Here is a debunking of that criticism. (I think the most telling statement,from House hearings on the subject, was that only about 1 in 4 of the sub-prime loans were made by institutions covered by this legislation. Also very telling is the professor who says that as far as Fannie and Freddie were concerned, the Bush administration allowed them to satisfy their affordable housing goals, not technically part of the CRA, with sub-prime mortgage backed securities.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/... :

“However, others dispute the involvement of the CRA in the crisis. In a Bank for International Settlements (”BIS”) working paper, economist Luci Ellis concluded that “there is no evidence that the Community Reinvestment Act was responsible for encouraging the subprime lending boom and subsequent housing bust.”[55] Ellen Seidman, former director of the US Office of Thrift Supervision during the Clinton administration, who works at the New America Foundation,[56] has stated that the CRA did not have an effect on the United States housing bubble.[57][58][unreliable source?]

Some commentators note that CRA regulated loans tended to be safe and profitable, and that subprime excesses came mainly from institutions not regulated by the CRA. In the February 2008 House hearing, law professor Michael S. Barr, a Treasury Department official under President Clinton,[59][31] stated that a Federal Reserve survey showed that affected institutions considered CRA loans profitable and not overly risky. He noted that approximately 50% of the subprime loans were made by independent mortgage companies that were not regulated by the CRA. Another 25% to 30% came from only partially CRA regulated bank subsidiaries and affiliates. He stated that institutions fully regulated by CRA made “perhaps” one in four sub-prime loans.

Referring to CRA and abuses in the subprime market, Michael Barr stated that in his judgment “the worst and most widespread abuses occurred in the institutions with the least federal oversight”. [60] According to Janet L. Yellen, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, independent mortgage companies made “high-priced loans” at more than twice the rate of the banks and thrifts; most CRA loans were responsibly made, and were not the higher-priced loans that have contributed to the current crisis.[61] A 2008 study by Traiger & Hinckley LLP, a law firm that counsels financial institutions on CRA compliance, found that CRA regulated institutions were less likely to make subprime loans, and when they did the interest rates were lower. CRA banks were also half as likely to resell the loans.[62] Assistant Professor of Law Alan M. White[63] notes that some abuses blamed on CRA actually occurred under the George W. Bush administration, because the Housing and Urban Development and Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fulfill their affordable housing goals – which are not technically part of the CRA – by buying subprime mortgage-backed securities.[64]”
-For 6 of the last 8 years we have had a Republican White House and Congress, and in the last 2 years we have had a divided government. If the Republicans had wanted to change things, they have had the chance.

-It looks to me like the failure to regulate credit swaps had a great deal to do with the meltdown. For this we can thank McCain’s advisor, Phil Gramm. (He stepped down as co-chair of McCain’s campaign in May, after he was quoted as saying that we were a nation of whiners, and that the country was simply suffering from a mental recession, not any real problems). He has been talked about as possible head of Treasury under McCain. Here is an article about it all:
http://www.motherjones.com/...
The article explains that Gramm’s legislation (slipped at the last minute into the budget package in 2000 – so yes, signed by Clinton, who was dealing with a Republican controlled Congress) ensured that credit swaps would be completely unregulated; this gave banks and hedge funds the false confidence that they would not need the assets to cover their subprime bets.

(By the way, the Gramm’s bill also exempted energy
trading from regulation, leading to the Enron debacle).

-Gramm also was instrumental in 1999 in deregulating banks, removing Depression era protections that had once separated banks, insurance companies, investment houses, etc.

-Here is an AP article I found that talks about the huge role in this mess of the Fed and Bush’s policy of keeping interest rates artificially low. http://www.azstarnet.com/...

The most important decision may have been the Federal Reserve’s move to keep interest rates near all-time lows for three years, which acted as a clearance sale for borrowers.”
-On the economy, economists overwhelmingly have much more confidence in Obama than they have in McCain. This is an article from the Economist Magazine: http://www.economist.com/...
It reports on a survey of economists, who largely support Obama’s policies (including 46% percent of the Republican economists, who said Obama has a better grasp of the matter, vs. 23% who said McCain did.) Twice as many economists think McCain’s plan would be bad or very bad for long-run growth as Obama’s. They also overwhelming think Obama has picked a better team of economic advisors.