Did Deregulation and Capitalism Cause the Financial Crisis?

Michael T. Griffith

2009

The chief cause of the financial crisis was neither capitalism nor a lack of regulation; rather, it was unwise government intervention. Beginning in 1995, the federal government began pressuring banks to make more home loans to low-income people in an effort to increase home ownership among the poor. Prior to 1995, such subprime home loans constituted less than 2% of new home loans, but by 2000 they were over 9% of new home loans, and by 2008 they were 20% of new home loans. To make matters worse, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae began to buy and/or guarantee more and more of these risky subprime loans. Freddie and Fannie, along with some private banks, then took these mortgages, bundled them, and sold them as mortgage-backed securities. To make a long story short, if the government had not meddled in the mortgage industry, there would have been far fewer subprime loans to bundle into toxic assets in the first place, and the damage to our economy would have been vastly reduced. Government intervention was not the only cause of the financial crisis, but it was the primary cause.

The Real Culprits in This Meltdown

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=461199&Ntt=culprit

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn on the Lights?
Orson Scott Card, an author of several popular novels and a lifelong Democrat
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/orson.10.09.08.html

Let the Inquisition Start with Frank

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=470616&Ntt=inquisition

The Culprit is All of Us: The Government’s Meddling Got Us Into This Mess

http://online.barrons.com/article_email/SB123396551669058895-lMyQjAxMDI5MzAzNzkwNjc1Wj.html

Blame Fannie Mae and Congress for the Credit Mess

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Stop Covering Up and Kill the CRA

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=497422&Ntt=kill+cra

The Government Did It

http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/18/fannie-freddie-regulation-oped-cx_yb_0718brook.html

The Financial Crisis and the CRA

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon1030hh.html

The CRA Scam and Its Defenders

http://mises.org/story/2963

Some Relevant YouTube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63siCHvuGFg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN31-nKndg8

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