Mortgage fraud

The phrase "sub prime mortgage" really means a mortgage against a property of whatever value advanced to someone where the documentation was poor or non-existent, so the risk of default was commensurately greater. Some have argued that the policy of the Clinton administration in "encouraging" lenders to make mortgages available to the socially disadvantaged was responsible. Once the banks had had a solution for offsetting their lending risk peddled to them by the snake oil merchants of Wall Street, everyone else jumped in on the act. While the Community Reinvestment Act may have been introduced in 1977, its aggressive use started under the Clinton Administration. Some have suggested that a lesbian started the banks and other lending institutions towards that grand cock-up we have today, the financial mess on Wall Street. Her name is Roberta Achtenberg and she was Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Clinton. Whatever the source (and there will have been many), billing in the public sector has been hit and will need tax increases to fulfill its community obligations. And the law enforcement folks should have years of work ahead of them.