Blame the poor and minorities for the Wall Street collapse?

[merchimerch]

Here's another article I like; it makes a strong counter-argument to the "loaning money to poor people who couldn't afford houses" meme that's been flooding the media. Honestly I think that idea is just another way that conservatives are trying to blame this problem on Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and anyone but the current political and economic power brokers. I saw them do it in 2001 as well; somehow 9-11 got blamed on the 8 year Clinton regime not being "tough enough," even though it happened during the Bush presidency. It doesn't surprise me that this kind of rhetoric is attempted, what surprises me is how often it seems to work.

My favorite quote from the article:
"Lending money to poor people doesn't make you poor. Lending money poorly to rich people does."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/162789

Comments

CRA

[demercio76.livejournal.com]

Here is the link to the wiki on the Community Reinvestment Act. It discusses all the changes from when it started up till now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

[sps.livejournal.com]

Lending money to poor people at the same time that people are working to make them poorer, however, is not so bright. A lot of effort has gone into inflating the price of housing and, I suspect, oil. I think the plan was that, since the Democrats were pretty sure to win this one, that the economy would fall over during their tenure and then the Republicans could blame them and be all popular again in two years' time, but it imploded too soon. It's that or the Secret Masters have moved all their interests offshore. :-}