Amazingly the NYT acknowledges how great and varied a role Clinton appointee Henry Cisneros played in America's housing disaster:As the Clinton administration's top housing official in the mid-1990s, Mr. Cisneros loosened mortgage restrictions so first-time buyers could qualify for loans they could never get before.Then, capitalizing on a housing expansion he helped unleash, he joined the boards of a major builder, KB Home, and the largest mortgage lender in the nation, Countrywide Financial - two companies that rode the housing boom, drawing criticism along the way for abusive business practices. And Mr. Cisneros became a developer himself. The Lago Vista development here in his hometown once stood as a testament to his life's work.. . .The causes of the housing implosion are many: lax regulation, financial innovation gone awry, excessive debt, raw greed. The players are also varied: bankers, borrowers, developers, politicians and bureaucrats.Mr. Cisneros, 61, had a foot in a number...(Read Full Post)