The problem for this program is that they would like to lay the blame on minimal government where the bubble was created by a very specific deregulation, one that happened in degrees over thirty years since the creation of the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act).
I've read the critique against this assertion, but most of their logic lies in the time elapsed since it's creation and the burst of the bubble. I admit that this theory has trouble explaining why the bubble formed in other countries. One thought is that most of the meltdown occurred as well in democratically socialist nations of Europe, whose policies are predisposed to lending to those who might not be able to afford it. Add to this as well as that the US economy is the locomotive for the world marketplace. So, I am not yet convinced by the critique of the CRA as the slippery slope that eventually caused the bubble.
Like how fire requires friction and fuel, the demolition of housing loan requirements is the friction. The fuel was complex financial instruments called derivatives that were engineered to hide bad investments and disperse such toxic assets into the marketplace... kind of like sepsis. It was a fire where the combustion of fuel produces yet even more fuel in the process, hence the bubble.
No, it wasn't a quasi-anarchistic, extreme libertarianism that was at root of our dilemma, it was a specific deconstruction of the logic and system of loan requirements, a dial down of qualifications that proceeded to the point where a free for all frenzy ignited and threatened to burn all of society down with it.
The problem for this program is that they would like to lay the blame on minimal government where the bubble was created by a very specific deregulation, one that happened in degrees over thirty years since the creation of the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act).
ReplyDeleteI've read the critique against this assertion, but most of their logic lies in the time elapsed since it's creation and the burst of the bubble. I admit that this theory has trouble explaining why the bubble formed in other countries. One thought is that most of the meltdown occurred as well in democratically socialist nations of Europe, whose policies are predisposed to lending to those who might not be able to afford it. Add to this as well as that the US economy is the locomotive for the world marketplace. So, I am not yet convinced by the critique of the CRA as the slippery slope that eventually caused the bubble.
Like how fire requires friction and fuel, the demolition of housing loan requirements is the friction. The fuel was complex financial instruments called derivatives that were engineered to hide bad investments and disperse such toxic assets into the marketplace... kind of like sepsis. It was a fire where the combustion of fuel produces yet even more fuel in the process, hence the bubble.
No, it wasn't a quasi-anarchistic, extreme libertarianism that was at root of our dilemma, it was a specific deconstruction of the logic and system of loan requirements, a dial down of qualifications that proceeded to the point where a free for all frenzy ignited and threatened to burn all of society down with it.