From:
Tim Salo
Date:
Oct 14 07:17 UTC
Short link
Business Week (of all places) has a very nice article about
how local officials tried to control the subprime mortgage
market. However, they were thwarted by federal authorities.
States warned about impending mortgage crisis:
Bush administration, financial industry thwarted
efforts to curb greed
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27121535/
It doesn't look like Minneapolis could have done much more
that say: "This is a problem in the making".
The article does point out that having banking institutions
regulated by a large number of local governments creates lots
of problems. Of course, this becomes an issue only when no
one is home at the federal regulatory agencies.
In my view, the current administration has once again
seriously overreached and has singlehandedly triggered
events that will reverse three decades of steady deregulation.
Now, if the federal government would, as a condition of
investing in failing banks, prevent them from fining
customers for, say being an hour late in their payment,
the world would be a better place.