The answer is apparently not. The New York Times reported on the recent uptick in house prices and speculated about their future direction once government aid, like the $8,000 first-time buyers' tax credit, are removed. The article never once noted the extraordinary departure of house prices during the bubble years from their long-term trend. Almost all of the discussion of regulatory reform also completely ignores the experience of the crisis. If the reforms being proposed had been in place during the crisis, but the regulators approached the economy in the same way (i.e. they saw nothing wrong with an $8 trillion increase in house prices), then they would have been worthless in preventing the economic collapse.
--Dean Baker
