©The Atlantic 2010

Byline:  Daniel Indiviglio

Who caused the disastrous housing bubble in the U.S.? This question has been asked countless times over the past few years. The right generally blames government-sponsored entities Fannie and Freddie while the left generally blames Wall Street. They're both right.  

In fact, there were a number of factors leading to the housing bubble, and those listed above are just two. You could add unscrupulous mortgage brokers, clueless borrowers, etc. On his NY Times blog today, economist Paul Krugman argues against the claim that the GSEs caused the bubble. His argument is pretty straightforward, relying on a few graphs. Read more.