The American Spectator

Special Report

Financial Affirmative Action

By Matthew Vadum on 9.29.08 @ 12:08AM

(Page 2 of 2)

Even though Rabobank had received an "Outstanding" rating in its most recent CRA performance evaluation by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, that wasn't enough for Greenlining.

The group targeted Rabobank, demanding that it shell out $7.5 billion for loan programs to help farmworkers buy their own farms. When the bank balked, Greenlining launched a campaign last year against its proposed acquisition of another bank.

Activists noisily picketed Rabobank until it caved.

"Congratulations to everyone," "Rabobank is totally afraid of you," Greenlining's top legal dude Robert Gnaizda yelled in offering congratulations to at demonstrators through a bullhorn. "Rabobank is totally afraid of you." Earlier this year, Greenlining proudly unveiled what it called a "unique agreement" with Rabobank "to turn San Joaquin farmworkers into farmowners."

This is the kind of political activism that drove banks to make irresponsible decisions, and that now threatens to put taxpayers on the hook for bank bailout packages costing potentially trillions of dollars.

Even though the left's pathological preoccupation with economic egalitarianism never takes a vacation, the left isn't entirely to blame for Wall Street's current troubles.

The Federal Reserve Board encouraged bad behavior by keeping interest rates artificially low for far too long after the 9/11 attacks. Since money was cheap, bankers went overboard with exotic mortgage products, and investors kept inflating the housing bubble, sending home prices into the stratosphere.

But no one can deny the fateful role that these liberal financial activist groups played in making a bad situation much worse.

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