This is a blog column, and one thing that blogs do well is ponder the questions while not having the answers in hand. A question that’s long been on my mind has been about predatory subprime lending in Michigan and its adverse impact on this state, particularly on economically disadvantaged groups. We’ve noted here at Michigan Messenger that certain segments of the population were more likely to to suffer because of these questionable loans, in turn resulting in higher than average percentages of foreclosures.
 
The foreclosure crisis has pushed law enforcement officials responsible for the act of issuing foreclosure notices and conducting sheriffs’ auctions to the limit. Wayne County’s Sheriff Warren Evans has now called upon Gov. Jennifer Granholm to declare a state of emergency and issue a moratorium on foreclosures (which the governor says is outside of her legal authority).

But where’s the state’s top law enforcement official in all of this? Why didn’t Warren Evans make similar demands of Michigan’s Attorney General Mike Cox, perhaps asking him to recommend taking executive action to the governor?

Or has Cox been hampered since before 2007 by the Bush administration, which invoked the powers of an obscure federal agency, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), to prevent Cox and 49 other states’ attorneys general from taking action against predatory subprime lenders? Keep in mind that one of those former states’ attorneys general stymied by the White House was former New York Governor Elliott Spitzer, who wrote an op-ed on this topic in February 2007 — coincidentally the month before he stepped down after it was revealed he’d been using the services of an escort service. Did this coincidence spook Cox as well as other states’ attorneys general from seeking any further action?

Perhaps this will all be another fruitless thought exercise if Michigan’s legislature manages to pass an effective version of the Home Foreclosure Prevention Act which may help homeowners at risk of foreclosure and stem the hemorrhaging of property values in this state.