A teaser:
First, Clinton:
Former president Bill Clinton said it best in 2008. “I think the responsibility the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
And then Artur Davis:
“Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong.
It’s not even close.
The government didn’t cause the housing bubble. The housing bubble was not caused by loans to the poor. Most of it was loans to wealthy and middle class. If it was just the poor, it wouldn’t have caused the problem. You can never support your case. Those quotes don’t prove anything or even make an argument. On this, you’re wrong. I know your ideology leads you to want to blame government for everything, but in this case the blame the government deserves is its refusal to regulate the big banks due to a false belief in free market ideology.
The government didn’t cause the housing bubble.
Government policy was the trigger event.
The housing bubble was not caused by loans to the poor. Most of it was loans to wealthy and middle class.
A desire to increase home ownership lead to the collapse. More and more high risk loans were being sold and approved.
I know your ideology leads you to want to blame government for everything
In no more way than yours finds government to be the solution for everything.
There are all kinds of capitalists, greedy ones and cautious ones. Ask yourself, how did the greedy ones come to dominate the housing market? It is not like they did not exist before the bubble. How did they out compete their more careful brethren who ran the housing universe previously? Why didn’t Canada have the same boom and bust that America did? Maybe Canadian bankers are not as greedy as Americans.
I say it is because Canada did not have Fannie, Freddie, and Barney.