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Fed's Yellen: Plenty of blame for subprime mess

LOS ANGELES
Fri Sep 5, 2008 4:50pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen said on Friday there was "plenty of blame to go around" for the implosion of the subprime mortgage market that has pushed the U.S. economy to the brink of recession.

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Answering questions from the audience after a speech to the Los Angeles Rotary Club, Yellen said she wished that tighter lending standards had been in place years ago.

During the long housing boom, "people really underestimated the possibility that housing prices would decline nationwide," which led to a laxity in lending standards, Yellen said.

Yellen is not a voting member of the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee in 2008.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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