Law Commons^™

Advancing The Cra—Using The Cra's Strategic Plan Option To Promote Community Inclusion: The Cra And Community Inclusion, Cassandra Jones Havard

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Banks, banking regulators, and community organizations have spent nearly thirty years interpreting and re-interpreting the simple but ambiguous mandate of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The statute imposes an affirmative duty requiring "regulated financial institutions to have continuing... obligations to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered." The CRA was met with much resistance and lax enforcement for almost a decade. Active protest from community groups, a more defined CRA exam, and innovative, profitable lending strategies, have resulted in a dramatic increase in community reinvestment dollar commitments and in loans to low- and …

To Lend Or Not To Lend: What The Cra Ought To Say About Sub-Prime And Predatory Lending, Cassandra Jones Havard

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Policies that support the expansion of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income persons must be reconciled with those policies that undercut the sustainability of home ownership. The sub-prime market represents a much needed expansion of credit markets to those who have been denied access to credit though they are creditworthy. The high failure rate of the sub-prime market indicates that market forces are ineffective in halting this economic abuse. This article argues that the public policy choices and justifications for certain practices have marginalized the concerns of particular consumer classes. It challenges the premise that the free market can and …

How To Steal A Trillion: The Uses Of Laws About Lawmaking In 2001, Charles Tiefer

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How did Congress pass President Bush's 2001 trillion-dollar tax cut pass without the necessary consensus shape and without the 60 Senate votes required to overcome resistance? How was the House able to give "fast track" treatment to laws designed to implement future trade deals? How was the 2001 Congress able to reject a new workplace ergonomic rule that would otherwise become law? In 2001, American lawmakers passed laws to make controversial laws, forcing the important question about whether laws about lawmaking actually serve the public interest.

In this article, the author explores the constitutional limits on laws about lawmaking and …