Edmund Mierzwinski on how financial regulation can be used as a community organizing tool: Typically, federal regulation is the province of government bureaucrats and industry interest groups. These regulations enhanced citizenship. The result has been a system that, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), has since 1977 leveraged over $6 trillion in reinvestment dollars through CRA agreements with banks providing credit for "affordable housing, small businesses, economic development, and community service facilities in minority and low- and moderate-income neighborhoods" in both cities and rural areas. As a longtime activist, observer, and frequent critic of the bank regulators, my experience is that the law's simple design and its involvement of citizens have also forced the regulators to become more creative. KEEP READING...
