The Greatest Cover-Up in Economic History: How Washington Hid Its Role in the 2008 Crash

Power & Market ^ | 8/24/2026 | Kevin Villani

[Pete Dovgan]

The commentary in a recent Wall Street Journal by Senator Phil Gramm and Representative Jeb Hensarling did the nation an immense service by dismantling the persistent myth that private market greed and financial deregulation caused the 2008 financial crisis. As they rightly pointed out, inflation-adjusted mortgage rates during the bubble era were historically high, and financial institutions were suffocating under increasingly strict federal mandates, not running wild in a deregulated vacuum.

Yet, for nearly two decades, the public has been fed a completely fabricated baseline narrative. Having served as the Chief Economist at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and later as the Chief Economist at Freddie Mac during critical regulatory shifts, and as an expert in securitization—having structured the first CMO with Larry Fink at First Boston, the first CBO with Mike Milken at Drexel, the first unique MBB with Lou Ranieri at Salomon, and later the first CLO—I watched the true mechanics of this disaster play out from the inside. The reality is uncomfortable for the political class: the real crime of 2008 was not a failure of capitalism, but a catastrophic failure of central planning.......

[Organic Panic]

Paraphrasing Thomas Sowell.

Government will cut out a cancer only to replace it with more cancer.

[ChessExpert]

Sorry, but that’s a lot of liberal boloney.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Link here to the 2008 article.

[Henry Hnyellar]

https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/other/community-reinvestment-act-the-housing-market-crisis-of-2008/

[Carry_Okie]

You are writing as if I'd never heard leftist wailing about "red-lining." Earth to ChessExpert: I grew up among the communists of Berkeley listening to KPFA Pacifica Radio.

Yeah, that was the superficial excuse. Never take them at their word; else rich people would never give them so much money as to set up NGOs, Foundations, and the money laundering operations therewith.

I spent the better part of 20 years following this kind of crap in the "environmental" move-mint. It's part of the same game as driven by real estate interests.

[x]

Was government involved? Sure, but I wouldn’t trust this guy any more than I could throw him and his CDOs, CLOs, and CMOs. To hell with him.

[Varsity Flight]

✅