Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[big-yank]

The clergy letter blames banks and mortgage lending for wealth disparity between whites and blacks, but chooses to ignore that income disparity and the concentration of minorities in inner cities where many available jobs repose is the real culprit. You cannot blame banks for this.

The goal of the letter is worthwhile. I suspect its real motive is some form of housing subsidy for low income borrowers and is unrelated to GSE reform at Fannie & Freddie. But that may be worthwhile, on its own merits.

The truth is that the parishes represented by the clergy signing the letter are not neighborhoods where affordable homes are available for sale to anyone. The lone exception may be Astoria, Queens, but even that would be a stretch. Harlem, the Bronx, etc. are not places where single family homes are available at a price any low income family could afford. Those neighborhoods are mostly dominated by tenements, apartment buildings and multiple tenant dwellings, not single family homes, and even dilapidated single family properties carry enormous price tags because they are within the city and in demand by property flippers.

The political gravitas for Schumer will inevitably become congressional resistance to replacing bail out of banks with bail out of blacks. The banks are better campaign donors.

JMHO.