Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Burlington/Camden) today called the news that Countrywide Financial discriminated against qualified African American and Hispanic borrowers by steering them towards higher interest rate subprime loans “a shameful moment in our current economic crisis.”
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced a $335 million settlement with Bank of America, which now owns Countrywide, after it determined that the lender charged roughly 200,000 minority borrowers with higher interest rates and fees and steered some to more expensive subprime mortgages during a period between 2004 and 2008.
“This is just further proof of the unscrupulous practices that helped precipitate not only the collapse of the housing market, but the recession, as well”, Singleton said.
“More disturbing is that this practice was laced with discrimination and many innocent families, who deserved a far better mortgage rate, may have lost their homes in the process because of this predatory practice”. “This is a shameful moment in our current economic crisis.”
Singelton added, “I’m pleased that the federal government has achieved a small measure of justice for some of the families that have been wronged by this practice. I’m sure this settlement will never truly compensate these families for the all of the emotional and financial upheaval they have endured, but at least some measure of justice has been achieved.” TLS.
Let’s not forget that Democrat President Bill Clinton’s Justice Department under Janet Reno threatened banks that if they didn’t lend to minorities (even though many of them couldn’t afford to own a home and would never pay back the loan), the Justice Department would sue these banks for discrimination.
THAT is what caused the subprime meltdown.
Before the Clinton administration forced banks to lend to minorities who couldn’t afford the loans, you couldn’t get a mortgage unless you put down a sizable percentage, and you demonstrated an ability to pay back. Clinton changed all that, and it took about 15 years for it all to eventually unravel and cause the second Great Depression.
You wouldn’t hear this, though, from the honorable Democrat Assemblyman. Or from the liberal media.
Propoganda at its finest.
mr clinton you got us in the mess so please get us out of it now !
everybody plays the blame game , but nobody trys to fix it.
TO: whatif
The Democrats tried to fix the mess they made. It was the gift of all that taxpayer bailout money they gave to their friends in the banks etc… so the bank executives wouldn’t loose their money. See the Democrats tired.
What an absolute disgrace! Shame on them! If they felt that they were too big a risk and wanted to discourage them from taking mortgages (which the Clinton admin with the community act did insist on) why just blacks? Were blacks the only risks? Shame on them!