That's why I've created conservativefactcheck.com. My goal was to create a site that I could use whenever I got into an argument with a liberal, or if somebody sent me a grossly inaccurate Snopes "debunking."
In addition to the post above about the smoke-and-mirrors job growth, I've also published one today on the role of the CRA in the banking crisis. There's so much misinformation going around, that I hope one easy-to-read article will help people fight the good fight.
Comments are welcome... always looking for ways to improve the service.
Another myth that I get tired of hearing about is that the Bush tax cuts caused the deficit that started the economic downturn - the deficit began in the early 2000’s because of three factors - the end of the Clinton bubble-bust (remember the collapse of the stock market in 2000), 9/11 which crippled the economy, and the need to rebuild our defenses after Clinton weakened them by spending the vaunted “Peace Dividend” on domestic doodads. The deficit grew to about 500 billion in 2003, but then thanks to the increase in government revenues because of the Bush tax cuts, shrank by about 100 billion per year for the next four years, even though the government was fighting two wars and instituted the new Medicare drug program during the period. The deficit would have disappeared completely in 2008, but of course the economy went south by that time because of the Democrat created housing bust - Bush’s tax cuts strengthened our finances, no matter how much the lefties protest to the contrary.....
Your “CRA caused the crisis” argument is indeed a myth.
The Shadow Banking System of investment banks and hedge funds was not covered by the CRA and it lent trillions of dollars during the bubble years.
Conservatives don’t benefit by latching onto politically convenient explanations that ignore some inconvenient facts.
One glaring fact is that the bubble was global. The CRA regulated only one portion of American lending, the part that was made by depository institutions. An explanation that focuses on a uniquely American regulation doesn’t explain a global bubble. It can’t even explain the American experience because a huge amount of the American lending was exempt from the CRA.
The causes of the bubble and its collapse were some financial engineering innovations made in the late 1990s, one prominent one being the widespread acceptance of Li’s Gaussian copula function in the financial community.