By William Tucker
The American Spectator
July 27, 2012
Do you remember that thing about how the banks wouldn't lend to
blacks and Hispanics because they were racists? And do you remember
how they passed the Community Reinvestment Act so that banks were
forced to reduce down payments practically to zero and lend to a
lot of people they knew were bad credit risks? And do you remember
how Wall Street bundled all these risky subprime mortgage and sold
them to investors around the world so that when it became clear
that those people weren't going to be able to pay their mortgages
banks everywhere were left holding the bag and all five of the Wall
Street investment houses either went under or had to be bailed out
by the federal government?
And do you remember how, when it was all over, liberals said it
was actually the banks' fault for "deceiving" all those people into
thinking they could afford to buy homes and that the banks should
be punished for it and some of those people be allowed to keep
their homes anyway? And do you remember how all this cost the
government close to a trillion dollars and put the whole economy in
a hole that we really haven't begun to dig ourselves out of
yet?
Well, get ready because the whole thing is about to happen
again.
Yes, believe it or not, the federal government is now starting
another initiative to force banks to lend
to low-credit-rated blacks and Hispanics -- not just anybody but
specifically blacks and Hispanics -- and is threatening -- and
already imposing -- huge punitive fines if they don't.
