Barney Frank on Housing – Clueless in 2005, Clueless Now

posted by Nima

May 27, 2009 · Posted in Politics

I quote:

… but you’re not going to see the [housing] collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble and so those of us on our committee in particular will continue to push for home ownership…

Thanks, Barney, for admitting, at least back then, that you were on the forefront of pushing for excessive home ownership and thus being instrumental to the housing crisis. Would you come forward today and say the same things? But then, I guess, nobody could see this coming, right?

Nobody? Here’s Ron Paul in 2003:

The special privileges granted to Fannie and Freddie have distorted the housing market by allowing them to attract capital that they could not attract under pure market conditions. Like all artificially created bubbles, the boom in housing prices cannot last forever. When housing prices fall, homeowners will experience difficulty as their equity is wiped out. Furthermore, the holders of the mortgage debt will also have a loss. These losses will be greater than they would have otherwise been had government policy not actively encouraged over-investment in housing, the damage will be catastrophic.

… who would you rather listen to?