The Nation.

Stop the Subprime Tsunami

By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson

November 30, 2007

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  • A problem with Jackson's perspective is that it is a Catch-22. The same Jesse Jackson used to excoriate lenders for redlining when they did not give loans to poor people. When they do give loans to poor people, it's "predatory lending." What does he propose as an alternative? No lender would give loans to high-risk people at the same terms as low-risk people. The loans gave people an opportunity to own homes who otherwise would not have one. It seems that what people need is more sound advice, and to exercise some common sense themselves. Bashing the evil corporations makes for good populist feel-good politics but evades the real dynamics of the situation.

    Daniel Aldridge

    Huntersville, NC

    12/10/2007 @ 10:50am


  • Leftists tell us they trust people to make their own decisions... right up until someone makes a poor decision. It's one thing to call for support for defaulting subprime borrowers, but quite another to say they were deceived. It's pretty hard to miss the not-so-fine print about the changing rate of an adjustable rate mortgage--say the name out loud, for instance. Yet you put Rev. Jackson on here (not "laying out the problem" as you put it, by the way, but advertising yet another march) to tell us people got tricked into all this. Give me a break, Nation: do you think people are smart or dumb? Looks to me like you pick one argument or the other depending on the point you care to make at the time.

    Michael Long

    Burke, VA

    12/04/2007 @ 6:06pm


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