Wolf,

I appreciate the background on the CRA, but I don't see how this directly caused the problem of the housing crisis --> recession.

I doubt inner city and distressed rural communities were getting loans out of their league.

Rather it was the high-rolling, high-growth areas like California, Las Vegas, etc. that had inflated housing costs, and bankers were all to willing to loan money for ridiculously-priced homes to anyone.

Then they securitized those loans and sold them, and sold derivatives on them as well.

These types of "investments" and financial "products" were the result of the Phil Gramms and Dick Armeys of the world pushing for deregulation.

And of course now we know how the Tea Partiers want to blame ACORN for all of the mess in which we found ourselves.

There is plenty of blame to go around on all sides. The question is how do we move forward so it doesn't happen again?