Baldwin: Obama Created the Risky Bank Loans as Attorney
Written by CA Political News on December 15, 2009, 04:57 PM
Friends:

Obama was part of the movement to force banks to make high risk loans but he now blames them!

 by Steve Baldwin, 12/14/09
 
This week we saw Obama on all the news shows blaming banks for the credit crisis saying that "you guys caused the problem" and calling them "fat cats."
 
This is the height of hypocrisy.  Let me remind everyone that banks only operate within the regulatory environment that politicians create for them.  All throughout the 80's and 90's, leftist groups led by ACORN harassed banks with protests, boycotts and lawsuits, falsely claiming banks were "discriminating" against minorities in terms of their lending practices. 
 
The allegations were bogus.  Banks do discriminate, however, against people with shaky finances regardless of race. And they should.  Banks are not a welfare program. They're a business.   They make lending decisions based on hard numbers such as a person's credit rating.  That really don't care what race a person is; if someone's credit history gives a bank reason to believe its loan will be paid back, they'll make the loan.  However, this was all before Congress started to meddle in banks'  lending decisions.
 
Many of the 60's activists ended up getting involved with groups that harassed banks and filing lawsuits against them. Some of these suits were successful in that they often ended in settlements in which the banks agreed to make high risk loans to people who simply were not credit worthy. Eventually, this movement led to Congressional legislation called the Community Reinvestment Act, which applied even more pressure onto banks to make lending decisions based not on fiscal worthiness but on "diversity."  And that was the beginning of the credit crisis.  
 
So lets be clear here. Banks have been forced to make high risk loans as a result of years of protests, legislation, boycotts, and the CRA act.  And who was involved with all of this? Why, our very own anointed one.  Barack Obama.
 
You can see his name here in the actual docket from one ACORN suit against Citibank:
http://www.mediacircus.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/FH-IL-0011-9000.pdf
 
Or you can read more about this case here: 
http://www.mediacircus.com/2008/10/obama-sued-citibank-under-cra-to-force-it-to-make-bad-loans/
 
Yet Obama has the audacity to blame banks for acting under regulations that the movement created by ACORN successfully pushed for?
 
Not that's chutzpah.
 
Obama's defenders have tried to play this down, saying that Obama was only one of a group of attorneys involved with the case and was not the lead attorney. That is true, but what they ignore is the fact that Obama was involved in many aspects of ACORN, from speaking at its training schools to encouraging leftist foundations to give it funding.  Obama deeply believes in ACORN's anti-corporate, anti-free market philosophy, including the belief that banks engaged in racism even though no one has even proved this reckless allegation.
 
It time to face the truth folks:  Obama was part of the "social justice" movement which created the incredibly stupid regulatory climate that caused banks to make loans they otherwise would never have made. 
 
 
Steve Baldwin
Baldwin Research & Consulting
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Blog Comments

Camille
I wouldn't downplay BArack Obama's involvement in this. He is listed as representing two of the complaintants. That's more than just an idle supporter. When, if ever, will the bankers stand up and protest all this bondage?
Celes King IV
It is simply ridiculous to point to a single lawsuit as the cause of the economic disaster that has occurred. The, over simplified, fact is this crisis was manufactured through economic theroy and academic formulation without common sense real world operation facts. Derivitives that were intwined into pools beyond recognition and justified with formulas to the disregard of actual pactical real world practices. Motivation was pure and simple greed in pursuit of profits. Models createed showing stability where there was none. Regulations droped and those in place not enforced. Now we see the financial industry involved in proprietory lending and international placement at the expense of the American people. Fact is Banks have now after taking taxpayer money made billions in arbitration and by simply taking government money at o% and reinvesting in government notes, bill and bonds at a profitable margin. Now they are repaying in droves and many saying we are taking a loss. They are really giving you your mooney back and selling stock to dilute the value of government holdings to buy them back at a reduced price and the American people pay again. Then to top it off keep raising fees for every little transaction they preform. Has any one looked at the rate of inflation and compared it to bank fee increases. Barak Obama may have made mistakes, however, not the economic crash. Nor the biggest rip off of the American people by Secretary Paulson, and his, give us the money or the world will collapse. I forget how many Billion and he submited how many pages in support therof. Lets face it global banking is to the detriment of small american business that has lost its rael infrstructure. Global warming be it true or myth we better wake up and build a economy based on our creativity, stress bio and nano technology based industry to compete and keep America strong. $40 billion in guns sales will not carry the country nor the continuation of our continual war based economy.
virginia johnson
My mouth dropped yesterday when I read that OBama wants banks to loan more money. HE WAS THE ONE WHO CONTRIBUTED STRONGLY to the mess we are in; then denied it, (His vote speaks for itself) and now after stopping it (the loans progarams) and blaming it on GW Bush he now wants to start up the non secured loans again so he can blame the Banks again. This is the Man the Indians were talking about when they said White (Black?) Man speaks with TWO TONGUES.
Steve Baldwin
Regarding the comment by "Celes King IV" yes, there were undoubtedly other reasons contributing to the mess we're in, but there is little doubt that the movement to force banks to make lending decisions based on "diversity" and not credit worthiness was a major factor. You say it is "ridiculous to point to a single lawsuit as the cause of the economic disaster that has occurred." I didn't say that. What I did say is that Obama was part of the "social justice" movement which led to high risk lending. And for Obama to now blame banks for creating the crisis when he was part of a movement that helped create this mess is simply hypocritical.
Treva Bennett
The pure and simple fact is Obama was/is involved up to his ears. Yet now has the temerity to demand banks start up the same practice that got us in this mess is proof the man cares little for we the people or the law. To ignore this fact or rationalize it will be deleterious to every one of us. It does boggle my mind that no banker has called him out. They well knew what they were doing was destined to fail. They made tons of money while fleecing honest tax payers. Obama needs to be impeached.
Mike German
Well researched, written, and said, Steve. Keep 'em coming! One of the biggest problems in government at all levels is the lack of coordination. Thus, we have policies and programs at odds with each other, as this piece illustrates. It exists everywhere, on every issue. How do we fix it? By insisting that the various oversight officers do their job!
Radioguyk
Right - it may be just one lawsuit but it is representative of many humdreds of others in the shakedown racket that ACORN and other such organizations were perpetrating on banks. They were claiming that banks were "racist" by not lending more money to minorities. So, now they call banks "greedy." But, if they were really "greedy," why would they lend money to people who couldn't demonstrate that they were going to repay the loan? It was the Community Reinvestment Act that Jimmy Carter signed back in - what? - 1979 or thereabouts. Sorry that I don't have the precide date. Anyway, it lay moribund until Bill Clinton started enforcing it. Then it was only a matter of time before those borrowers began defaulting on their loans that they couldn't afford and the whole house of cards began to crumble. Blaming every evil in the world on George Bush does not stand up to scrutiny, nor is it logical. The problem goes way back before Bush. And it wasn't "deregulation" that created this mess. it was regulation!
Lizelot
Many institutions and reliable researchers have established the fact that from Clinton on Democrats in high power positions (s.a. Barney Frank, Dodd, cs) have aided and abetted the subprime fiasco in their desire to assume hero-status as protectors of the poor. Of course, this was all a sham, but people do so want to be fooled, witness that Obama is now our President and Commander-in-Chief of our military. Yet, he proudly claims allegiance to Acorn and boasts of his steadfast support of their aims and system, not ours. As long as our free press as well as the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress is in his pocket, he'll attempt to "remake" America into his image, which will be glorious beyond belief. Actually, he hates America and everything for which it once stood (it no longer stands for anything much). Voters are unbelievably easily taken in by a few catchy slogans and promises.
robert groves
-That's why the banks are keeping all our tax payer donations! It is because they are afraid of litigation!! What a shameful article!
on topic
First come the shady operators, then comes the collapse, then comes the bailout, then come the shady operators. That, too often, is the sad history of financial meltdowns and their cleanups.
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