Last week I wrote on ACORN’s voter fraud cases and the Cloward-Piven Strategy they seem to be using to undermine the legitimacy of elections. The same day, the New York Times ran an article wherein they revealed that 400,000 of ACORN’s registrations were rejected, out of the 1.3 million they sent in.
    The Cloward-Piven Strategy is to inundate government with impossible demands, create a manufactured crisis and use the crisis as a to strike at capitalism.
    The financial crisis was entirely because of the housing market collapsing. Since the 1990s, housing prices have increased faster than the rate of inflation, but in the last year they have decreased.
    It just so happens that the Community Reinvestment Act gave the government much broader authority to enforce requirements for private banks to offer loans to low-income households in 1989.     The changes in the 1980s and ‘90s forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to devote a portion of their loans to low-income housing. Because these government corporations were putting money into sub-prime loans and backing them, it became easier for the working poor to buy a house and apply for a loan.
    One nonpartisan group lobbied for the CRA and subsequent changes. It turns out ACORN has been very active in ensuring “affordable housing” is mandated by the government.
    It campaigned for the CRA and against “predatory loans” - without accepting that loans are agreed upon by both the bank and the homeowners. The simple truth is that loans are voluntary.
    In 2002, ACORN brought a class-action lawsuit against Household International to prevent home foreclosures. Banks being reviewed for CRA compliance were persuaded by ACORN to make dangerous loans to financially unstable households. In 2000, the Bank of New York committed $760 million to ACORN’s housing program for disadvantaged mortgage seekers.
    In the end, a large group of people were getting sub-prime loans for their houses without the means to assure they would have money to pay for it. This drove up demand for houses – and prices – until the bubble finally burst.
    In the meantime, banks had purchased numbers of mortgage-backed securities, made many loans and were left holding the bag when homeowners started defaulting while owing more on their houses than they were worth.
    Voila, crisis.
    People are worried about their stocks, banks and homes and are demanding the government take action to help them. Businesses are going hat-in-hand, asking for assistance. There is increased clamor for socializing the banking industry, increasing regulation and removing the risks inherent in free markets.
    The presidential candidate with a socialist solution to everything regained his lead in the polls immediately following the collapse of Wall Street.
    These the results a Cloward-Piven strategist would aim for. The great number of risky loans forced upon banks led to a crisis that eroded trust in free markets. It is difficult to guard against the encroachments of government when you’re fighting for your daily bread.
    Because the financial meltdown was of such extraordinary proportions, pinning one cause is difficult. However, it is not overly taxing to consider that the sub-prime mortgage market was fueled by loans to people incapable of paying back. 
    It is also perfectly believable that ACORN was acting simply on what it deemed the best interests of low-income families, guaranteeing them houses. However, the political results of this discombobulation of the markets seem oddly aligned with ACORN’s political goals, and the leaders of ACORN are familiar with the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
    In the end, ACORN helped break the bank.