Was federal housing policy to blame for the financial crisis?

Tue, 03/13/2012 - 2:05pm | posted by Jason Pye

We hear a lot from our friends on the Left about the cause of the 2008 financial crisis. The often claim that capitalism and “predatory lending” deserve a large share of the blame. But in a new video from Reason, Peter Wallison, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), explains how federal housing policy was the main cause of the turmoil that led to the Great Recession.

While the official report from the FCIC blamed deregulation of the financial sector, Wallison wrote a lengthy dissent noting, according to Reason, that “there were about 28 million high-risk mortgages in the U.S. in 2008; roughly 70 percent of those mortgages were owned by government-sponosored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

Watch the video with Wallison below. It’s well worth your time:

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Tagged: AEI American Enterprise Institute capitalism deregulation Fannie Mae FCIC Financial Crisis Freddie Mac Housing Bubble Peter Wallison Reason Magazine Reason.tv

Thanks Anthony,

Well that’s was fun to watch.

Too bad his narrative is wrong. He’s like the zombie in a B horror movie that won’t die. It just keeps walking and walking.

Sad

Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 7:21pm.

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