Thanks for the DeLong links. From 10/23’s entry, he links approvingly to ThinkProgress’s Cox, Greenspan, Snow Agree: Freddie Mac And Fannie Mae Did Not Cause The Financial Crisis , which says:
According to conservatives, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s audacity to loan to low-income Americans is to blame for the current financial crisis…Committee chairman Henry Waxman…asked the witnesses, “Do any of you believe that they were the cause of this financial crisis?” All three men said no.
Federal housing data back up this conclusion — that “the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.”
Harking back to my post #85 , that’s not to say that Fannie/Freddie weren’t contributing factors, but simply that they do not bear the majority of blame.