Here is an article by Elliott Spitzer, from the same website:
www.globalresearch.ca...
"Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory
lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay,
making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying
illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these
practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets..."
"Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
(OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC
examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first
time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions
preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from
enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented
that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
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."
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Looks like you're right on the money.
