Reddit mentions of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse

CRA was just one piece of the puzzle, there were many more on both a macro and micro level.

Tom Woods covers this era quite well in his book Meltdown- definitely one of the best books on the subject - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0097CZ06Q/

Oh god. I'm so sorry. You have been lied to.

The financial crisis was caused by the fed lowering interest rates and people looking for yield in the housing market. This drove speculation and an artificial demand for housing. Also, the banks were able to offload their risk by selling the mortgage backed securities to Fanny and Freddie (which were government institutions). At the height of the market, Fanny and Freddie had a hand in over 70% of all mortgages. Not to absolve the banks of their sins (they should have been allowed to fail, what they did was really bad), but if the fed hadn't artificially lowered interest rates, fannie and freddie hadn't created the moral hazard of offloading risk, and government regulation pushing poor people into housing hadn't existed then we wouldn't have had the collapse.

If you are really interested in the truth, I recommend you buy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Meltdown-Free-Market-Collapsed-Government-ebook/dp/B0097CZ06Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374442169&sr=8-2&keywords=meltdown

There are a LOT more factors that went into the crisis, but even if you disagree with me I suggest you do more research into the subject. It's very interesting.

Here is the mobile version of your link

You should try reading Meltdown. It's a great modern introduction to the concept you're discussing where government is actually the evil in society. It is a perspective on the 2008 financial crisis which plants the blame on governments instead of the "evil businessman" we always hear about. It advocates the Austrian business cycle theory which, to support what you said, blames government as doing more harm than good. If you like it, there's lots more resources within that sphere to learn more too.

Check out Peter Schiff's Mortgage Bankers Speech Nov/13/06 almost a year before the collapse of Lehman Brothers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj8rMwdQf6k Everyone who was wrong in not predicting the great recession was also covering their tracks re-writing history after the fact giving false reasons why the collapse happened. I recommend you checkout the NYT Best Selling book Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse by Historian Thomas E Woods https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0097CZ06Q/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1