Consumer Law

Times Examines How the Bush Administration Contributed to the Subprime Crisis

By Jeff Sovern

Last Sunday, December 21, the Times published White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire, a lengthy study of how the Bush Administration contributed to the subprime bubble.  The article describes how the Bush administration policies of promoting both free enterprise and home ownership led to promoting home ownership by those who could not pay for those homes.  The entire article is worth reading, but here is an excerpt:

As for Mr. Bush?s banking regulators, they once brandished a chain saw over a 9,000-page pile of regulations as they promised to ease burdens on the industry. When states tried to use consumer protection laws to crack down on predatory lending, the comptroller of the currency blocked the effort, asserting that states had no authority over national banks.

The administration won that fight at the Supreme Court. But Roy Cooper, North Carolina?s attorney general, said, ?They took 50 sheriffs off the beat at a time when lending was becoming the Wild West.?

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on December 27, 2008 (boomark / email).