Sound Politics: It's In The P-I, And It's Wrong

September 08, 2006

It's In The P-I, And It's Wrong

A new round of annual, federally-mandated home lending data was released today by the Federal Reserve, and an Associated Press story which runs in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other papers nationwide largely reduces it to a matter of race. Quite stupidly. More here .

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at September 08, 2006 02:07 PM | Email This

Comments

1. You can be assured that a Caucasian with the same credit score as a Black or Hispanic in this study would be in the same boat.

Now news here.

Posted by: swassociates on September 8, 2006 01:55 PM

2. looks like the Times did a 'me too;' as soon as i saw part of the headline, i smelled race-baiting;

questions for readers of that article:
1--regardless of race, if your credit stinks, wouldn't you expect to pay more in interest & fees? or are we all to be equal and pay the same? don't bad drivers pay more in insurance?
2--why the focus on minorities? noble answer = to flush out discrimination; real answer = more titiliating for stories; i.e. the 'body on the highway' effect
3--where are the articles on the minority business successes & role models? too painful for liberals?
4--if minorities pay more, where are their community leaders helping to educate them rather than just complaining?
5--are the Asian minorities paying more? if not, why not? is it culture or choices?

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 8, 2006 02:02 PM

3. Unbelievable they could make this a race issue. But it goes to show what the Democrats pander to- socialism and communism. All people equal and your brain surgeon should get paid the same as the Domino pizza delivery man.

Posted by: swatter on September 8, 2006 02:04 PM

4. Did the study correlate income, existing debt, credit history and other credit factors with rates-paid? I'd suggest that these other credit quality items play a much more important role in determining rates than skin color.

Posted by: Libertarian on September 8, 2006 02:12 PM

5. Swatter - backwards. The Domino pizza delivery man should get the same pay as the brain surgeon.

Posted by: SouthernRoots on September 8, 2006 02:20 PM

6. thanks to newspapers for keeping the race flames alive; that justifies Univ. & government "departments of equity" continued existences and keeps the diversity consultants a-humming--ka-ching!! here comes another round of mandatory 'diversity financial training' sessions for the private sector; oh--and like the elections--in 8 different "American" languages, too;

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 8, 2006 02:27 PM

7. The Sky Is Falling....Women and Minorities Hardest Hit and yada yada yada and bla bla bla.

Posted by: JDH on September 8, 2006 02:28 PM

8. Hey you too can be a headline writer for the MSM. Try it it's fun. The The World Ends Tomorrow....Women and Minorities Hardest Hit and yada yada yada and bla bla bla.

Posted by: JDH on September 8, 2006 02:33 PM

9. So tell me again why I should aspire to get good credit and get a good quality job when I can get the same benefits as the Dominos pizza man (under the Democrat utopia)?

Posted by: swatter on September 8, 2006 03:03 PM

10. I'm so sick of this race baiting BS.

I'm one of those terrible white guys and my credit scores suck. So what's my excuse- short, balding, grey hair, eye glasses, it couldn't be my post divorce bankruptsee, it's got to be descrimination.

Accountability- don't think the word exists in liberal dictionaries.

Oh and by the way, I've paid off ALL debt to my creditors and never buy if I can't pay cash. Just in case someone was going to hit me with the accountability boomarang.

Posted by: Jeffro on September 8, 2006 03:29 PM

11. Swatter - backwards. The Domino pizza delivery man should get the same pay as the brain surgeon.

Posted by SouthernRoots at September 8, 2006 02:20 PM
==============

The pizza guy should get the same rate is he is as financially strong and credit-worthy as the brain surgeon. This may come as a shock, but personal financial management in NOT taught in medical school, nor is it taught in elementary, junior high, or high school either. Doctors have a chance at having lousy credit, too. It's not always the pizza guy who has the bad credit report.

Posted by: Libertarian on September 8, 2006 04:07 PM

12. What race are the Hispanics in the study? Hispanic is not a race, it is an ethnicity. Hispanics can be of any race. There are black Hispanics and there are white Hispanics and there are even asian Hispanics (Alberto Fujimori, the past President of Peru, comes to mind).

Do black Hispanics pay more than white Hispanics is a reasonable question, but one that can not be asked if you confuse a race with an ethnicity.

Any time you see stats that compare black (a race), white (a race) and Hispanic (an ethnicity) you can pretty well assume there is an agenda that does not include accuracy.

Posted by: Huey on September 8, 2006 06:32 PM

13. Hey Jeffro at 10: wait--white?--you sold me on, i thought, being non-white; that's why i rushed (like a liberal college kid) to "embrace" you (out of Shelby Steele's concept of White Guilt) and buy you that beer in the last post; (nice & cold, eh?)

now, i've been duped? well, not a problem; it was a PBR, not a local pricier hefeweizen; in any case, i still like you, skin aside; your views are great! (grin grin--joking)

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 8, 2006 07:41 PM

14. when are we going to get rid of these minority tracking systems; true, maybe it's nice to slice the stats in 100 different ways for marketing, but it's too devisive; just because a city is 15% "whatever," what rational argument dictates that 15% of its managers or 15% of its schools must be the same proportional rainbow shades?

at least the credit ratings and FICO scores look at the cumulative results of financial behavior--no matter how those behavoirs fall on the "rainbow;" same with driving redords and insurnace; screw up, pay more;

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 9, 2006 07:53 AM

15. I have seen variations on this theme for years. Several years back, the Times published on the front page a press release from the Southern Poverty Law Center regarding the disparate rates at which minorities (by which they meant blacks and hispanics) were denied home loans. One had to read well into the article before discovering that the data was "raw" and had not been factored for credit ratings. In other words, it was completely bogus. But the headline--along the lines of "Blacks and other minorities denied home loans at higher rate"--was yellow journalism at its finest.

But then, what else can anyone expect from the antique media? I would be much more surprised if any of our local msm outlets actually did any decent reporting/writing and fact-checking.

Posted by: iconoclast on September 9, 2006 10:16 AM