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[QUOTE=BushyTheBeaver;2802409]I don't buy the laying of the housing crisis at the feet of lending to poor buyers. It doesn't pass the smell test. Not that it wasn't a piece of the puzzle--of course loans were made to poor people that shouldn't have been made. But loans were made to middle class buyers that shouldn't have been made either. Hell, there was a hot market in loans to illegal aliens, and no government program could have pressured lenders to do that without causing a giant stink--the brokers and lenders did that on their own.
For more than 2 years I've been a faithful reader of irvinehousingblog.com. It's a fantastic blog that follows the housing bubble in Irvine California--a decidedly upscale town. No poor or minority borrowers there--just greedy middle to upper class flippers and HELOC abusers treating their houses like ATM machines to fund lavish lifestyles. In many cases the flippers were real estate agents themselves! Give it a look--it's a really interesting site.
Also lets not forget Allan Greenspan's roll in this mess. His continued slashing of interest rates to soften the dotcom burst was key in producing the cheap money that fueled this insanity.[/QUOTE]
Good post
Of course this whole thing was a comedy of errors but the bottom line is that if the Fed had raised interest rates quicker the bubble would've never gotten so big and none of this would've happened. Imo, it's the single biggest reason for all of this considering how easily it could've been stopped.
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