CRL’s growing scandal
April 17, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending | Comments (0)Big Government is on the case in a post headlined, “Goldman-Sachs fall from grace”:
John Paulson is an interesting guy: He was one of a handful of hedge-fund managers who bet the mortgage-bond market would decline beginning in late 2006, and made billions from that bet. Here is where the SEC charges get interesting: Goldman allowed Paulson to help create the bond and to put some of the most risky mortgages in the portfolio, or mortgages that were most likely to default and tank the investment.
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Read the whole thing here. John Paulson hasn’t been charged in this affair, but it is interesting that he has such a significant supporting role. As Big Government readers know, Paulson is the largest single donor to the Center for Responsible Lending, a leftist advocacy group that is part of a complicated web of non-profits and private investment funds. A leading executive of CRL is now at the Treasury Department, overseeing the proposed “Consumer Financial Protection Agency.” Paulson is becoming Wall Street’s Zelig, who keeps showing up in very interesting places.
CRL’s connection to Goldman-Sachs scandal
April 16, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)John Paulson, the hedge fund gazillionaire, who shorted the subprime market and who gave Center for Responsible Lending $15 million, is mentioned in the SEC case against Goldman Sachs. From the Huffington Post:
The SEC claims Goldman Sachs and one of its top officers misled investors by not disclosing that hedge fund manager John Pauson, who made billions betting against the housing market, selected the assets that went into a complex security called “Abacaus.”
Paulson & Co. is one of the world’s largest hedge funds, and paid Goldman roughly $15 million for structuring these deals in 2007.
How’d we miss this?
April 15, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending | Comments (0)Thanks to the person who sent it to me. From Big Government two days ago:
John Paulson, one of the world’s richest hedge fund managers, has not been shy about spreading his wealth to Senate campaign coffers — or to the chairman of the committee that could directly affect his bottom line.
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As we reported, John Paulson invested $15 million in the Center for Responsible Lending, its largest single “gift” ever. An executive of that organization is now at the Treasury Department, helping to design the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. My, that’s handy for Paulson.
Biased coverage
March 17, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, industry, media coverage | Comments (1)The crux of my complaints about the biased coverage of payday lending lending:
- “Profits”–There continues to be the glib assertion in many stories that the industry makes large profits. I challenge any reporter to provide evidence of this. The public companies report profits of between four and eight percent.
- Lobbying–The media covers all industry lobbying activity, including ours, as if there is something devious about it despite the fact that it’s a constitutionally protected practice that is vital to democracy. Our critics’ lobbying efforts are virtually unreported on. Has there ever been a story about how many lobbyists Center for Responsible Lending has? Or how many they hired after receiving money from billionaire hedge fund mogul John Paulson? Of course not.
- Perspective–The payday lending industry makes $345 loans on average. Its total revenues are just over $7 billion. The industry has no macro impact on the economy. Does this industry warrant the relentless coverage that it’s receiving?
CRL and CFPA
March 16, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending | Comments (0)Commented on over at Check ‘n Go’s blog.
The Irresponsible Center for Responsible Lending
March 15, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, industry, research | Comments (1)Wow. This new report from the Capital Research Center just popped up on my google search.
What is the Center for Responsible Lending?
March 12, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)Big Government.com is taking a look in the must-read of the day:
The Center is headed by liberal crusader Martin Eakes. In 2008 Politico referred to Eakes as the “main intellectual engine driving Democratic responses to the housing crisis.”
The Center’s primary benefactors over the years have been the subprime mortgage speculators Herb and Marion Sandler who have given the nonprofit at least $20 million.
Unlike higher profile high-dollar liberal donors such as George Soros and insurance tycoon Peter B. Lewis (his company is called Progressive for a reason), the Sandlers have received very little media attention. They shelled out $13 million to left-wing groups in a failed effort to prevent President Bush’s reelection in 2004. This made them the third most generous donors in 2004 behind Soros ($27 million) and Lewis ($23 million).
The Sandlers have also given sizeable chunks of cash to the highly influential Center for American Progress, the liberal “action” tank run by Obama transition co-chief John Podesta. Incidentally, Podesta’s outfit recently put disgraced former green jobs czar Van Jones on the payroll. Jones is the self-described revolutionary communist forced from office last year when it was discovered that he was a 9/11 truther:
Center for Responsible Lending unhappy
January 15, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, federal legislation, industry | Comments (1)It’s amazing how there is an inverse relationship to CRL’s happiness and mine. From today’s American Banker:
Mike Calhoun, the president of the Center for Responsible Lending, agreed. “We are skeptical that there is any structure other than a free-standing agency where the consumer regulator is not pressured by the same interests that produced the crisis that we are still trying to get out of.”
This is rich
January 15, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, alternatives, customers, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)The Justice Department is investigating banks and mortgage lenders that discriminate against minorities. From today’s New York Times:
The Justice Department is beginning a major campaign against banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending, opening a new front in the Obama administration’s response to the foreclosure crisis.
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“They encourage lenders to make risky loans for reasons such as diversity, and then when lenders have a problem because they made too many risky loans, they condemn them for that,” said Ernest Istook, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma.
And I would add, if you don’t discriminate in any respect, such as payday lenders, you are criticized for “targeting.”
Note that a lawyer from the Center for Responsible Lending has been hired by the Justice Department to pursue this investigation.
Never enough
November 16, 2009 | Center for Responsible Lending | Comments (0)There is no compromise with the Center for Responsible Lending. From their latest news release:
Statement of Eric Halperin, director of the Washington D.C. office of the Center for Responsible Lending:
“The Federal Reserve Board’s action today on debit card overdraft fees legitimizes an abusive product without providing any substantive protections for bank customers. We appreciate that the Fed chose to implement the strongest overdraft reform rule it was considering, namely requiring banks and credit unions to ask new and existing customers before charging overdraft fees on debit card transactions. But this improvement is undermined by the Fed’s failure to propose or enact necessary safeguards against a host of unfair practices.
They will not be happy until no one makes any money providing financial services to working people.
