New at Reason: Brian Doherty Interviews Thomas Sowell About the Housing Boom and Bust

May 20, 2009

In his new book The Housing Boom and Bust, economist and public intellectual Thomas Sowell contemplates the greatest expansion of government power in a generation, which was itself occasioned by the greatest economic crisis in as long. Offering a quick but thorough guide to the causes of the crises, Sowell shows how government policies led to a huge increase in highly risky housing loans. As he notes, the immense local variability in housing prices and failed loans reveals that the government mistook a set of local problems for a national one, and then imposed a single troublesome national solution. Sowell argues that while foolish decisions to indulge in complicated investment vehicles affected the specifics of how the financial contagion spread, at its root the housing problem is one of bad mortgages. And those came from bad decisions by government and by borrowers themselves.

Senior Editor Brian Doherty interviewed Sowell about the book, the crisis, and the government’s unfortunate response.

Read all about it here.