The Perfect Storm Hits Ohio

Well, the liberal whining concerning the defaults on low-income housing loans. Of course, the fault lies completely with the banks and lending institutions.

For county treasurer Jim Rokakis, the greed of the banks is to blame for this man-made disaster.
"All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer's incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless," he said in an interview.
"Shaker Heights was the perfect storm: poor folks, unemployed and a desire to get a piece of the American Dream."

I understand that the first thing the banks did was to look for the unemployed and poor and hold a gun to their head to get a loan for a house they couldn't possibly afford. Well, there was a gun held to someones' head, but it wasn't the poor and unemployed. Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to 1990. The New York Times headline reads: Banks Are Prodded to Offer Better Service in Poor Areas. It makes for an interesting read, but to the rub: lending institutions were forced to offer unprofitable loans, and the only way to offer lower rates on high risk loans was through the use of adjustable rate mortgages. Otherwise, the banks were threatened with action under the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (thank you Jimmy Carter).

And, does anyone remember the complaints about a lack of investment in central cities following the Rodney King riots? South-central LA was "underserved' - check out this report by the Poverty and Race Research Council.

So, when the left gets their way, high risk people are put in houses and turn around and lose them when circumstances change - they complain that it was the mean banks. You know, just like how the Savings & Loan bailouts had *absolutely* nothing to do with a change in tax laws leading to a downturn in the housing market.

Anyone want to guess how long it is until Toledo jumps on the bandwagon? After all, King Carlton has tried to sue gunmakers, why not 5/3rd Bank? Then they can rename the stadium "Fink Park"