Zombie financial crisis lies eat fact-checker brains
The commission investigating the causes of the mortgage meltdown did not ignore right-wing propaganda
By Andrew Leonard
Salon.com
The assertion that government policy encouraging the creation of subprime loans to boost homeownership rates among minorities was the prime cause of the financial crisis is a classic example of the "zombie lie." No matter how many time's it been debunked, it keeps coming back. And no single person has been more closely associated in pushing that line of argument than Peter Wallison, a long-time fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and one of the four members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission appointed by the GOP Congressional leadership.
Wallison's views on what caused the crunch are so far out on the right-wing ledge that he couldn't even get the three other Republican members of the FCIC to agree with his theories, and had to release his own minority-minority dissent.
That always perplexed me, since I'm sure the other conservative commissioners wanted to blame government for everything that went wrong. But today, thanks to the sterling work of Rortybomb's Mike Konczal, I have a clearer understanding of why Wallison's fellow Republicans didn't sign on to his campaign. There are lies within zombie lies.
Konczal takes a hard look at a new Wallison article in American Spectator: "The True Story of the Financial Crisis." Wallison recapitulates his now familiar argument, with special emphasis on research conducted by Edward Pinto, also an AEI fellow, claiming that government policy "fostered the creation" of about 27 million "subprime mortgages" of "inferior quality."
(More here.)
By Andrew Leonard
Salon.com
The assertion that government policy encouraging the creation of subprime loans to boost homeownership rates among minorities was the prime cause of the financial crisis is a classic example of the "zombie lie." No matter how many time's it been debunked, it keeps coming back. And no single person has been more closely associated in pushing that line of argument than Peter Wallison, a long-time fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and one of the four members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission appointed by the GOP Congressional leadership.
Wallison's views on what caused the crunch are so far out on the right-wing ledge that he couldn't even get the three other Republican members of the FCIC to agree with his theories, and had to release his own minority-minority dissent.
That always perplexed me, since I'm sure the other conservative commissioners wanted to blame government for everything that went wrong. But today, thanks to the sterling work of Rortybomb's Mike Konczal, I have a clearer understanding of why Wallison's fellow Republicans didn't sign on to his campaign. There are lies within zombie lies.
Konczal takes a hard look at a new Wallison article in American Spectator: "The True Story of the Financial Crisis." Wallison recapitulates his now familiar argument, with special emphasis on research conducted by Edward Pinto, also an AEI fellow, claiming that government policy "fostered the creation" of about 27 million "subprime mortgages" of "inferior quality."
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
sadly, Angelides did not investigate Geithner, Cuomo, Dood and Frank for their roles in the crisis. But, hey, Democrats are angels and above investigation and criticism
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