened, and it all starts with the banking system. The banks built up a huge derivatives bubble in the 1990s, a pyramid scheme which constantly needed more money fed into its maw to keep it going. One of the prime sources of fuel was mortgages, which were used to spawn mortgage-backed securities and even wilder forms of casino chips like CDOs. The more mortgage money came in, the larger the profits that could be made from speculating in the securities, yielding more money for new mortgages. It was this securities machine which drove housing prices--and the mortgages on those houses--into the stratosphere. However, the machine worked so well that it drove housing prices beyond the reach of many Americans, so, in order to keep the mortgages flowing in, the banks began to relax loan standards, and in the end were selling homes to people who could not afford them, just to keep the game going. It finally got to the point that prices were so high, that even with the lax lending standards they couldn't keep the game going, and the whole house of cards collapsed. The subprime loans collapsed first because they were the shakiest, made at the top of market, so the banks painted the subprime lenders and borrowers as the villains, as a way of covering up their own role. It was a classic "blame the little guy'' scam.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/21/gop_you_broke_it_you_bought_it/#comment-3119932
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* The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). A vile racist narrative is circulating, to the effect that bad loans to black folks superintended by the African-American Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae are at the root of the crisis. Passed in the late 1970s, if CRA caused the meltdown, it has to be one of the slower-acting financial reforms in history. More important, The anti-CRA argument bespeaks financial illiteracy on its face.
If all we had to fear were bad mortgage loans, this would be a much easier crisis to bear. The far greater problem is all the pyramiding financial paper on top of mortgages, entangling a multitude of parties and transactions across the globe, that threatens to put the system under. You can't pin that on some brother in Baltimore who over-leveraged. In this sense the financial crisis parallels the bankruptcy bill debate. All of these transactions took two to tango. Whatever pressure there was on mortgage lenders founded on regulation, you can't ascribe the subsequent leveraging at Lehman Brothers, F&F, AIR, etc. on mortgage borrowers and be a decent person. The $100 trillion pyramid goes back to financial deregulation, not mortgages or F&F. Moreover, boostership for home ownership has always been a bipartisan affair.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/21/gop_you_broke_it_you_bought_it/
September 22, 2008 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is helpful, but can someone post some information that more directly responds to the right wing argument?
Basically, the wingnuts are trying to set a trap for Obama and the democrats. They are making a charge that somehow organizations like ACORN (which conveniently stands for "Association of COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS for Reform Now), in league with Democrats, agitated for freer access to mortgage credit for racial minorities. And that freer credit and the defaults that resulted from them is the CORE DRIVER of the current crisis.
I don't have the data, but this seems like an extremely implausable theory. It's not like defaults are isolated to places like South Central LA. For all I know the default rate for racial minorities MAY be higher, but even if it is would it be sufficiently high to have been the root cause of the mortgage crisis (i.e. but for those loans there would be no crisis)? I seriously doubt it and would like to have some data to refute the argument.
The trap for Obama being set by these cynical scumbags is:
1) A bunch of "Community Organizers" are to blame for this meltdown
2) They caused the meltdown by causing loans to be made to "undeserving minorities"
3) To refute this, Obama and/or his surrogates would have to come to the defense of "community organizers" and [uppity], undeserving minorities, which would reinforce cynical Republican "criticisms" of Obama.
What's Obama and his team going to do about this?
September 22, 2008 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just keep doing what they're doing. Tie the crisis to policies and philosophy of the Republicans and John McCain. I don't think that people are having a hard time believing that message. Because it has the benefit of being true.
September 22, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not sure that message is sinking in as easily as it should. If it was, Obama would be up by 15 points at least.
September 22, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know you, and this probably will seem harsh, but stop, please with the "He should be up by 15 points" theme.
He's an African American. We can debate until the cows come home whether there's racism in America, but the bottom line is, there is, and it's going to influence some people not to vote, or, to vote for a Republican.
His name is Obama, for crying out loud. A Democrat candidate who was a Brad Pitt ringer with that name would have problems.
His middle name is Hussein.
John McCain is THE BRAVE POW MAVERICK. Just because political junkies happen to know what a crock o'crap that is means nothing. Even in today's Times there was some nauseating repetition of the maverick theme by John Harwood.
Obama running against the BRAVE POW MAVERICK is going to be a close race.
End of rant.
September 22, 2008 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
As an African-American, I'd like to thank you for pointing out the patently obvious about the implications of Obama being an African-American presidential candidate.
My message was in response to Mason's assertion that all team-Obama needs to do is "Just keep doing what they're doing. Tie the crisis to policies and philosophy of the Republicans and John McCain. I don't think that people are having a hard time believing that message."
My point was that if that was all Obama needed to do, he'd be up by 15. You helpfully point out the (obvious) reason he's not. Much appreciated.
September 22, 2008 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
You must remember that this all started with the bursting of the Housing Bubble, which extended far beyond properties sold to low-income buyers. Housing was absurdly over-valued just about everywhere, and today's fiasco was caused by greedy Wall Street elites backing securities with these over-valued mortgages.
The points to make in the face of Bush-tards like Cavuto and Limbaugh are:
1. Imagine the mess we'd be in if Americans hadn't stopped Bush's SS Privatization scam.
2. No Amnesty for Wall Street fat cats: make individuals contribute to the bailout the same amount they earned in bonuses over the last 3 years.
September 22, 2008 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, I can't remember which blog I read this factoid on, but the person pointed out that, quite simply, it would only take 10 percent of the 700 billion requested to payoff the bad mortgages in America. (I think that was the figure? Again, forgive me for not remembering where I read this. There must be someway to verify this?)
Anyway... Man, this point cuts through all the financial bullshit, better than any explanation.
OBAMA: "If the 'minority mortgages' are only responsible for 10 percent of this bailout, does that mean 'white greed' is responsible for the other 90 percent?"
September 23, 2008 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a moment... this matter is just the Dems doing?
Jan 20, 2004 - President Bush tonight expected to ask Congress for authority to eliminate the down payment requirement for Federal Housing Administration loans. This is going to be part of the State of the Union message tonight.
September 22, 2008 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
How can McCain run against himself?
Vote for me - and I'll make sure that none of the stupid ideas I have been insisting the Nation adopt - will be adopted. I am hiring Phil Graham - the architect of the meltdown - to ensure another meltdown does not happen.
I have the experience that the country needs because I'm so familiar with the policies that don't work - you can't afford for Obama to learn on the job.
So vote for McCain - or you could end up with McCain.
September 22, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. I said earlier today that all I get from the McLame Camp anymore is self-contradiction and chaos. I have no idea what McLame stands for anymore. Today he's decided to run as a Democrat apparently, since now he's pro-regulation and anti-golden parachutes.
He has thoroughly confused me and I'm positive he doesn't know what day it is anymore.
September 22, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was more about securties ...securities that were mortgage-backed. The problem was that the mortgages were high risk, thus the security backing was little to none...but it was placed on the market and sold for far greater value than the mortgage being used to back it. In essence, folks were buying pigs in a poke. The investors were cleaning up because as long as the pigs were selling no one looked to actually see if they had an entire pig. Once the system started to collapse folks realized they were lucky if they had pig feet and not just pig tails!!
Most of the lucky folks only had chitlins'!!!
September 22, 2008 9:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's about all they have left at this moment. Kind of sad (if it wasn't so scary to think about what would happen if they won.)
September 22, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Vote for Original Maverick McCain, because True Conservative McCain is not ready to lead.
September 22, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's not just running against himself, he's running against common sense.
September 22, 2008 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes it seems silly to talk about "the issues" 'cuz McSame's position on so many issues is unknown.
Oh, we can hear what he's saying now, but he's been flip-flop-flipping so much that it'd be nuts to think where he stands on any issue is where he says he stands just because he says so.
I'm John McSame, and I approve this message because I just don't give a flying fuck.
September 22, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
And seriously, they think this is a GOOD line of attack? A true populist line of attack? That "disadvantaged" and "minorities" are to blame for our financial problems?
If there weren't so many of those awful poor people and blacks buying houses they couldn't afford, we would all be doing *great* now!
September 22, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
You guys need to link to Think Progress where McCain *himself* just *yesterday* said about Davis:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/22/mccain-wants-davis-vetted
"Iโll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it."
Totally boxes him in.
September 22, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
That'd be true only if he cared about facts.
September 22, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The real issue is that Bush, HUD and AEI pushed (if not forced) Fannie and Freddie to buy these subprime loans. The "minority" tag was merely a euphomism to force F&F to take them off the hands of other banks, allowing these to continue the risky practices.
September 22, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem wasn't just subprime loans - it was the variable rate mortgages everyone was pushing - the ones guaranteed to go belly up the minute inflation kicked in and drove rates up.
September 22, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was more about securties ...securities that were mortgage-backed. The problem was that the mortgages were high risk, thus the security backing was little to none...but it was placed on the market and sold for far greater value than the mortgage being used to back it. In essence, folks were buying pigs in a poke. The investors were cleaning up because as long as the pigs were selling no one looked to actually see if they had an entire pig. Once the system started to collapse folks realized they were lucky if they had pig feet and not just pig tails!!
Most of the really wealthy folks only had chitlins!!
September 22, 2008 9:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don't own sub-prime paper.
September 22, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn, another poll just came out showing Obama with a lead in Virginia. I am not one to get overly confident based on polls, but things are really looking good for Obama right now.
Oh yeah, Rick Davis is a fool. McCain should dump him.
September 22, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is the collection of polls that one can start to get an image of what going on. And Virginia is looking mighty good.
September 22, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iowa + NM + NV + CO + VA + NC. All of them are looking pretty good atm, hell even FL is looking pretty good.
September 22, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Haven't seen a poll on FL since he spent two days there, and he's spending his pre-debate time there. Their internal must be telling them FL is a definite possibility.
September 22, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jzap:
He didn't inhale but he did attend Rev. Wright's church and was in attendance during all the controversial sermons ... while he was advocating raising taxes.
September 22, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and Bill Ayers was with him at the time. He and Steve are drinking buddies.
September 22, 2008 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just shows to go.
Crash McCains mantra...Ready fire aim.
September 22, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another new poll out. the new ABC/WP poll on Virgina has BO 50 JM44. This confirms the other poll that came out today that gave BO a lead there.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/22/172245/941/353/606790
September 22, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, just counting down the days until the debate, iam not worried about Obama iam just worried about the spin the media is going to do. I hope that they aren't going to act like McCain won if he at least doesn't fall asleep and starts drooling everywhere.
September 22, 2008 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is whatever the media says he is. A Potemkin candidate.
September 22, 2008 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
yeah yeah yeah empty suit, etc. Wow you're the first to make this empty argument.
September 22, 2008 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I was the first! But, I'm not sure he's even an empty suit. The media dresses him however they want. And that might include stilleto heels and a pushup bra by the end of this campaign.
September 22, 2008 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Minority ownership and GOP? excuse me while i laugh...lol
September 22, 2008 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. I was a govt. conspiracy to bait them, foreclose and steal their life savings. Pretty clever, huh.
September 22, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point.
LOL!
September 22, 2008 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP has been using foreclosure lists as a way to purge voter rolls...
It all starts to make sense.
September 22, 2008 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
New batch of Rassmussen Polls out
Fla JM +5
PA BO+3
VA JM +2
FLA JM +5
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/fox_rasmussen_polling/fox_rasmussen_swing_state_polling_september_21_2008
September 22, 2008 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
These are facts. Wingnuts don't need facts, listen to facts or care if facts are shouted from the rooftops, nothing fact related will deter them. Their minds are made up!
September 22, 2008 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now are they bitter because they are risky or risky because they are bitter? Who cares.
According to the thugliest of the thuglican elite, they are ingrates and should be exorcised from the body politic.
September 22, 2008 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rush Limbaugh pushed this "black conspiracy' line very, very hard on Friday, repeating the names of Obama and Raines over and over again as being the culprits. Never mind that Obama does not know Raines, and didn't become a Senator until 2005. Launching the racist attacks was the entire reason for McCain's Raines attack ad. Now that we know Davis' history, this is now revealed as a classic Rovian attack; attack your opponent FIRST on the issue on which you are the weakest. GWB was drunk and AWOL in the National Guard? Accuse John Kerry of being a coward in combat in his very real and heroic Vietnam service.
September 22, 2008 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not sure if this story is going to do what TPM (or the Obama camp) intends, since I'm now thinking Davis isn't such a bad guy after all since he worked for minority home ownership. Think we should be concentrating on the Gramm/McCain relationship since he was one of the major proponents of deregulation. The companies who capitalized on it were simply doing what everyone else was doing, kind of like the people who are losing their houses now b/c they overextended themselves in bad mortgages. Maybe they had bad judgment in taking out a loan, but it's in poor taste to second-guess someone on the brink of being homeless....
September 22, 2008 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
the point is not what they advocated (laudable or not) but the fact they are lying through their teeth.
September 22, 2008 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Meester Davis got some 'splainin to do . . .
September 22, 2008 10:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cavuto is a fool today he had someone calling the UK Germany and France anti American and allies from the 40s and one enemy while the leaders palin is meeting are leaders of the future who are helping in the war on terror
well he seems to forget that over 100 troops from the UK have been killed in both wars then cavuto tried to make excuses for him when his next guest pulled him up on it saying he did not mean it that way what a tool
September 23, 2008 12:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is a must read... bush's 2002 address to HUD.
http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfm
The goal is, everybody who wants to own a home has got a shot at doing so. The problem is we have what we call a homeownership gap in America. Three-quarters of Anglos own their homes, and yet less than 50 percent of African Americans and Hispanics own homes
We've got people who have newly arrived to our country, don't know the customs. We've got people in certain neighborhoods that just aren't really sure what it means to buy a home
And so I've asked Congress to fully fund an American Dream down payment fund which will help a low-income family to qualify to buy, to buy.
So this is an ambitious start here at the federal level. And, again, I repeat, you all need to help us every way you can. But the private sector needs to help, too. They need to help, too. Of course, it's in their interest.
September 23, 2008 6:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I received an e-mail from my father-in-law with the subject: "This started a long time ago just now coming to a head" and puts the entire blame on Clinton and, of course, minorities.
(the latest in a long line of "Blame Clinton" e-mails ... you know ... like when you walk on the beach and get sand in your shoes ... that never happened until Clinton came along)
So I'm glad to finally see this response in the NYT.
CB
September 23, 2008 8:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Since when is "increasing minority home ownership" a reason to bash Davis? If you really want to discuss the current mortgage crisis, let's put one of the real root causes on the table: red-lining. Put the blame where it really belongs.
September 23, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
And the gays, don't forget about them. Wanting to get married and buy homes. Gay marriage is the cause of the current fiancial crisis!
I know. The preceding sounds absurd and no right wing squarehead has said it. But give them time.
September 23, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
STOP THE LIES ABOUT MINORITY HOME OWNERSHIP!
I don't know about the rest of the country, but where I live, the biggest profiteers of the Community Reinvestment Act were major housing developers who received MASSIVE SUBSIDIES for building projects in low income neighborhoods.
Of those that were designed for ownership, most of these projects have had a very low default rate due to support from private non profits, faith based organizations and very rigorous qualifying standards.
When it comes to the current crisis, from a mortgage standpoint, a lot of the defaults are coming not from traditionally "affordable housing" which is price controlled, but from private speculators and major developers who built thousands of homes and condo projects in SUBURBAN, MAREKT RATE communities throughout this country and offered easy qualifying to people of ALL RACES.
This speculation was fueled by the creation of risky financial instruments that made it possible for Wall Street to package all of these loans, divide them up and securitize them to spread (HIDE) the risk to investors.
Adding fuel to the fire was the the gov't which kept heating up the economy by lowering rates, lowering reserve requirements, deregulating the markets and failing on oversight.
So, before we get on or high horse and point the finger at urban minorities, take a drive around town and ask yourself if your city council ever wondered if the prices they were charging for all of the increased home development in your communities would be sustainable in the long run. They didn't. Why not? Because suburban communities, too, rode the gravy train of increased property tax revenue and developer's kickbacks.
Finally, I believe that some of the biggest defaults in the pool now are not from individuals at all-minority or otherwise. They are from these large condo and home builders that gambled on suburban sprawl in states like Nevada, Florida and Texas, etc. building massive developments, many of which are now failing. These multi-million dollar construction/development loans are the dirty secret no one talks about in the mortgage crisis.
Of course it is so much easier to scapegoat minorities or individual homebuyers. Wake up, Americans, once again, this issue is not about black, brown, or white, its about GREEN. Stop the blame game of your fellow citizens and this time, don't just follow the money, "FOLLOW THE BIG MONEY".
September 23, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink