I am writing in response to Wally’s World column (Courier-Herald, Feb. 16). I would agree with Wally that Taibbi is a bit biased and ignores evidence to the contrary.

I would like to provide another view of which I believe to be based on fact.

As “the first black president,” William Jefferson Clinton had a strong following among black voters and wanted to secure their loyalty. He hatched a scheme to use the banks to close the “mortgage gap” between blacks and whites. He was not happy with lagging homeownership rates among blacks and therefore set a goal to push homeownership for the first time above 50 percent. Clinton launched a multi-front assault on banks involving more than 100 specific options – none of which required new legislation and all of which managed to avoid serious public scrutiny. Using his executive powers, he revised federal anti-redlining rules by setting numerical targets for lending in predominately black census tracks, while mandating that banks adjust flexible underwriting standards to hit those targets. Hence, the ball started rolling.

The subprime market indeed grew rapidly in response to Clinton’s mandate and subprime loan standards deteriorated rapidly. Virtually overnight, an embryonic business grew into a trillion-dollar industry.

When Clinton enlisted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fund minority homeownership, he triggered a shift to Wall Street-based funding of junk mortgage lending that ultimately proved lethal to the entire financial system.

Clinton’s crusade to close the mortgage gap backfired terribly. The gains in black homeownership that Clinton crowed about have collapsed along with the subprime bubble he created.

Obviously, there is a lot more to this story that began in 1993 and is continuing with the Obama administration, because a lot of people that worked in the Clinton administration are in the Obama administration. Information is available if one wants to seek out the facts.

How do I know any of this? I am retired from banking.

Loyall Kissee

Havre, Mont.