When will right wing dupes stop blaming Dems and the CRA for the mortgage meltdown?

The loans that banks were "forced" to make under the CRA played an insignificant role in the financial crash of 2007/08. See transcript below from the Report to Congress on the causes of the crash.

The "flaw" in Greenspan's model of the free market policing itself as well as the rating agency's crimes were the real culprits.

The Community Reinvestment Act

Stories and opinion articles in the popular press have identified the Community Reinvestment Act

(CRA) as a culprit in the foreclosure crisis. CRA was passed by Congress in 1977 with the goal of

encouraging banks to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they have branches, with a

specific emphasis on low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Banks are subject to reviews to see

if they are meeting their CRA goals. Since a bank’s CRA rating is considered when banks seek to

engage in mergers or acquisitions, CRA’s regulations are taken seriously by banks. There is fairly

significant evidence that CRA has, in fact, resulted in an increase in credit flows to low- and

moderate-income areas where CRA-covered institutions have branches (Apgar and Duda, 2003).

Critics of the CRA claim that the wave of risky lending was generated in no small part by banks

having been pushed into making these loans to meet their CRA requirements.

37

While not supported

by any in depth empirical analysis, this argument has gained enough prominence that a variety of

newspapers have written editorials to counter these arguments.

38

There is a variety of empirical

evidence that supports the view that CRA’s requirements played little or no role in producing the

foreclosure crisis.

One key argument against CRA having played a significant role in the foreclosure crisis is that only a

very small share of the high-priced loans that have been a key driver of the crisis were originated by

CRA-covered institutions in geographic areas where they are subject to CRA assessment.