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By Bill Altreuter

Andrew Cuomo's role in the subprime crisis. Interesting, and I'd like to hear his response. In a nutshell, while at HUD, Cuomo set housing goals that pushed Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac into the subprime market, then rejected rules which would have imposed more stringent reporting requirements. Good reporting, but that's what you'd expect from Wayne Barrett.

I yield to no one in my admiration for Mario Cuomo, but Andy has always impressed me as being too calculating by half. In a way this is a story about good intentions gone awry, although Barrett makes it clear that he thinks Andy's political machinations (and aspirations) are implicated here. It is a mistake, I think, to lay this disaster entirely at Cuomo's feet-- the Bush Administration has had nearly eight years to correct for the changes in the economy that it brought about, and certainly the basic assumptions underlying HUD's policies during Cuomo's tenure changed during that period. Alphonso Roy Jackson (I had to look it up) had time to make adjustments, and I also wonder where the Senate oversight was. (Oh snap. Chuck Schumer chairs that subcommittee.)

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on August 08, 2008 (boomark / email).