Remembering how we got here

Was it just two years ago we woke up to the damage the sub-prime loans and putting people into mortgage products they couldn't possibly pay was going to do to all of us? Usually, I don't search out Wikipedia for answers, but this little paragraph really sums it up nicely. The numbers refer to its footnotes.

The Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA, Pub.L. 95-128, title VIII, 91 Stat. 1147, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq.) is a United States federal law designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.[1][2][3]

Congress passed the Act in 1977 to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining.[4][5] The Act requires the appropriate federal financial supervisory agencies to encourage regulated financial institutions to meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered, consistent with safe and sound operation. (See full text of Act and current regulations.[1] To enforce the statute, federal regulatory agencies examine banking institutions for CRA compliance, and take this information into consideration when approving applications for new bank branches or for mergers or acquisitions.[6]

Reading through it, you see all the intentions were good--by community activists, the FHA, Fannie and Fred, oh, and lookee here

Community groups only slowly organized to take advantage of their right under the Act to complain about law enforcement of the regulations."

So soon banks and lending institutions were being threatened and pushed into unwise credit risks by these "community groups," [who were taking their cut from the applicants.] Hmmm. Now those same groups are threatening Americans who are exposing them--like the film maker in the Baltimore ACORN and Glenn Beck and Fox News. [I don't know if they've intimidated NYT and CNN and broadcast news, but they are certainly quiet.] Time to wake up, folks, You've been scammed big time--the intentions of the Democrats 30 years ago were good (I was one so I know). And the Republicans and business CEOs fell in line and were afraid of being called racists if they resisted. Who could not support a welfare mother or a Latina housekeeper with suspect documentation getting her own home?

Interesting that I got to this article through another article on "Centrally Planned Economies" which used the CRA to show how it's done in America.