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Rise and Fall of Henry Cisneros |
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Saturday, 02 May 2009 |
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Rise and Fall of Predatory Lending and Housing
NY Times: Building Flawed American Dreams
NEW YORK TIMES: Building Flawed American Dreams
As the Clinton administration’s top housing official in the mid-1990s, Mr. Cisneros loosened mortgage restrictions so first-time buyers could qualify for loans they could never get before. Then, capitalizing on a housing expansion he helped unleash, he joined the boards of a major builder, KB Home, and the largest mortgage lender in the nation, Countrywide Financial — two companies that rode the housing boom, drawing criticism along the way for abusive business practices...The causes of the housing implosion are many: lax regulation, financial innovation gone awry, excessive debt, raw greed. The players are also varied: bankers, borrowers, developers, politicians and bureaucrats...For the three years he was a director at KB Home, Mr. Cisneros received at least $70,000 in pay and more than $100,000 worth of stock. He also received $1.14 million in directors’ fees and stock grants during the six years he was a director at Countrywide. He made more than $5 million from Countrywide stock options, money he says he plowed into his company. Read more...
See related articles:
Express-News: Henry Cisneros on the hot seat
Henry Cisneros: FOX Interview - Mortgage Fraud and
Collapse of Housing Market
Editorial Prediction, Nov 5, 2006: Recipe for Profits
New York Times: Times Topics By Gretchen Morgenson
HUD Leaders Bad Poicy:
Homewreckers Cisneros & Martinez
Express News: Cisneros says he didn't get special treatment
Related articles: HUD's Broken System
YouTube: I want some TARP
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It was, he argues, impossible to know in the beginning that the federal push to increase homeownership would end so badly. Once the housing boom got going, he suggests, laws and regulations barely had a chance...From people dizzily drawing home equity loans out of increasingly valuable houses to banks racking up huge fees, few wanted the party to end.
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