Letter to the Editor: My Subprime Loan Article No Relation to Taylors "Myths"

To the Editor:

John Taylor’s diatribe on subprime lending [“An Anti-Predator’s Reader Guide to Tall Tales of Subprime Lending,” April 27, page 12] began by stating that Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution and I have been spreading myths about the role of subprime lending and then proceeded to describe three such myths.

While I cannot speak for Dr. Litan, Mr. Taylor should know that nothing in my only article on subprime lending in any publication [“Subprime Industry Needs Single Voice to Help Defend Its Image,” March 30, page 18] is related to any of his three so-called myths. Period.

I can only imagine that Mr. Taylor may have mentioned me because my article indirectly cited his congressional testimony [the “head of a national coalition”] as an example of how community groups sometimes confuse subprime and predatory lending. His article is further evidence that the subprime industry desperately needs a single voice to defend its image.

Kenneth Thomas
Lecturer in finance
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Philidelphia