I’ve been having a blast guest-blogging over at Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish. If you haven’t seen it already, check out my fellow guest blogger Richard Posner’s latest post reacting to an e-mail from Alan Greenspan.
Posts Tagged ‘Alan Greenspan’
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
Friday, October 24th, 2008
Former Treasury Secretary John Snow told Congress the U.S. went “too far”‘ encouraging American home-ownership, saying that: “In retrospect, the bipartisan consensus to promote housing went too far.” As Bloomberg reports, Snow oversaw the “ownership society” where home-ownership rates hit an all-time high of 69.2 percent. He, like former Fed chief Alan Greenspan, now says they are “shocked” by the rapid meltdown of the financial sector.
One piece of the problem was granting mortgages to gullible or desperate people who truly wanted to buy a better home for themselves and their family. But a huge piece that continues to go under-recognized was the the incredible amount of real estate speculation undertaken by small scale investors, real estate agents and developers, and “regular Joes” trying to make a quick buck by flipping real estate.