ncrc is pleased to welcome a distinguished panel of experts to join us in this critical conversation about housing. home ownership, the mortgage market, about foreclosures our panelists this year include joseph smith, the former banking commissioner of north carolina. he earned critical acclaim -- if you could hold your applause. i know joe wants the applause now. >> it's been great to be with you. >> if you could hold the applause till we get through the introof the six speakers, that would save some time. i appreciate that. so he really received a critical acclaim for his work in enforcing north carolina's anti-predatory lending laws and most importantly he's been appointed by the state's attorney generals to be the monitor, mr. monitor of their recently approved $25 billion agreement between the ags and five banks. frank raines to my left, franklin raines, former rhoades scholar with a harvard law degree served as the omb director for president clinton and recognized as the first african-american to become a partner of a private wall street firm and best known for being the ceo of

but should we -- obviously, we at ncrc, at least we know, and certainly urban league and nclc, we all know that the field of financial institutions that ought to be signing these agreements and making a commitment to help, you know, home owners avoid foreclosures is bigger than five institutions. joe, any insight on that in your conversations with the attorney generals? will there be more of these signings, more help on the way? >> right now my hands are full, and i'm not involved -- i've got plenty of business right now. we'll be able to have something more pleasant in about six months. we could do it now if we had to, but i'm not soliciting business at the moment. john, i don't have any insight on that at all. >> that's one reason why we have to keep pushing. we have to keep pushing for national servicing standards. the settlement is good as far as it goes, but it doesn't cover all banks, and the standards aren't rigorous enough in some areas, i think. >> right. and would you mind talking a few nor minutes about your thoughts arnold the servicing standards? >> only 300. 500? >> only

one of the things, when this crisis first occurred, and ncrc, national community reinvestment coalition, went to then treasury secretary paulson and then subsequently secretary geithner, and we proposed something called help now. and it was go in, go to wall street, buy these packages of securities, you can buy them at a discount now, they're not worth as much money because the market has collapsed, buy them at a discount, so instead of, you know, buying mortgages at 100% of the value of the mortgage, you could buy them at -- we thought at the time 60%, 70%. i remember talking to george soros about this. i was in a meeting with a number of people in new york city, and i was in his office. and we talked about this proposal. and he said that's the craziest thing i've ever heard in my life. who the heck would have -- where does this thinking come from? you know, it was a tough moment. and then just yesterday i was talking to lou ranieri, who is an outstanding republican citizen, a player on wall street, who's now part of his living he's making buying these securities. i told him about this

the conversations we hear, i mean, when is an organization like ncrc or the national urban leaguing are in sync with the national association of realtors and the mortgage bankers association on one issue. >> and the home builders. >> that that home ownership is critically important because we're all concerned about the level of conversation about throwing the baby out with the bath water on what happened in this financial crisis. so franklin, sorry for interrupting you, put you back on point. >> thank you. the point is i think unless we get a consensus, and i think this is what mark was aiming at, unhez we get a consensus, the politicians aren't going to respond. they don't lead. they find parades and they get in front of them. a and -- [ applause ] so my experience is that somebody's got to start the parade. but right now, it's going in the wrong direction. i mean, there's a very serious argument going on in this town although i this i it's been lost from a housing standpoint, but there are many people who say that home ownership is a bad thing economically, that it's not a good thing

the compensations we hear that when an organization like ncrc or the national urban league are in syncwith the national association of realtors and mortgage bankers association and the homebuilders -- that homeownership is critically important, because we are all concerned about the levels of conversation of throwing the baby out with the bathwater on what happened in this financial crisis. rank, sorry for interrupting you. put you back on the point. >> the point is, i think, unless we get a consensus, they don't leave. the politicians only -- they don't leave. >> my experiences that somebody has to start the parade. but right now, it's going in the wrong direction. there is a very serious argument although i think it has been lost from a housing standpoint. there are many people who save homeownership is a bad thing economically. it is not a good thing for the country. but too many resources into housing. people don't know what they are doing by investing so much and housing -- this is a standard economic analysis in this town and throughout much of the country. this is what those of

she served on the federal reserve board consumer finance council and the board of directors of the ncrcd is currently counsel to the law center. marc morial to my right. for mayor of baltimore -- new orleans. >> get used to it. it will not be the only one. more importantly, for us, the present ceo of the national urban league. under his guidance, they have become one of the most respected national organizations. thanks for joining us. please join me in welcoming all of them. [applause] ncrc is asking the question of whether our country has an ensuing commitment to build an inclusive society which all people who are willing to work hard, play by the rules, regardless of gender, race, age, or physical challenges, that we have the opportunity to build a safe and comfortable future for themselves and their family. the pressing problems of massive debt, high unemployment, and anemic economic growth have increasingly divided our country into the warrant could -- political camps, if you make, to get the and this debate between the free market capitalism and government-driven solutions to our e