Leave a Comment

Hullabaloo — Back to Africa by digby Perlstein deconstructs the racist subtext of the right wing trope about the cause of the mortgage meltdown: ...let me write about the sewer through which are right-wing friends are navigating to try to win this election. Specifically, this: the right-wing crusade to blame the Negroes for the financial meltdown continues apace. And by now, it's getting into Protocols of the Elders of Zion territory. Watch this clip of Fox's Neil Cavuto. See him sandbag Hispanic congressman Xavier Becerra, pinning ...

Conservative Clarion Call: Lending To Minorities Is A “Disaster”
Firedoglake — ... In an interview on his show on Sept. 18 with Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Cavuto blamed excessive lending to "minorities" for the financial meltdown on Wall Street. (Rick Perlstein at OurFuture.org has the video, plus a scathing critique.) He asked if Becerra and other members of Congress weren't complicit and "irresponsible" for "pushing for more minority lending and more expanded lending to folks who heretofore couldn't get mortgages." Referring to mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now placed in receivership by the feds, Cavuto ...

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Did Not Cause The Mortgage Crisis
Oliver Willis — The Republican party is just trying out the latest version of the Southern Strategy. First of all, even if Fannie and Freddie were the most awful companies in the history of the planet, its books chock-a-block with non-performing loans, none of the financial contagion—none of it—would have happened had not greedy financial institutions invented the risky securities that used mortgages as their foundation, via procedures that created economic incentives to write non-performing loans. We explained that a long time ago, here. Second of all, as we explained yesterday, loans that fulfilled the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act, performed ...

We Ask Again-- Bail Or Bailout For Wall Street
DownWithTyranny! — When I heard some CNBC spokesperson of the Forces of Greed and Selfishness talking about how the Democrats' efforts to change the Paulson bailout/give away proposal-- now dubbed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008-- have been "scaled back," I knew the bill would be even worse than I feared and that it would do little to help keep homeowners from being foreclosed on. And it won't be just holders of bad mortgages who get screwed by this. The Bush Regime seems to have come close to ensuring that President Obama will be forced to explain why he can't live up to his promises regarding health care, education, benefits for veterans, disaster relief, ...

Them Damn Minorities!
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES — That's the new Conservative meme about the secret real reason for the financial markets crisis. Yup. It's the Community Reinvestment Act that caused it, forcing banks to lend to minorities: Several conservatives in the media have recently blamed the Community Reinvestment Act for the current financial crisis -- when, in fact, the CRA does not apply to institutions making the vast majority of troubled loans underlying the crisis. It applies only to depository institutions, such as banks and savings and loan associations. Experts have estimated that 80 percent of high-priced subprime loans were offered by financial institutions ...

McCain's Hopes Fade, McNasty To Come?
Open Left - Front Page — TPM reports CNN announces that the first debate had "no effect" according to its "poll of polls," but reality says, "my ass!"  In fact, if the election were held today, according to the Princeton Election Meta-Analysis, there's almost no chance McCain could win: Of course, the election isn't be held today, but early voting is about to begin, and The Politico reports that the GOP is freaking out, with suggestions that McCain get a lot nartier than he has been.  And why not?  His good guy image is gone for good and we all know he likes to take risks... CNN: ...

Now the financial crisis is our fault, too?
BlueOregon — ... Hey! Did you know it's the the minorities who've gotten our country into the financial situation in which it's currently drowning? According to Ann Coulter, Neil Cavuto, and other ...