[KarlInOhio]

How many of the bad loans were caused by the Community Reinvestment Act and how many were caused by speculative buying of houses by people without sufficient income because the price had nowhere to go but up, Up, UP?

I suspect the second is much larger but don't have the numbers to back that up. Both were bad and stupid on the banks' part, but if we want to show how much of the problem was caused by the CRI we need some qualitative data on it.

[PurpleMountains]

It has never taken much to change an upward or downward housing market into a bubble or a bust. Just the pressure of the CIA could easily have been all the market needed to make the bubble, once the Clinton people set to work.