I Don’t Think It’s Got Anything to Do With “Learning”
What is the most dismaying thing about “Some Bankers Never Learn,” Gretchen Morgenson’s article documenting mortgage bankers’ efforts to sabotage legislation (Dodd-Frank) 
aimed at cleaning up lending standards?
It’s not the bankers disingenuously arguing that tighter standards will unfairly limit home ownership.
It’s not the bankers’ willful obliviousness to the hundreds of billions spent (so far) propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which supposedly were all about “expanding home ownership” (and which Wall Street has conveniently cast as the scapegoat for its own role cratering the housing market and broader economy).
No, the most depressing thing (to me) in Morgenson’s article is what David Stevens, the President of the Mortgage Bankers Association — and mouthpiece for the foregoing arguments — did for a living up until last March.
His former job?
Federal Housing Commissioner at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”).
Do ‘ya think Mr. Stevens was an aggressive advocate for taxpayers and consumers in his former capacity at HUD?
Nah, me neither.
