Predatory Lenders | featured news

The Justice Department is expected to announce Wednesday a settlement with Bank of America Corp. that resolves accusations that its Countrywide Financial unit engaged in discriminatory mortgage-lending practices, according to a person familiar with the matter.

It is far too easy to say that minorities have only themselves to blame for their wealth decline because they bought homes they couldn’t afford. That argument would let so many off the hook. It would excuse the government for its monumental failure to tame predatory lenders. And it would absolve the lenders who came up with exotic mortgages that should never have been pitched ubiquitously, especially not to financially fragile minority borrowers. But blaming the victim is what we do so well in America.