Welcome to 2008, a year that promises to be anything but routine for our industry and the economy. We face a number of difficult issues, but the subprime mortgage problem is certainly the most important. It is an issue that will be amplified by the climate of a major election year. In many ways, it is an unfair issue for banks, which are being swept up in a problem created by mortgage brokers and those who sold packages of toxic loans.
As the subprime issue has unfolded, we have seen a growing sense of urgency among policymakers to do something. The House passed one bill to address the issue, H.R. 3915, with impressively bipartisan numbers. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd has ...