![]() ![]() His most successful effort was to impose what were called "affordable housing" requirements on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 1992. It is government's fault for offering a housing finance program without making an effort to maintain underwriting standards. Although he claims to have tried to reverse course as early as 2003, that was the year he made the oft-quoted remark, "I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation toward subsidized housing." Rather than reversing course, he was pressing on when others were beginning to have doubts. ![]() For most of his career, Barney Frank was the principal advocate in Congress for using the government's authority to force lower underwriting standards in the business of housing finance. In this, he is following the traditional Washington practice of blaming others for his own mistakes. In your view, what caused the mortgage crisis and subsequently the financial crash?Ĭongressman Frank, of course, blamed the financial crisis on the failure adequately to regulate the banks. ![]() We're hearing Republicans in the presidential primary blame the housing crisis on the Clinton-era push to lend more to poor people. I decided to respond to both Congressman Frank's statements and the questions he was asked about government housing policy and the financial crisis. In it, he called me a "real extremist." This name-calling was not only false but also inappropriate to the seriousness of the issue - which is whether government housing policy, and not the banks or the private sector, caused the 2008 financial crisis. On December 9, The Atlantic published online an interview with Congressman Barney Frank. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |