Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com:
One of the enduring myths of the financial crisis has been the claim that it was the result of (a) Fannie and Freddie (b) the Community Reinvestment Act, which forced poor, helpless bankers to make loans to you-know-who. It’s a myth that won’t go away...
But commercial real estate had the same kind of bubble without any government help.
there was no federal act driving banks to lend money for office parks and shopping malls; Fannie and Freddie weren’t in the CRE loan business; yet 55 percent — 55 percent! — of commercial mortgages that will come due before 2014 are underwater. The lenders didn’t need government urging to dive deep into a property bubble, and drown.
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