Is Andrew Cuomo really “The Father of the Subprime Crises?”
Joe Biden is said to be considering Andrew Cuomo as a member of his cabinet. So it is important to look at Cuomo’s record from when he was Bill Clinton’s HUD Secretary from January 29, 1997 – January 20, 2001.
As HUD Secretary, Andrew Cuomo oversaw the removal of key US lending regulations. He also put pressure, with the threat of huge fines, on banks to give out risky home loans in the pursuit of racial equality.
Andrew Cuomo advocated a conspiracy theory in which large numbers of bankers used lending regulations as a false-pretense to deny home loans to black Americans.
In this short video clip, then HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo lays out his theory that laws against risky lending were being used for “insidious institutionalized discrimination” against black Americans.
On multiple occasions, Andrew Cuomo explicitly referred to his policies as “affirmative action lending.” He also stated openly that his policies would increase the number of people defaulting on their home loans.
The context of the short clip below is that Cuomo is holding a press conference to boast about a discrimination settlement with a large bank. The bank agreed to take $2.1 Billion dollars and earmark it for what Cuomo describes as “affirmative action” home loans. Cuomo says point-blank that the money will be given to people who otherwise would not have qualified and openly says that the “default rate” would be higher than normal.
Andrew Cuomo’s vision of what home lending should look like came crashing down with a wild surge in defaults beginning in 2007. In 2008, major financial institutions began collapsing. Between 2007 and 2010, there were nearly four million foreclosures in the USA. This became known as the “Subprime Mortgage Crises,” and caused severe harm to both the American as well as the global economy. Black Americans defaulted on home loans at far higher rates than other Americans.
Ultimately, black Americans, on average, suffered financial ruin at far higher rates than other Americans. The state of New York elected him Governor in December 2010.
