Web Letters: Predatory Scapegoating

While this may (or may not) sound like ad hominem reasoning, Greenspan, on page 233 of his The Age of Turbulence, ended the section about the housing boom and bust, which was just starting to bust, with, "I was aware that the loosening of mortgage credit terms for subprime borrowers increased financial risk, and that subsidized home ownership initiatives distort market outcomes. But I believed then, as now, that the benefits of broadened home ownership are worth the risk. Protection of property rights, so critical to a market economy, requires a critical mass of owners to sustain political support." The reasons why treating this as important wouldn't really be ad hominem, is that it was just so Machiavellian, and so different from the usual claims that this was to give the poor an unfair advantage.

Sharen Keim

Simi Valley, CA

I have read your article and have one important question. Everyone is familiar with the misdeeds of Abramoff and Lay, however, to the best of my knowledge Mr. Swift has been not only never been convicted of anything, he has not been accused of anything either. Who, what or where are your sources that would cause you to lump him in with known crooks and swindlers? It seems quite unfair to me that this man should be called those names with no proof to back them up.

Cathy Grimes

Western Springs, IL

"Thus, when Spitzer tried to open an investigation into discriminatory mortgage lending in New York, the administration actually filed a federal lawsuit to block it. These interventions were so extreme and so unprecedented that the attorneys general and the banking superintendents of all fifty states came together to oppose the rulings unanimously. But to no avail." I have to see some articles that refer to this. The piece makes it seem like attorneys general from all over the US were noticing fraudulent lending practices and were blocked from taking action as a direct result of Bush's actions. It seems too good to be true, and things are rarely that simple. Help me out here. Where was this published?

[Editor's Note: Google turns up a link to an allbusiness.com report on the lawsuit by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that blocked Spitzer's investigation, and to a consumeraffairs.com article that reports: "Spitzer noted that the OCC's efforts to protect banks has been opposed by all 50 state attorneys general and all 50 state banking superintendents. Numerous consumer groups also have voiced their opposition, as have the NAACP and AARP."]

Aaron Franco

Austin, TX

Ms. Williams, You have done an important public service with this article. Thank you.

Chris Morehouse

Shepherdstown, WV

Okay, Franklin Raines had no relationship to Barack Obama. That explains why Senator Obama didn't jump all over him when Obama was jumping all over the rest of those criticized by Williams.

And speaking of Dem leadership: why is that body forcing the taxpayer to fund ACORN (or any other group or individual) to register even one new voter, when that same Dem leadership knows that the no-receipt voting machine is designed to "fix" any "election" in which it employed?

Cameron Jones

Indiana, PA

In Professor Williams's view, are law students at CLS today past the Reagan mythology? Might some/many of them be relied upon to staff the ranks of a New Deal (as many of their predecessors served in the first New Deal)? Or would such service be considered by most as too counterproductive to one's career (be they young grads or veteran faculty)?

CLS '67,

R.H. Weber

Geneva, Switzerland