Monday, January 28, 2013

Bill Kristol Mocks Idea of CRA Causing Housing Crash

The zombie lie that the Community Reinvestment Act was substantially or primarily the cause of the 2008 economic crisis may just have taken a mortal blow; Bill Kristol has apparently mocked the idea:
But here was Bill Kristol reminding the summit audience that the “worst moment, economically, in middle-class Americans’ lives” in recent years was the 2007-2008 collapse, “and Barack Obama wasn’t president then and people were better off by 2012, or seemed to be.” The collapse, he said, “remains a searing experience and Republicans don’t have a clear explanation about it.” He even went so far as to mock the favored conservative talking point for the collapse: that the housing bubble was created by the Community Reinvestment Act passed years earlier to encourage lending to low-income homebuyers.
I know I for one will be only too happy to cite "even-the-conservative Bill Kristol" in mocking this idea when conservatives and libertarians bring it up.  A lie too stupid for one of history's most egregious liars to carry.