You just don't understand the graphs. Fannie and Freddie's market share was going down during immediate pre-bubble and bubble years. They were the ones who were expanding the market dramatically--that was the subprime crooks who were feeding the securitization freaks in that wonderful world of finance. They were the ones who promoted and caused the bubble and the crisis. And they were the ones who profited on it going up, then they profited from it when it was burst. Some of them, anyway--some of them went bankrupt--BUT--it should be noted, when I say "some of them went bankrupt" it wasn't INDIVIDUALS who went bankrupt, it was companies, individuals at the top who had their whole net worth tied up in these companies that went bankrupt were certainly hurt, but do you have any idea how many people that was? Close to zero, I will wager.
In any case, here is another article, maybe you will believe this one from Barry Ritholtz. The conclusion:
For the non-partisan, non hacks amongst you, for the policy makers and academics and economists who are truly interested in how this came to pass, and what we can do to fix it, the bottom line remains: The CRA was irrelevant to the current crisis, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were mere cogs in a very complex financial machine, with many moving parts.
But the primary cause of the mess? Not even close . . .
the entire article:
bigpicture.typepad.com |
