[lbo-talk] "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are to blame!"

[Jordan Hayes]

> I was speaking with a liberal friend of mine the other day
> and she says she doesn't agree with the protesters who "blame
> the banks" for the housing component of the financial crisis".
> She says it's much more accurate to attribute primary
> responsibility to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

You could start by telling her that her line is essentially taken 
whole-cloth from a big Republican spinmaster: Peter Wallison, a senior 
fellow at AEI.  Maybe that would be enough to make a "liberal" check 
their math/facts, or at least not repeat them without digging more ...

If she still wants to talk to you, you could show her Krugman's intro to 
David Min's good posting.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/fannie-freddie-phooey/

The chart might do it right there.  But if not, I recommend the rest of 
the discussion:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/07/why-wallison-is-wrong-about-the-genesis-of-the-u-s-housing-crisis/

/jordan