Deregulator Looks Back, Unswayed (Gramm)

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — Back in 1950 in Columbus, Ga., a young nurse working double shifts to support her three children and disabled husband managed to buy a modest bungalow on a street called Dogwood Avenue.

Phil Gramm, the former United States senator, often told that story of how his mother acquired his childhood home. Considered something of a risk, she took out a mortgage with relatively high interest rates that he likened to today’s subprime loans.

A fierce opponent of government intervention in the marketplace, Mr. Gramm, a Republican from Texas, recalled the episode during a 2001 Senate debate over a measure to curb predatory lending. What some view as exploitive, he argued, others see as a gift.

“Some people look at subprime lending and see evil. I look at subprime lending and I see the American dream in action,” he said. “My mother lived it as a result of a finance company making a mortgage loan that a bank would not make.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/economy/17gramm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[midnight]

1. Too bad his mom could not get the free gift of money that

the banks seem to think they deserve.....

[av8rdave]

2. He HAS to remain proud of his record

The Psychologists call it "cognitive dissonance."