Thanks for posting all this. This base canard against the CRA has been festering in my mind all day, and you saved me the trouble and embarrassment of going off on an ill-informed rant.
I would add that it's easy to see how deregulation of the banking industry -- in particular, allowing banks to buy and sell bundles of mortgages and other debt just like securities -- furnished a constant powerful incentive for banks to write risky mortgages. Any time you set things up so a toxic product can easily be made someone else' problem, you're asking for trouble, whether it's nuclear waste, mine tailings, or a bundle of several thousand mortgages. A bank officer who refused to take part in the subprime-mortgage free-for-all would be passing up obvious short-term profits (i.e. asking to be fired and replaced by someone more aggressive). The ability to buy and sell bundles of mortgages meant that the risk was, if not invisible, much less obvious than the profits, and at least theoretically something you could pass on to someone else.
no subject
I would add that it's easy to see how deregulation of the banking industry -- in particular, allowing banks to buy and sell bundles of mortgages and other debt just like securities -- furnished a constant powerful incentive for banks to write risky mortgages. Any time you set things up so a toxic product can easily be made someone else' problem, you're asking for trouble, whether it's nuclear waste, mine tailings, or a bundle of several thousand mortgages. A bank officer who refused to take part in the subprime-mortgage free-for-all would be passing up obvious short-term profits (i.e. asking to be fired and replaced by someone more aggressive). The ability to buy and sell bundles of mortgages meant that the risk was, if not invisible, much less obvious than the profits, and at least theoretically something you could pass on to someone else.