Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread (NYT from Dec. 2007)

[Canuckistanian]

WASHINGTON — Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well have been talking to themselves.
But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman.

In 2001, a senior Treasury official, Sheila C. Bair, tried to persuade subprime lenders to adopt a code of “best practices” and to let outside monitors verify their compliance. None of the lenders would agree to the monitors, and many rejected the code itself. Even those who did adopt those practices, Ms. Bair recalled recently, soon let them slip.

And leaders of a housing advocacy group in California, meeting with Mr. Greenspan in 2004, warned that deception was increasing and unscrupulous practices were spreading.

John C. Gamboa and Robert L. Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute implored Mr. Greenspan to use his bully pulpit and press for a voluntary code of conduct.

“He never gave us a good reason, but he didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Gnaizda said last week. “He just wasn’t interested.”


John Gamboa and Robert Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute, a housing advocacy group, warned the Fed in 2004 about unscrupulous lenders.

more....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/business/18subprime.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Just a little bit of interesting history from last year.

[AzDar]

1. Why, then they wouldn't be able to roll out their massive scam in Sept. of '08.

Conduct, schmonduct....


:puke:

[On the Road]

2. Pretty Damning for Alan Greenspan

I've never known whether the blame assigned to him are 20-20 hindsight or not. But this really does not sound good.