http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040601725.html
Sean Andrews wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Max B. Sawicky <sawicky at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> It takes a special kind of idiot to assign blame for a housing
>> bubble to CRA.
>
> As Michael points out, in this case, the kind of idiot is one who is
> reflexively pro-corporate. I first came across this Liebowitz
> character in his postings of research to the pages of the Copyright
> Alliance
>
> http://www.copyrightalliance.org/documentsandresearch/research
>
> It's not so much that he has a particular ideological bent: though he
> seems more fond of some than others, he's fairly flexible in choosing
> which perspective will be most appropriate to the required
> apologetics.
>
> As for the thesis he presents, it seems like he believes he had nailed
> the policy problem long ago. If the problem is that lenders were
> forced to lend to people who were objectively uncreditworthy (a Pen-L
> poster in a discussion on GMU economics a few weeks ago made a similar
> claim) I wonder if they were also forced to bundle them into
> securities and if credit rating agencies were forced to rate these
> instruments "AAA" and investers around the globe were forced to buy
> them? Then again, the invention of these obscure instruments, rise
> of mortgage backed securities, and the myriad other changes to
> financial regulation are just incidental: what it comes down to is
> that a bunch of PC activist types are really responsible for this
> trouble. That should play well to the crankier elements in the NYPost
> audience.
>
> s
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>