“Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York’s, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.

“What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

“Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02783.html

One month later he’s outed and resigns.

Hopefully we will now be rid of gulags.

And what would you advice they buy? What stocks are cheap, where are the potential gains to be made? Would you want to tell Americans to buy the stock of the biggest losers (in more than one sense), the AIG’s and CIti’s of the world, the companies that you have now transferred trillions of dollars to that belonged to the same Americans in the first place that you now suggest buy the shares?

How about shares in GM and Ford, who today announced sales that are down 53% and 48%, respectively, numbers that ensure unemployment for millions of additional Americans, regardless of future ingestion of government billions? You want the men and women who just lost their jobs, and likely much of their pensions, to go out and buy shares in their former employers? Is that what you want? Am I the only one around here who thinks of terms like ‘cynical’ and ‘perverted’ when I think this over? How dare you sir, how dare you? Have you no shame?”

” But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.”

The editorial appeared the day after Spitzer’s ill-fated rendezvous with the prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel. With that article, some Washington insiders believe, Spitzer signed his own political death warrant.

On March 4, 2008, Spitzer furthermore proposed legislation that would have imposed penalties for mortgage fraud and predatory lending. ”

http://www.projectcensored.org…..t-spitzer/

Don’t buy stocks. Break capitalism now.