We're in This Together

In a NYT article dated 30 September 1999, Steven A. Holmes offers the following:

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

and

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of [subprime]lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

This economic crisis has been a long time coming and is owed to an impressive, complex array of social, political, and economic factors.

In light of my last post, I find in this piece further evidence that we must work together, with neither acrimony nor extreme partisanship, to make informed policies that address social inequity while protecting the nation's infrastructure to the benefit of all.