Today I would like to share my thoughts about the problems in housing markets and mortgage lending, with a focus on how they affect communities. Every time someone talks of troubled mortgages on bank balance sheets, they are also talking about distressed homeowners, distressed neighborhoods and distressed communities. I've heard many of you say to me, "We didn't cause this problem.
I think that perception goes too far, and innovation, at its best, has been and will continue to be a tool for making our financial system more efficient and more inclusive. But, as we have seen only too clearly during the past two years, innovation that is inappropriately implemented can be positively harmful.