The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Opinions

VINCENT NERI

Time and time again we hear about the greedy bankers and predatory lenders who focused their efforts on the poor, defenseless homeowners who just wanted a home.

What we don't hear enough about is how the blame for this financial mess is spread among bankers, politicians and risk-taking homeowners alike.

Jimmy Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, which called for banks to meet the borrowing needs of all citizens, including those without steady incomes or reliable credit.

It goes deeper, though.

If these banks didn't satisfy these government quotas, even against their sound financial judgment, they were prevented from continuing with normal business operations such as branch expansion or mergers.

These CRA ratings were responsible for millions of dollars in mortgage credit being given to low-income areas, oftentimes where people had no business trying to own a home.

This led to the government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack taking on many of these loans and then securitizing loans and selling them off, often falsely believing they sent the risk off with them.

So how does Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) tie into all of this?

During his career as a community organizer with the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now, he led the charge against banks that didn't make enough bad investment decisions in the poor and underserved neighborhoods, even if these residents had no way to pay back the mortgages.

Stan Liebowitz, a prominent economist, wrote community activists helped people obtain large amounts of money from banks, because poor reviews often lead to strained merger plans and legal challenges by the Department of Justice.

Meanwhile, some responsible politicians warned of the impending crisis.

On Sept. 11, 2003, the New York Times wrote: "The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago."

In 2005, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, "If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole."

It's a shame he was shot down by congressional Democrats.

Investor's Business Daily wrote Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat on the financial services committee, na'vely spouted back, "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis" and continued to blame McCain and republicans for exaggerating these problems.

I want to know how Obama expects the free market to function when he encourages the government to pass legislation, that mandates who the private institutions can lend to.

To me, this seems eerily similar to the socialistic tendencies of Big Brother.

But wait, I may have an answer.

Not only does Obama's involvement in the association for community organizations raise questions about his economic credibility, but the fact he was one of the top three senators to receive campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at an amount of $105,849, lends to the dishonest position and lack of credibility he often finds himself surrounded by (Chris Dodd and John Kerry, both of the Democratic majority, took the other top two positions).

Can we really elect a president who has served and promoted the ideas of an organization that helped cause this financial mess yet claims to have all the answers to remedy it?

I certainly hope not.

- Vincent Neri is a senior from Kennesaw majoring in finance.

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