Economic crisis caused by civil rights legislation

[Conservationist]

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...3EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&scp=1&sq=&st=nyt&rss

I find this irritating. We know charity can be seen as important, but one of the cardinal rules of giving is not to endanger the seed of the giving, which is the financial health of the middle class. If we ruin ourselves, we cannot give, and can't do much else either