Kevin D. Williamson writes, “We’ve heard much from the media about CDOs, CDSs, and other previously obscure abbreviations. But we should be hearing more about this acronym: ACORN”:

Imagine if the housing bubble hadn’t burst, but there hadn’t been all those dodgy subprime loans made and then securitized. We’d be reading stories about how America is having a wonderful housing boom but the poor and minorities are being left out. There’s lots of greed and stupidity in this story, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that a big part of what is wrong comes from bad public policy designed to encourage homeownership, particularly among the poor. Unintended consequences are not to be denied. 

But we’re not going to hear much about ACORN’s role in all this, or, by extension, Senator Obama’s.

Or as Robert Stowe England wrote in 1993:

QUIETLY, behind the scenes, the Clinton Administration is preparing for the biggest regulatory crackdown of recent years. Attorney General Janet Reno is linking up with banking regulators and with HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros to end the supposed epidemic of discrimination against minorities in making home loans. The implications for society at large are ominous. 

Paging Cassandra. Miss Cassandra to the red courtesy phone, please.

Update: Robert Bidinotto has a recent post chockablock with links, quotes, and updates titled, “Why the Bubble Burst.”