SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 1.2.09
This is the sub-prime house that Barack Obama built
As a young but influential Chicago politician, the American president
helped to create the housing bubble.
By Christopher Booker
It is all very well for President Obama to vent his anger on all
those US bankers who continued to claim billions of dollars in
bonuses while expecting Washington to bail them out after the sub-
prime mortgage scandal brought the banks to their knees. But
conveniently overlooked has been the curious part Mr Obama himself
played in the sub-prime debacle.
At the heart of it was a 1995 amendment to the Community Reinvestment
Act which legally required banks to lend money to buy homes to
millions of poor, mainly black Americans, guaranteed by the two
biggest mortgage associations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [went
bankrupt both them, taken over by the Federal Government -cs] . And
no one campaigned more actively for this change to the law than Mr
Obama, as a young but already influential Chicago politician.
It was this Act which, more than anything, helped to create the US
housing bubble, well beyond the point where it was obvious that
hundreds of thousands of homeowners would be likely to default. And
in 2005 no one more actively opposed moves to halt Fannie Mae's
reckless guarantees than Senator Obama, as he was by then. As the
official records show, no senator received more donations from Fannie
Mae than he did (although Hillary Clinton ran him close).
Thus no US politician arguably did more to promote the sub-prime
disaster than the man now expected to pick up the pieces,
Rather like Gordon Brown, really.
This is the sub-prime house that Barack Obama built
As a young but influential Chicago politician, the American president
helped to create the housing bubble.
By Christopher Booker
It is all very well for President Obama to vent his anger on all
those US bankers who continued to claim billions of dollars in
bonuses while expecting Washington to bail them out after the sub-
prime mortgage scandal brought the banks to their knees. But
conveniently overlooked has been the curious part Mr Obama himself
played in the sub-prime debacle.
At the heart of it was a 1995 amendment to the Community Reinvestment
Act which legally required banks to lend money to buy homes to
millions of poor, mainly black Americans, guaranteed by the two
biggest mortgage associations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [went
bankrupt both them, taken over by the Federal Government -cs] . And
no one campaigned more actively for this change to the law than Mr
Obama, as a young but already influential Chicago politician.
It was this Act which, more than anything, helped to create the US
housing bubble, well beyond the point where it was obvious that
hundreds of thousands of homeowners would be likely to default. And
in 2005 no one more actively opposed moves to halt Fannie Mae's
reckless guarantees than Senator Obama, as he was by then. As the
official records show, no senator received more donations from Fannie
Mae than he did (although Hillary Clinton ran him close).
Thus no US politician arguably did more to promote the sub-prime
disaster than the man now expected to pick up the pieces,
Rather like Gordon Brown, really.
Posts
