The federal government sued banks to force them to make risky mortgage loans. Andrew Cuomo, then secretary of Housing & Urban Development, bragged at a 1998 press conference about reaching a settlement with a major lender worth billions of dollars. Cuomo
even admitted he knew some of these loans would not be paid back. Nice thing to do with other people's money.
Some of the blame belongs to consumers, who borrowed money they knew they couldn't repay. They traded up & borrowed more than they could handl
because, well, we all deserve a big house, don't we? Owning a home is part of the American Dream. But getting it through an interest-only adjustable rate mortgage is more like a nightmare.
Predictably, after the meltdown the liberals called on the
government to adopt strict new regulations to ensure it will not happen again. (Good luck with that.) But more regulations can't solve what is largely an ethical problem within the culture. Unchecked avarice at every level has taken a toll on our economy
Cuomo delivered energetic speeches in which he lambasted Pataki for failing to improve the upstate economy. The governor has “taken the Empire State and made it the caboose on the economic train,” said Cuomo,
who promised, if elected, to make 2003 the year “the Empire State strikes back.”
Source: Elizabeth Benjamin, The Times Union
, Mar 24, 2002
