NYT obscures blame for financial crisis

A New York Times article testerday tries to spread the blame for the current financial crisis equally among Wall Street, Congress and the "White House". This blurring of responsibility is shameful.

Much of the blame, as we now know, lies with Congress, particularly Democrat members of Congress who compelled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower their standards of risk to exponentially increase loans to the disadvantaged. Those efforts are the root of this crisis.

We should also note how the reporters just write about the "White House". Which White House? Just reading the article one would naturally conclude that it was the Bush White House that played a role in the crisis.

In reality we know Bush and many Republicans, including John McCain, warned about the risks and tried to get a handle on the situation years before it became a crisis. Their efforts were stymied primarily by Democrat Congressmen.

We also know it was the Clinton White House that played a key role in causing the crisis, by their efforts to strengthen the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act to expand loans to previously unqualified borrowers, who have now defaulted on their mortgages.

Nowhere in the article is the Community Reinvestment Act mentioned -- yet that is the founding document of this crisis.

['the paper of record']

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