NY Governor Scorches The Bush Administration On Predatory Lending

In a recent article in The Washington Post, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer scorches the Bush Administration for its actions in impeding the state Attorneys General from all fifty states in their attempts to protect consumers from the actions of predatory lenders throughout the country. An excerpt from the article:

• 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.

For more, see Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime (How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers).