re: #109 Amory Blaine

Most of the subprime loans were made by mortgage lenders that fell outside of CRA rules. I.E. Countrywide. You can blame democrats all you want, republicans held chairs in all committees since 1994 till Jan 2007.

It does not matter one whit who origonated the loans to less creditworthy borrowers. Fannie and Freddie made a market for them and bought them. Making those loans was regulatory policy, not some form of deregulation. Fannie and Freddie making a secondary market for high risk mortgages is at the root of the problem.

As Congresswoman Waters clearly stated:

Under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines, everything in the 1992 Act, has worked just fine. In fact, the GSE’s have exceeded their housing goals. What we need to do today is to focus on the regulator. And this must be done in a the manner so as not to impede the affordable housing mission. A mission that has seen innovation flourish, from desktop underwriting to 100 per cent loans.

Emphasis added.

Those risky mortgages were in fact policy.