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Fortiani» (Obseruer
March 16. 2011
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Stop the Lies about the Financial Meltdown
Blame squarely
belongs on Wall Street
by
M arc H. M orial
No, President Obama was not
bom in Kenya. Superman is not
real. And there is no monkey-
man roaming the streets of
Hoboken scaring the daylights
out of little children. Some urban
myths are nutty. Some are funny. But some, like
the one about mortgage loans in low and middle
income urban neighborhoods being the cause of
the financial meltdown can be downright danger­
ous.
Since this assertion was first made several
years ago, the National Urban League has called
it for what it is - a weapon of mass deception,
shifting blame for the economic crisis from Wall
Street where it rightfully belongs onto the backs
of hard working African American and Hispanic
homeowners, who for decades were routinely
refused home loans and a fair shot at the Ameri­
can Dream.
Leading economists have agreed with us,
including Federal Reserve chairm an Ben
Bernanke; FDIC chairman, Sheila Bair; and Nobel
Prize columnist, Paul Krugman. And now, anew
study by the congressionally established Fi­
nancial Crisis Inquiry Commission conclusively
states that the Community Reinvestment Act,
established in 1977 to prevent redlining and
spur homeownership in urban neighborhoods
“was not a significant factor in subprime lending
or the crisis.”
Undergirding this myth is the claim by some
that the law requires banks and thrifts to make
loans to unqualified low-income and minority
borrowers. They contend that a higher default
rate by those borrowers caused the housing
meltdown. Aside from the fact that the law
clearly states that lending must be consistent
with safe and sound banking practices, there is
no evidence that it caused lenders to make risky
subprime loans that contributed to the crisis.
In fact, most subprime loans are not made to
minorities or low income borrowers. Between
2005 and 2007,58 percent of higher costs loans
were made to white borrowers, and fewer than 30
percent of subprime loans in 2006 were made to
low and moderate-income borrowers.
According to Commission chairman, Phil
Angelides, “The debate about the role of the
Community Reinvestment Act should now be
over...W e found that this crisis was avoidable
and was caused by widespread failures in finan­
cial regulation, dramatic breakdowns in corpo­
rate governance, excessive risk and borrowing,
government officials ill prepared for the crisis
and systemic breaches in accountability and
ethics at all levels.”
In short, black, brown and poor people, ag­
gressively spurred on by the Reinvestment Act
did not cause our economic meltdown. This has
been a yam spun by some who wish to shift the
blame from Wall Street to Main Street.
The latest to use this as a weapon of mass
deception is Florida freshman congressman,
Allen West who, speaking at a February Con­
servative Political Action Conference in Wash­
ington, singled out the CRA as the cause of the
housing crisis. He added, “If government gets
out of the way of the private sector, it would not
have happened in 2008.”
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission dis­
agrees and so do we. With millions of people out
of work, instead of clinging to discredited ideo­
logical theories, our policymakers should be
focused on creating jobs and making sure that
more citizens are able to realize the American
Dream of homeownership.
Marc H. Morial is president and chief execu­
tive officer o f the National Urban League.
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