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February 14, 2020

Bloomberg Criticized for Falsely Blaming 2008 Crisis on End of Redlining
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Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is facing criticism
over a recently resurfaced video clip that shows him blaming the 2008
mortgage and financial crisis on the elimination of a long-standing
racist lending policy known as "redlining." This is Michael Bloomberg
speaking to Georgetown University President John De Gioia in 2008.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "It probably all started back when there was a
lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone. 'Redlining,' if you
remember, was the term where banks took whole neighborhoods and said,
'People in these neighborhoods are poor. They're not going to be able to
pay off their mortgages. Tell them, your salesmen, don't go into those
areas.' And then Congress got involved, local elected officials, as
well, and said, 'Oh, that's not fair. These people should be able to get
credit.' And once you started pushing in that direction, banks started
making more and more loans where the credit of the person buying the
house wasn't as good as you would like."

Historians condemned Bloomberg's comment as widely inaccurate. As
Ta-Nehisi Coates has explained, the long history of discriminatory
housing practices, like redlining, actually helped set the stage for the
financial crisis - not the elimination of these racist policies.
Award-winning author and professor Ibram X. Kendi said the recently
resurfaced audio of Bloomberg is "Beyond racist & disqualifying. …
Redlining stopped our wealth building. The 2008 crisis led to largest
loss of Black wealth in history. This is a double-punch into the
historic gut of African Americans."

Meanwhile, GQ magazine is reporting Bloomberg and his companies have
faced nearly 40 sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits brought by
64 women over the past several decades.


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