Bear Stearns, sounds like Eron
to me, only this time we all pay the bill, took
their lessons from the Savings and loan scandal of
Reagan's era, only that was petty cash compared to
this.
You may have heard of
this Guy,
Gov.
Eliot Spitzer resigns in disgrace over sex
scandal;could face federal
charges The Beaver County Times
- Mar 25 1:25 AMNEW YORK (AP) — In a
startlingly swift fall from grace, Gov.
Eliot Spitzer resigned Wednesday after
getting caught in a call-girl scandal that
made a mockery...more Paybacks a Muther in the Bush
regime, and all these guys got shit to hide,
but no more secrets with the patriot act
But have you heard
of this Guy,3 weeks
earlier, Washington Post Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From
Stepping In to Help Consumers
By Eliot Spitzer
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Several years ago, state attorneys general and
others involved in consumer protection began to
notice a marked increase in a range of predatory
lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were
misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans
without regard to consumers' ability to repay,
making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that
later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with
undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal
kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed,
were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In
addition, the widespread nature of these practices,
if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.
Even though predatory lending was becoming a
national problem, the Bush administration looked the
other way and did nothing to protect American
homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to
align itself with the banks that were victimizing
consumers.
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.
Let me explain: The administration accomplished this
feat through an obscure federal agency called the
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The
OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its
mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of
national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the
books of national banks to make sure they were
balanced, an important but uncontroversial function.
But a few years ago, for the first time in its
history, the OCC was used as a tool against
consumers.
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending
crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863
National Bank Act to issue formal opinions
preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby
rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated
new rules that prevented states from enforcing any
of their own consumer protection laws against
national banks. The federal government's actions
were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50
state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking
superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did
not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in
its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my
office opened an investigation of possible
discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of
banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the
investigation.
Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks,
the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that
efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access
to credit to the very consumers the states were
trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on
predatory and unfair lending would have in no way
jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market
for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would
have stopped the scourge of predatory lending
practices that have resulted in countless thousands
of consumers losing their homes and put our economy
in a precarious position.
When history tells the story of the subprime lending
crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the
lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush
administration will not be judged favorably. The
tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles,
it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the
lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for
profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power
of the federal government in an unprecedented
assault on state legislatures, as well as on state
attorneys general and anyone else on the side of
consumers.
