NPR Can't Find Anyone Who Thinks the Housing Bubble Was a Bad Idea

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Its analysis this morning did not include any comments from economists who think the Fed made a mistake in allowing an $8 trillion housing bubble to grow unchecked. It did include comments from WSJ reporter David Wessel, who apparently thinks that having the government buy up mortgages -- a system of house price supports -- is a good idea. If I had more time, I would grab a few hundred of the columns in the Post, NYT, WSJ or commentaries on NPR, expressing outrage over the waste and inefficiency of the system of farm prices supports. The exact same reasoning would apply to these proposals for house price supports, except the order of magnitude of the waste and inefficiency would be two times greater, since we are talking about a $20 trillion housing market. Will these media outlets ever give someone the opportunity to apply their own reasoning with respect to the housing market?

--Dean Baker

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