via Dismantled law could have cushioned recession’s fall | www.myajc.com.
Atlanta’s housing market has been so bad for so long that the last boom (some would say, bubble) is like some feverish, half-remembered dream. Buried somewhere within that dream is an even more elusive memory: For a brief moment in 2002, Georgia had a very tough consumer lending act, designed to prevent some of the very practices that sent the housing market — and with it, the economy — over the cliff.
The housing crisis was a product of complex forces, more powerful than a single law could contain. But the question remains: When Georgia lawmakers rolled back many of the act’s strongest features in 2003, did they throw away safeguards that could have softened the blow for millions of Georgians?
Those who championed the Georgia Fair Lending Act say, yes, absolutely — if left intact, it would have curbed unbridled mortgage lending to homeowners who could not afford to pay. Those who re-wrote the law say, no — if left in place, it would have stopped even the best-qualified homeowners from getting loans, putting Georgia’s housing market in the deep freeze years before the national crisis.
The truth, say independent experts, lies in between — but not right in the middle.
Comments ( 0 )