So what did and does Hammering Hank Paulson think of the Community Reinvestment Act? He was Secretary of the Treasury, in charge of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulate national banks and saving banks, respectively, including for CRA.
But on February 2 on the Larry Kudlow show, when Kudlow included CRA among the causes of the economic crash, Paulson said nothing, then agreed, "That's right... you had all of this going on."
From the transcript:
Mr. PAULSON: Well, what you need to understand is what had happened before even the middle of '07, which is you'd had these excesses had been building up for some times. You'd had a--we had been overstimulating housing. So if you look at the combined weight of all of our policies in the US government...
KUDLOW: Wait. It's HUD-backed, unaffordable mortgage loans, Fannie and Freddie?
Mr. PAULSON: What you have--yeah, yeah, Fannie and Freddie, the FHA, various state programs.
KUDLOW: Community Reinvestment Act.
Mr. PAULSON: You know, mortgage interest deduction. I'm not saying of them were...KUDLOW: Zero capital gains tax on home sales.
Mr. PAULSON: That's right. And so you had--so you had all of this going on
Meanwhile, click HERE for an InnerCityPress.com article last week about Paulson's book.
