http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/occ_spitzer2.html Bush and team crashed the economy on purpose guys New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says a lawsuit filed against him by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is a "shameful ... effort to shield the banks from scrutiny by state regulators." Spitzer has been investigating whether there are racial disparities in lending practices. In a blistering response to the OCC's suit, Spitzer said the agency is working with banks to preempt the states from bringing consumer protection and anti-discrimination cases against national banks. "It's unconscionable that the OCC would help the banks it regulates draft litigation to shield them from reasoned enforcement of consumer protection and civil rights laws and then sit at Counsel table right next to those banks, as happened in court this morning," Spitzer said. "My office has asked a number of leading banks to disclose information regarding the interest rates charged on home mortgage loans. At issue is whether minorities are being charged higher rates. Evidence already disclosed by the banks appears to show a significant racial disparity that could violate state civil rights laws, which my office is responsible for enforcing," he said.
Bush and team also held back the bank broker rules in Gramm Leach Blieley act of 1999 for 8 long years
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-190.htm SEC Votes for Final Rules Defining How Banks Can Be Securities Brokers Eight Years After Passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Key Provisions Will Now Be Implemented FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2007-190 Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2007 - Ending eight years of stalled negotiations and impasse, the Commission today voted to adopt, jointly with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), new rules that will finally implement the bank broker provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. The Board will consider these final rules at its Sept. 24, 2007 meeting. The Commission and the Board consulted with and sought the concurrence of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of Thrift Supervision.
Check out Reagan's brilliant idea to deregulate the savings and loan industry. Many younger Americans have never heard the term "savings and loan" let alone know it was a financial giant. But that giant was brought down by Republican deregulation. During your research, also check the name Neil Bush. It will help you understand why his record concerning the S&L debacle made him and his cronies richer, but ended any political aspirations he might have had. He left those plans to his brothers, Dubya and Jeb. .
the last time the republican party ha control of our economy they crashed it on purpose to make money. these documents prove that If you vote republican you vote for traitors to this nation
Of course minorities are charged higher interest - they are typically less credit-worthy thus, like all credit risks, pay more to borrow money. This is not racism, it's pure numbers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html By Eliot Spitzer Thursday, February 14, 2008 Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets. ad_icon Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers. Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices. What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no. Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye. Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers. In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules. But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation. Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on predatory and unfair lending would have in no way jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position. When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers. The writer is governor of New York.
