Consumer Law

Eliot Spitzer: Bush Administration Stymied States In Efforts to Stop Predatory Lending Crisis

By Brian Wolfman

by Brian Wolfman

Check out this op-ed by Eliot Spitzer in today's Washington Post. The N.Y. Governor and former N.Y. attorney general argues that the Bush Administration, by insisting that federal law preempted the states' efforts to curb predatory lending, created and perpetuated the mortgage crisis. Spitzer explains that the states enacted laws and filed suits to try to curb predatory practices because they saw the current crisis looming. Sptizer explains the federal government's role:

"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."

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).