Uncommon Commentary #42: Thanks to Frank the Crank, Banks Sank

Usury (lending at interest) was formerly considered a sin, and perhaps it still ought to be; nonetheless, it's about time that we refrained from damning bankers as sadists who delight in foreclosing on retirement homes and orphanages. Commercial affairs hold little interest for me, but it's become clear that the fiscal fiasco that gave birth to this recession resulted at least in part from banks' being politically coerced by congressmen like Barney Frank, and bullied by community-organizing Nazis like the ACORNs, into riskily lending money to home-buyers with bad credit ratings merely because they belonged to ethnic minorities; when too many of these customers defaulted on repayment, the banks failed. The prime lesson that we ought to have learned, therefore, is that one can deny a loan for a reason that has nothing to do with greed or heartlessness. Reviving—note that I didn't say "stimulating"—the economy, along with desisting from judgementalism about those who have more money than we, is in our own interest as well as that of bankers.