When I head home for the holidays, my relatives sometimes have a hard time grasping what I do as a "reformer" and how that impacts their daily lives.  This year, I'll point them to a recent story in the Seattle Times that describes how 96-year old Francis Taylor is about to lose her home of more than 40 years when banks foreclose on loans she took out from the now defunct lender Ameriquest.

After inventing the "sub-prime" mortgage industry, the collapse of which now threatens to throw the country into a recession, Ameriquest has gone into bankruptcy and sold its remnents to Citifinancial.  The company settled a lawsuit with 49 states recently for $325 million out of claims of predatory lending.  They also recently paid a fine for violating the do not call list.  I guess greed knows no bounds, certainly not privacy in your own home (that they plan to take away from you.)

The sad thing is, things didn't have to work out this way.  Years ago, consumer advocates saw the crisis coming and urged state governments to put stricter regulations in place.  Today's Sacramento Bee reminds us how the California legislature failed to enact reforms back in 2001. Ameriquest and others said this would make it harder for first time homeowners to buy their first abode, but it turns out that almost all of Ameriquest's loans went to existing homeowners -- many of whom the company probably knew could not make the payments and would end up losing their houses.