ACORN: The Roots of a Scandal

``“Financial tomfoolery like including food stamps on loan applications was encouraged by the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which opened banking to ACORN-style agitation that over time weakened underwriting criteria and helped to alter the culture of financial institutions in the U.S. This 1977 law, whose enactment ACORN lobbied for, punishes lenders for limiting loans to wealthier, more creditworthy markets, a practice called ‘redlining.’ It gives banking regulators discretionary authority to make trouble for banks that fail to lend enough money to ‘underserved’ minority communities.''