Softball article on BOA and ACORN in WSJ

Isn't that just so sweet. James R. Hagerty wrote, Bank of America, "a corporate partner of ACORN" is going to end its relationship. I'm not diminishing the seriousness of the video'd prostitution sting at the ACORN offices, but really, these ACORN guys at the top of the chain were high class hookers long ago selling mortgages to people who can't pay for them. Clinton knew it; Bush knew it; Obama says he's clueless and clean. Sex just got the public's attention. Go to American Spectator to see how this works using Greenlining as an example. Greenlining is another nonprofit partner which you can see on this long list.

The requirements for an ACORN-assisted mortgage is still on their web page--it looks pretty loosey goosey to me. And we wonder why CRA contributed to the housing crash?

• 2003 and 2004 year tax returns and W2s [what's wrong with 2007 and 2008?]
  
• One month of current paystubs
  
• 3 most recent bank account statements
  
• $20 in check or money order for a credit report
  
• Rental history for the last 12 months: cancelled checks, receipts, landlord letter, etc.

Banks were being forced to lend to non-credit worthy applicants, to set aside all the known principles of sound financing to reduce the possibility of default. Take a look at what minorities were borrowing, as compared to whites, and guess who was pushing them there--certainly not the banks! Immigrant homeowners were actually failing less than native born minorities--probably had traditional resources backing them.

From Winter 2000 City Journal:

"The Clinton administration's get-tough regulatory regime mattered so crucially because bank deregulation had set off a wave of mega-mergers, including the acquisition of the Bank of America by NationsBank, BankBoston by Fleet Financial, and Bankers Trust by Deutsche Bank. Regulatory approval of such mergers depended, in part, on positive CRA ratings. "To avoid the possibility of a denied or delayed application," advises the NCRC in its deadpan tone, "lending institutions have an incentive to make formal agreements with community organizations." By intervening—even just threatening to intervene—in the CRA review process, left-wing nonprofit groups have been able to gain control over eye-popping pools of bank capital, which they in turn parcel out to individual low-income mortgage seekers. A radical group called ACORN Housing has a $760 million commitment from the Bank of New York; the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America has a $3-billion agreement with the Bank of America; a coalition of groups headed by New Jersey Citizen Action has a five-year, $13-billion agreement with First Union Corporation. Similar deals operate in almost every major U.S. city. Observes Tom Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, which has $220 million in bank mortgage money to parcel out, "CRA is the backbone of everything we do."

Now ACORN is back in the swim, getting federal dollars to run foreclosure workshops. Sweet deal. You get the homeowner in the mess, charge a fee and get a kick back from the bank; then get government funds to run workshops, collect fees, to get them out of the mess you made for them.

NeighborhoodWorks America is just another branch of ACORN, as are others on this list. ACORN has so many tentacles interwoven with state, local, federal and church agencies, we may never get it figured out.