Community Activists Continue to Exacerbate Housing Crisis
Posted on November 20, 2008
The community activist types — like Barack Obama — who helped bring about our financial crisis by using Jimmy Carter’s insane Community Reinvestment Act to terrorize banks into making bad loans based on race are still causing havoc. IBD reports on self-described “bank terrorist” Bruce Marks:
Bruce Marks, founder of the leftist Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, makes a good living shaking down banks for loans to deadbeat borrowers that he thinks are entitled to homes.
Last month, he and about 100 urban protesters stormed Fannie Mae’s headquarters, demanding it stop foreclosures on subprime houses — the same homes his group pressured Fannie to fund.
As usual, the bullying tactics worked: Fannie Mae is now reviewing every foreclosure, while increasing the number of mortgages it restructures by lowering interest rates and extending loan terms to make payments more affordable. The government-backed firm guarantees some 30% of the nation’s outstanding mortgages.
Marks founded Boston-based NACA last decade to fulfill his warped sense of the American dream. He thinks owning a home is a right, not a goal. And he thinks every American should have a house — even those who can’t pay for one.
Marks, who proudly calls himself a bank terrorist, has extorted billions of dollars from Citigroup and other large banks to subsidize uncreditworthy borrowers in the inner city, where he accused the banks of “redlining.”
Marks believes that expecting The Oppressed to have good credit or make a down payment before receiving a mortgage loan is “patronizing and racist.” According to moonbat ideology, it is everyone’s right to have the home they want at someone else’s expense.
Even before The One ascends to the White House, the government is already infested with leftists who share Marks’s viewpoint:
Congress’ banking committee chiefs, Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, are also demanding banks stop foreclosures. And guess who they’ve invited to testify about that? That’s right: Marks, who has proposed stopping all resets on subprime adjustable mortgages and allowing late payments for up to 90 days. Marks insists that regulators “force” lenders to restructure their loans to prevent foreclosures from going forward.
Marks gives an example of the sort of testimony he’ll offer the Socialists running Congress:
NACA has done lending the right way. No down payment. No closing costs. No fees. No perfect credit. At a below-market fixed rate.
This must have sounded wonderful, until society got the bill in the form of a collapsed mortgage industry that — combined with the corruption, irresponsibility, and incompetence of our congressional kakistocracy — is bringing down the entire economy.
On tips from Dennis S, Watching, nanc, and Name. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.
» Filed Under Congress, Economy, Government ethics/corruption, Marxism, News, Recession/Depression, Socialism
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Are you sure, his name is Bruce Marks and not Karl Marx?
It’s obvious you can read so read this and perhaps you might also peruse a few papers at our website.
Happy Thanksgiving!
NR 2008-136
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2008 Contact: Robert M. Garsson
(202) 874-5770
Comptroller Dugan Says CRA not Responsible for Subprime Lending Abuses
BALTIMORE — Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan said he categorically disagrees with suggestions that the Community Reinvestment Act is partly responsible for the ongoing credit crisis.
“CRA is not the culprit behind the subprime mortgage lending abuses, or the broader credit quality issues in the marketplace,” Mr. Dugan said in a speech to the Enterprise Annual Network Conference.
“Indeed, the lenders most prominently associated with subprime mortgage lending abuses and high rates of foreclosure are lenders not subject to CRA,” he added. “A recent study of 2006 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data showed that banks subject to CRA and their affiliates originated or purchased only six percent of the reported high cost loans made to lower-income borrowers within their CRA assessment areas.”
Mr. Dugan said he has had opportunities to see the benefits of CRA during his term as Comptroller.
“During the community tours I have taken over the past three years, I personally witnessed the positive impact that CRA partnerships have had in transforming communities, expanding homeownership, and promoting job creation and economic development,” he said. “These partnerships between communities and financial institutions have also helped house senior citizens and people with special needs, built community facilities, and assisted small businesses serving low-income areas.”
Over the last decade, CRA helped spur a doubling of lending by banking institutions to small businesses and farms, to more than $2.6 trillion, and a tripling of community development lending to $371 billion. In addition, CRA projects often act as catalysts for other investments, for job creation, and for housing development, and can leverage public subsidies, perhaps as much as 10 to 25 times, by attracting additional private capital.
Mr. Dugan noted that many CRA equity investments can be made under the national banks’ public welfare investment authority.
“These bank investments have grown significantly over the years – totaling more than $25 billion over the past decade,” Comptroller Dugan said. “To meet this demand, OCC successfully sought legislation last year to raise the cap on public welfare investments from 10 to 15 percent of a bank’s capital and surplus. This rise will enable the amount of such investments to increase by as much as $30 billion.”
Mr. Dugan said that CRA lending has generally been safe and sound. For example, he said, single family CRA-related mortgages offered in conjunction with NeighborWorks organizations have performed on par with standard conventional mortgages.
“Foreclosure rates within the NeighborWorks network were just 0.21 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared to 4.26 percent of subprime loans and 0.61 percent for conventional conforming mortgages,” he added.
“As the credit market stabilizes, CRA-driven initiatives can also help us tackle such challenges as the preservation of homeownership opportunities and rental housing development,” Comptroller Dugan said.
Hey Mary, if the CRA didn’t have a negative impact on the people that it’s supposed to have helped, then what was Jesse Jackson talking about when he said
“We believe eight years of subprime lending will cost $164 billion in losses to people of color,” he said. “This is the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern history.
All of the banks that were lending to “people of color” weren’t CRA banks, and all of those loans are for the most part doing well?
Why don’t I buy that?
we are posting some case law examples on how to fight foreclosure. other articles and resources vailable too, but especially the case law studies should be useful and interesting for homeowners facing foreclosure.