Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess

The below article highlights the 2 real culprits in the mortgage crisis. First, you have the big corporations with deep pockets such as Ameriquest. Second, and even more culpable, you have the politicians who are actually willing to listen.

I do not fault the consumers and subprime borrorers. My view is that laws are put in place to control primitave human impulses. It is human nature to want "more". Here, the greedy politicians and corporations dropped the ball by blatantly allowing the mortgage industry to act without limitations. The end result was that you had millions of borrowers wanting (and getting) "more"- (unfortuantely) more than they could actually afford.

In my view, every lender and every politician should be held accountable. Politicians should be forced to give back those donations and pass appropriate legislature. Lenders should be forced to re-write mortgages in a manner that would somehow allow the borrower-victims to keep their homes. I know this will never happen... just the sensless wishes of a Political Junkie...

Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess Ameriquest Pressed For Changes in Laws; A Battle in New Jersey

by GLENN R. SIMPSON

During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit.

Ameriquest Mortgage Co., until recently one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of Washington lobbyists, it handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on reckless lending, critics of the industry contend.

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