The CRA as a scapegoat thing has been debunked so many times it gets tiring sometimes.
Fact 1: CRA only applies to commercial banks and savings associations
Fact 2: over half of all subprime loans were made by investment banks, broker-dealers, and so on, which are not regulated at all by the CRA
Fact 3: about 1/4 of all subprime loans were made by bank affiliates which are also not covered by the cra
Discuss the logic of the CRA all you like. In fact, it can even be a great example of regulatory lag, given how ineffectual it has been. But the idea that the CRA generated the current mess is absolutely false.
Now, the idea that American capitalism is somehow under peril is non-sense. The US was never the libertarian utopia many seem to think, and all it takes is a brief look at the history of railroads and canals in the US to realize that.
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