CRA: not guilty

I'm not trolling any right wing blogs these days (now that Hot Air crashes my browser), so I don't know if they're still pushing the story that the Community Reinvestment Act is to blame for our recent economic collapse. Let's hope not, since that idea has been debunked, most recently by Ellen Seidman at The American Prospect.

Based on the Canner and Bhutta study, former Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner concluded, "we believe that the available evidence runs counter to the contention that the CRA contributed in any substantive way to the current mortgage crisis." In reaching this conclusion, Kroszner and the Federal Reserve Board joined other bank regulators in affirming that CRA did not cause the mortgage-market meltdown. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Sheila Bair has stated, "I want to give you my verdict on CRA: Not guilty." Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan agrees: "CRA is not the culprit behind the sub-prime mortgage lending abuses, or the broader credit quality issues in the marketplace. Indeed, the lenders most prominently associated with sub-prime mortgage lending abuses and high rates of foreclosure are lenders not subject to CRA." All of these regulators were appointed by President George W. Bush.