My Mortgage Plan
The Obama administration is working on a mortgage bailout plan. Supposedly, they only want to help the people who are responsible home owners. That’s a good aim. Given that 41% of modified mortgages end in default, we shouldn’t send good taxpayer money after bad results. If the administration is sincere about their desires, I have …
Bad Theology and Bad Mortgages
How important is good theology? Pretty important. Not only can bad theology give people a wrong picture of God, it can also cause them to do some pretty stupid things in the here and now. Take the ”prosperity gospel” and the recent mortgage crash, for example. Time recently reported on the intersection between bad theology …
Blame the Fed?
I always like a story that points out how supposedly wise government employees manage to destroy the very thing they’re trying to protect. Today, the Wall Street Journal fingered the Federal Reserve for much of the turmoil of the last year.
But the larger story is that the global economy is fast popping its …
Did Deregulation Cause the Crash?
Many people are blaming the mortgage crash on the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act — the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Biley Act. But did Gramm-Leach-Bliley cause the crash? I don’t think so.
First, Glass-Steagall created a ”wall of separation” between investment banking and commercial banking. Investment banks create and sell securities in the investment markets. Commercial banks earn money …