Sen. Barack Obama on the Community Reinvestment Act

[sailinship]

I want to amend something I wrote earlier. The CRA was not passed by Lyndon Johnson, and I'm surprised that mainestategop did not counter that, or rather I'm not surprised. It was a further effort to continue the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which Lyndon did begin with Civil Rights Act of 1968.

However, if you look at the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the following C.R.A. it's hard to not wonder if the people who oppose these acts are doing so because they are racist.

[sailinship]

The law, however, emphasizes that an institution's CRA activities should be undertaken in a safe and sound manner, and does not require institutions to make high-risk loans that may bring losses to the institution.[3][4] An institution's CRA compliance record is taken into account by the banking regulatory agencies when the institution seeks to expand through merger, acquisition or branching. The law does not mandate any other penalties for non-compliance with the CRA.

[sailinship]

mainestategop

Would you please stop accusing me of not working hard you asshole! I have worked hard my whole life since I got my first paper route at the age of 12 and have never taken a cent from the fed. Now what? Now how do you attack me when you can't say that I'm living off of your payroll?

I PAY MY TAXES AND AM HAPPY TO SUPPORT MY COUNTRY IN THAT WAY. Can you say the same? Can you?

[mainestategop]

And are you happy to know that most of your taxes go to lazy bureucrats that limit civil liberties? That don't do their job? How about your taxes going to section 8 and food stamps for crack addicts and criminals who don't want to work? Im not. Thats why I am no longer a Democrat.

[sailinship]

What I'm learning more and more to be true about you right wing nut jobs is that you think you work sooooo hard and really, you don't. You feel entitled to an easy life because your an American, and so you bitch about everyone else being lazy. The first thing that always happens when I confront your type is that I get accused of not working, being on welfare and being a socialist. If socialism means lining all of you up against a wall, I'm all for it. Then the rest of us can get back to work.

[mainestategop]

Salinship thank you for proving how retarded and foolish you and your liberal commrades are.

We are entitled to an easy life because unlike you we work hard, study and invest. You and all then rest of your kind on the other hand want to sit on your asses and live off our sweat and tears so we have to work harder.and make sacrifices for you against our wiill.

[mainestategop]

This economy is no one's fault but those like you. Taking from those who work so you don't have to, restricting personal liberties because BIG government knows whats best. (Yeah right) Dumbing down the children in favor of indoctrination, and then when the shiit hits the fan from your policies you blame republiicans. If it weren't for the GOP, you would have to invent it and you have not shown one ounce of intellectual knowledge in your arguements. Showing again your idiocy.

[TrollBuster9090]

@sailinship

Yep, it's called projection and transference.

[sailinship]

badfickle

Thank you sir. All you others, notice he doesn't endorse a political party, he just states the facts about the CRA.

[sailinship]

Idiot, stop mentinoning the CRA just because someone else does. Do some research. Of course if you did you'd find out that you are wrong and therefor have to rethink some of your ideas and so maybe you'd rather be a bird with his head in the sand, or some other dark, hot, smelly place.

[mainestategop]

The CRA, forced banks to give loans to useless welfare drug addicts who couldn't pay it off. Add to this, taxing and regulating small business and employers into oblivion.

Whens the last time you ever got hired by a poor person? I didn't. Now everyone is poor thanks to your new socialist messiah.

[badfickle]

Only 6% of the subprime market went to low income borrowers from banks regulated by the CRA.  Out of the top 25 subprime lenders only 1 was regulated by the CRA. There's plenty of blame to go around but blaming the CRA is nonsense.

[Scoforever]

Audit the Fed. Then end it.

[lotsahooey]

CRA! It shouldn't be surprising that most who blame CRA are just parroting talk-shows. This is easily seen when you ask questions like; "What is 'Redlining'? How many times has it been amended? and Which administration was 'on-watch' the last time it was ammended? If you don't know, then maybe you should research before you open your mouth and blame the CRA for this mess!

[marceads]

Socialist, Marxist, Communist.

[whythebailout]

And just to be funny.

You've got to hand it to those minorities, they really managed to pull the wool over the bankers eyes. Working those shitty construction, hotel and restaurant jobs when all along they had the power to destroy the entire financial system. Clever little bastards.

[whythebailout]

If you want to understand the crisis and not just argue about it being the fault of political ideology look at youtube user informedtrades. If we understand that this is not an emotional, ideological, religious, sexual issue, then we can come to terms under a strictly capitalistic ideology. Don't get me wrong, I do not believe that the capitalistic society is perfect, and I do believe in certain moral values. What I don't believe in is using politics and money to force them on others.

[whythebailout]

Twiggy

First of all it is Laissez-faire and it means is a French phrase literally meaning Let do (allow to do). From the French dictum employed by the eighteenth century physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade.

And if that is your stand point then why is the government regulation a concern? The reason is that our gov is sponsored by corporations who pay for their greedy manipulations. This is not Political it is financial. Study that not Repub vs. Dem.

[Skoole13]

It is political when you have socialist like obama fighting through acorn to force banks to make loans that would not be paid back, Oh and handing hundreds of billions of dollars to the richest bankers in the country. Oh well thats working out wonderfully.

[Twiggy269]

"How can you say that the new deal was bad?"

It's easy, it was BAD. Socialist Govt. creating distortions in the free market.

"That's what pulled us out of the depression."

How did the New Deal do that?

"And as far as party loyalty, nope, sorry, I don't trust the dems either,"

There is hope for you!

"Bush has been a horrible president"

More hope for you!

"I didn't vote for him."

Who did you vote for?

[whythebailout]

Twiggy269

I still need you to explain how the New Deal was bad. Perhaps I'm misinformed but we are talking about a man who lead this country for 4 terms and saved our country from the worst economic crisis it has ever seen. You can P.M. if you want.

I didn't vote for Bush. I voted for the other guys, although, truthfully I wanted to vote Nader.

[countertenorrscm]

The new deal actually made the depression last longer. Spending money we didn't have. Getting us off the gold standard which allowed inflation to get out of hand.

[Skoole13]

It prolonged the depression because it didn't allow the market to hit its bottom sooner like it is supposed to. We didn't need the new deal the market would have come back from the crash a lot sooner if the new deal was never implemented.

[sailinship]

Skoole13

Man, you are so uneducated about the depression. Admit, at least to yourself, you've never read a book about nor studied the depression have you. Shut the F up and stop wasting perfectly good band width.

[whythebailout]

I will check out the video you suggest, but once again, I need answers to some questions.

#1 How many sub-prime loans were made because the banks were forced under the CRA guidelines?

#2 How many of these sub prime loans were made in areas where the CRA was even a factor?

#3 Are the sub-prime loans the problem or is was the problem that they were sold as securities?

#4 How many of these loans were taken out by speculators? As opposed to single home owners?

#5 What exactly does the CRA say?

[Twiggy269]

"How many sub-prime loans were made because the banks were forced under the CRA guidelines?"

All the loans that were made under the CRA guidelines. (#2 answered under #1)

#3 deleted. Irrelevant.

#4 Deleted. Irrelevant.

"What exactly does the CRA say?"

Give loans to people who would not get loans in a lassie faire system.

A seperation of govt. and economics ='s freedom. Freedom ='s prosperity for rational people. Do you have a problem with that?

[whythebailout]

Dude #2 is relevant. The Community Reinvestment Act applies to depository banks. But many of the institutions that spurred the massive growth of the subprime market weren't regulated banks. They were outfits such as Argent and American Home Mortgage, which were generally not regulated by the Federal Reserve or other entities that monitored compliance with CRA.

#3. if you think that selling these loans in packages was irrelevant you should look at youtube user informedtrades.

[badfickle]

Those are good questions. the answer to number 2 is 6%. The answer to number 1 is something much smaller than that because all the banks wanted in on the subprime market and CRA regulations actually reduced the number of subprime loans regulated banks could make because they had stricter requirements than the private unregulated lenders.

[whythebailout]

How can you say that the new deal was bad? That's what pulled us out of the depression. Unless of course your talking about all of that conspiracy theory stuff.

And as far as party loyalty, nope, sorry, I don't trust the dems either, but I, like so many others, will admit when they do wrong, while many others close their eyes to the things someone they voted in does. Bush has been a horrible president and I'm not seeing enough of you taking responsibility for that. I didn't vote for him, you did

[Twiggy269]

by the way, whythebail... after your buddy Obama gets in, he'll have his fillabuster congress, and the majority in the senate. Know what happened the last times we had that? It's only happened twice before when 1 party ran all 3 branches, first it was in the mid 30's and we got the "New Deal" ....then in the 60's with the "Great Society" oh, btw, every time, its been all DEMS.......you better be scared. You'll have no Repubes to blame when this unfolds. Then what will you do?

[whythebailout]

He couldn't even finish the war. How do you scream that one away? Wasn't that what you all said back in 2004, vote for Bush to finish what he started. Guess what?

Where are the WMD's?

Where is Osama?

Where are our troops right now?

How many have to die?

Where is our economy?

Infraguard?

Homeland Security (what a joke)?

Civil liberties destroyed?

Personally I think you should all go on more hunting trips with Dick Cheyney and get him good and drunk.

[whythebailout]

You Right wing nut bags are so crazy it's unbelievable. I can't wait until your gone. Your ideas amount to everyone be a shark and take what you can are pathetic. Your selfish, cruel, and never admit when your wrong. Stubbornness and a fear of change are at the heart of your politics. You love mentioning how your money is being stolen by the Fed as taxes but forget to mention how your president just put us in debt for close to a trillion dollars in a war that he couldn't even finish.

[whythebailout]

#4 Blame every problem on "socialists" and cry about how our hard earned money is being stolen. Note: Make sure to ignore the socialism within our own party such as McCain condoning in the third debate the ownership of private homes by the state. Also, and this is a big one, just look dumb and defiant whenever corporate welfare or the size of the military budget compared to the rest of the entire budget are mentioned.

#5 Always accuse others of our faults , ie. Racism.

[whythebailout]

Basic conservative rules

#1 Never admit fault

#2 If a Democrat is in office everything he does is bad and the only reason the economy is good is because of a Republican that was in office at some time previous (as much as 12 years is not unacceptable.)

#3 If a Republican is in office everything he does is right, taking away civic rights, beginning a war based on lies, condoning torture and murder. AND IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG IN HIS TERM blame it on previous Dem prez,20 years previous is fine.

[fastdawg]

I was watching Fox news earlier this month, and the guy on there said that ACORN would registers some people anywhere from 6 to 16 times to vote. This black bitch was like "I registered 6 times in 2004" and when they kept asking her why so many times she said that "when I get off the bus downtown, ACORN is there harassing you to register." And I swear, not a minute later, the news guy said they just got a report that ACORN hands out Crack Cocaine to all that register. Coincidence? black bitch

[kfumike]

Unfortuantely, Obama is going to get in. Do you think any of this matters to a Democrat? Hell no. I'm not saying has has, but Obama could be caught on tape taking bribes from ACORN and it still wouldn't matter. They've found their savior, the blinders are on, they see nothing beyond a good looking black man who can talk the socialist talk and will "change" the world --NOTHING else matters.

[NoteWorthy9]

whoa, he actually said this! amazing. how short our memory is.

[db587]

Holy CRAP! It is all becoming clear now. And we all get to live THROUGH it. Oh, goodie! The fucking libs are ruining the country.

[mike1111qq]

a storm is brewing for obama and the dems... his finger prints are all over ACORN and the bad loans thay made banks issue to the non payers... people are starting to figure out what communist ideas can really do to a capitalist economy....

[Twiggy269]

hah dont cross your fingers. Maybe if the democratic nominee was white, or not the "Messiah" the dems would have a problem. But trust me Mike1111....no one will look at ANYTHING that could be seen as damaging to Obama. If you dont like Obama, YOU'RE A RACIST! Obama being a socialist, and one of the most dirty politicians ever seen, is inconsequential. He is safe from all attacks, because no one wants to be seen as racist. Plus....ITS ALL GEORGE BUSHES FAULT! lol....

[whythebailout]

I have yet to see anyone prove that the CRA was THE reason for the housing bubble. I would like to see evidence of what percentage of sub-prime loans were created as a direct result of the CRA. And of that percentage how many were foreclosures and how many of those were owned by Realtors and speculators within the business . Basic logic lesson, just because you say #1 A was involved with B. And then say #2 B is the cause of C, does not make #2 true. I need proof.

[Twiggy269]

i refer to you a vid on youtube while its not concrete evidence of anything the author did a reasonably well job putting it together He attempts to portray Repubes in an awfully good light in everything though which i think is far from the case."Burning down the house" BTW whythebail;What makes you better than the right wing wackos who believe the republicans can do no evil when you have undying love for your party and see them as perfect? Youre no better than them, because you're just as blind

[americanfirst1103]

Do you realize the implications of Obamas policies?Its socialism!Do your own research.You think youll get a break but the huge tax on business will be devastating!Their payroll tax up to 52% - income tax almost 40%?How will companies afford to keep you?Will your reduction pay for the loss of your job?An attempt to ask more from the wealthy will kill those like us who worked hard and followed the rules and the wealthy will still be wealthy! We hate this bail out right? Cause its socialism!

[Ambushofblacks]

canada is doing just fine, instead of complaining about getting taxed, start complaining about getting restitution, cuz uve been scammedfor a bout 8yrs with mccain it will continue, with obama it will atleast be controlled

[mainestategop]

We did not have it as bad as it will be when Barack Hussein Obama is taking over. Despite liberal whining, the economy was fine under Bush before now. The recession we had at first was caused by Clinton and started during his administration. Keep in mind we have a Demonrat Congress for the past two years. This is just the beginning.

[Ambushofblacks]

what do you mean? we had a surplus when clinton was around, and people were reciving higher wages every where you went, with bush he put us in the negatives and people are actually loosing an avg. of 1000 dollars per salary. and the democratic congress was their for 1 year??? you just contradicted yourself by saying clinton was the one who started it and now are blaming the 2 year in office democrats when bush started this crisis?

[mainestategop]

Thats a post hoc arguement. When we had that surplus, GOP ran the congress and senate and they passed only surplus spending bills. In addition we had welfare reform to put lazy parasites back into the work force instead of taking away our hard earned money. the recession we had during Bush started in Clinton's final year. The result of major buisness regulation. In addition The community Reinvestment act under Carter and CLinton is the reason for the current crisis.

You think its bad now...

[sailinship]

mainestategop

Idiot. Did you really say this?

"the recession we had during Bush started in Clinton's final year."

Did you really say that you freaking moron. It took 8 years for the recession to come to a head and your man just HAPPENED to be in charge. And what's more, he was helpless to do anything to stop it? The CRA was instituted by neither Carter nor Clinton. Turn off the Radio and do your own research. And try to keep your opinion separate from fact. Moron.

[mainestategop]

I DID do research you leftarded SOB. Summer of 2000, the jobs started to dry up and during the elections the stock markets plummeted. And YES, CRA was instituted by Carter and Clinton expanded it.

We have the crisis we have now because we are having our money taken from us and given to lazy fuckers like you to sit in your mommy's basement or public housing and not work. Just sit around and spew drivel and whine.

MORON! IDIOT! WHAAAAA!!! FASCIST! WHAAAA!!!

Get a fucking life.

[sailinship]

mainestategop

YOU DID NOT DO YOUR RESEARCH!

You just heard about the CRA somewhere else and tagged along for the bitch session. You little bitch. YOU SAID "And YES, CRA was instituted by Carter and Clinton expanded it." and now I prove you wrong, because the CRA was initiated in 1968 by LYNDON JOHNSON you fucking dolt.

You work a 40 hour work week and bitch about it. You lazy fuck. I work 5 times harder than any of you and am proud to help my country. Move somewhere else if you hate it here.

[Guest4000]

Haha, right, which is why less than 10% of the high coast loans that were issued (which caused the collapse) were issued by CRA regulated banks. On top of that, subprime loans that were made by CRA regulated banks, had, on average, lower interest rates than non-CRA regulated banks. Furthermore, these banks were half as likely to resell such loans (another contributor to the crisis). But somehow the CRA was still the cause... and you're calling other people morons. Ha!

[dalmatian847]

@Guest4000 The majority of the subprime loans made possible by th CRA were the ones that defaulted, causing a global financial meltdown.

Try not pulling your facts out of your ass next time.

[Guest4000]

@dalmatian847 Actually, It appears that it would be you who are pulling "facts" out of your ass. I pulled my facts out of this in-depth report: traigerlaw. com/publications/traiger_hinck­ley_llp_cra_foreclosure_study_­1-7-08.pdf

Try not arguing with someone who knows what they're talking about next time. :-)

[dalmatian847]

@Guest4000 You'd be a lot more credible if you didn't use the same "in-depth" report used by every other liberal troll as "proof positive", or if you bothered reading the disclaimer at the bottom of the 1st page "© 2008 Traiger & Hinckley LLP This study is not intended to provide and should not be relied on as a source of legal advice.

Nor should it be intended as proof of anything else for that matter. One of the first premises on the study is disputed by Austen Goolsbee of all people.

[Guest4000]

@dalmatian847 "or if you bothered reading the disclaimer at the bottom"

Ha... what? You do realize that stating that something isn't "legal advice" is a standard disclaimer used in non-client communication, right? That you would be so desperate as to try to use that as a way to discredit the study (which contains ample citations) is cute.

[dalmatian847]

@Guest4000 Not from a guy who's whole "expertise" is getting money from banks to make sure they are compliant with this bullshit regulation. Gee, what did you think he'd say? The CRA was a "bad idea" in retrospect? Oh well, I guess I'll go back to ambulance chasing?

[dalmatian847]

@Guest4000 Next time, try not using an "in-depth" report from a major Democrat political donor whose main source of business evidently was making sure banks were Community Reinvestment Act compliant.

No conflict of interest there, is there? No , of course not.

You evidently didn't do your homework and expected me not to either. Sorry to disappoint you.

[dalmatian847]

@Guest4000 Did I pull this out of my ass? Warren W. Traiger is Counsel in the New York, NY office of BuckleySandler LLP. Mr. Traiger counsels clients on consumer regulatory matters, particularly fair lending and Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) compliance.

Yeah no doubt a fair and impartial observer. I'd believe everything he says because lawyers would never lie about anything , would they? Especially when it comes to their very livlihood.

[Guest4000]

@dalmatian847 "Yeah no doubt a fair and impartial observer."

Yeah, those lousy experts who cite their sources for specific data are just so biased! And you just know all the sources for their citations are in on the scheme too! On top of that, lawyers are the only people who ever lie and have an agenda; everyone knows that! The smartest thing to do is to just dismiss it all without examining the numbers - pesky little things....

[dalmatian847]

@Guest4000 Yeah, Haliburton's an expert on what's going on in Iraq too, but somehow I don't think you'd take their word for it either, now would you?