Angeledis leaves out the government’s role in creating this crisis. That aspect is glaringly absent in his article and his Report. Certainly there was plenty of blame to go around for this crisis in both the public and the private sector. I doubt that it would have ever happened if the Clinton administration had not put the Community Reinvestment Act on steroids.
In the administration’s rush to make home ownership affordable to everyone, regardless of their clients inability to pay, these sub prime mortgages still proved to be unaffordable.
Angeledis was also the Secretary of the California Treasury when this was going on, as Rick Sperry pointed out in his book, “The Great American Bank Robbery.” He stated, “Angeledis steered billions of dollars in state funds to CRA friendly banks that loaded up with subprime and other risky investments. Then he sank billions more into subprime securites backed by Freddie Mac.He also urged the state’s two biggest pension funds - the California Public Employees Retirement System and the CaliforniaTeachers retirement system - to invest more in the state’s urban communities.” California took a bath suffering huge losses as a result of Angeledis advice. But then he seemed to have escaped blame by leaving office in 2007, the year the crisis broke.
Angeledis white washed report and his article are examples of revisionist history at its worst.
Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted. And we couldn't agree more. First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Even by the extraordinarily loose standards of Congress, it takes some chutzpah for someone such as Frank to suggest that he'll seek prosecutions for those behind the housing and financial crunch and for what he called "a strongly empowered systemic risk regulator." Frank: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's point man in Washington. For Frank, perhaps more than any single individual in private or public life, is responsible for both the housing market mess and subsequent bank disaster. And no, this isn't partisan hyperbole or historical exaggeration. But first, a little trip down memory lane. (Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorial.com ...
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8-5-08----Village Voice
CUOMO AND BILL CLINTON CREATED CONDITIONS FOR MELTDOWN
Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history, made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to the country’s current crisis.
He took actions that—in combination with many other factors—helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the sub-prime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded “kickbacks” to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans.
Three to four million families are now facing foreclosure, and Cuomo is one of the reasons why. . . SOURCE http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-08-05/news/how-andrew-cuomo-gave-birth-to-the-crisis-at-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/
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Feb 8, 2010
Editorial, The Wall St Journal
FR Posted February 08, 2010 by The Raven ...
HUD's Web visitors learn that in 1999 "Secretary Cuomo established new Affordable Housing Goals requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—two government sponsored enterprises involved in housing finance—to buy $2.4 trillion in mortgages in the next 10 years. This will mean new affordable housing for about 28.1 million low- and moderate-income families.
The historic action raised the required percentage of mortgage loans for low- and moderate-income families that the companies must buy from the current 42 percent of their total purchases to a new high of 50 percent—a 19 percent increase—in the year 2001." ... (Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
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REFERENCE Entitled, "Highlights of HUD Accomplishments 1997-1999," the document chronicles the "accomplishments under the leadership of Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who took office in January 1997."
HUD's Web visitors learn that in 1999: "Secretary Cuomo established new Affordable Housing Goals requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—two government sponsored enterprises involved in housing finance—to buy $2.4 trillion in mortgages in the next 10 years. This will mean new affordable housing for about 28.1 million low- and moderate-income families.
Cuomo's historic action raised the required percentage of mortgage loans for low- and moderate-income families that the companies must buy from the current 42% of their total purchases to a new high of 50%—-----a 19% increase—in the year 2001."