Analysis: Washington's Trillion Dollar Wall Street Bailout

Loans

You want to bet that banks soiled their trousers over the possibility of facing discriminatory lending lawsuits by not granting loans to high-risk minorities and any other person that you and I know weren't qualified!! Home ownership is not a constitutional right, the last time I checked, genius. GO ahead and keep blaming Bush, the Republicans. the Boogey Man; whomever. Facts are always difficult to understand for Liberals.

Lawrence of CA @ Sep 19, 2008 11:56:05 AM

Banking Regulation not the problem

"bad loans to satisfy ethnic, geographic, and income-status quotas were and are the problem"

Bad loans made to anyone is not a problem. Really. The problem was classifying loans as superior loans, even if they shouldn't have been. Why? Because they weren't stopped or regulated, and left entirely to ratings agencies and the free market. And the view of housing always going up rolled it up.

You need to look up how these loans were packaged up, and how tranches work, and how these failed. To know a loan has a high probability (relative) of failure is not a problem in the grand scheme. To not treat it as such is a very high problem. Regardless of race. But why let knowledge get in the way of a perfectly good finger pointing.

dave of OR @ Sep 19, 2008 11:49:34 AM

B.S., Jude. If interest rates were high enough to compensate for both risk and inflation, house prices would have been lower for lack of qualified buyers. There were no "quotas" as you allege in lending. Republicans engineered the damn bubble.

of @ Sep 19, 2008 11:43:56 AM

low interest rates not the problem

Low interest rates were not the problem, banking regulations forcing banks to make bad loans to satisfy ethnic, geographic, and income-status quotas were and are the problem. Bad loans are not loans made at low interest rates, they're loans made to people who can never pay them back......Sorry, but Republicans were NOT behind that kind of economic affirmative action "Equal Lending Opportunity" hogwash.

Jude in MA of MA @ Sep 19, 2008 11:06:22 AM