The Housing Boom and Bust: Revised Edition

by Thomas Sowell

Overview

This is a plain-English explanation of how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the economics and politics of the housing boom and bust. The "creative" financing of home mortgages and the even more "creative" marketing of financial securities based on American mortgages to countries around the world, are part of the story of how a financial house of cards was built up -- and then suddenly collapsed.

The politics behind all this is another story full of strange twists. No punches are pulled when discussing politicians of either party, the financial dangers they created, or the distractions they created later to escape their own responsibility for what happened when the financial house of cards in the financial markets collapsed.

What to do, now that we are in the midst of an economic disaster, is yet another story -- one whose ending we do not yet know, but one whose outlines and implications are explored to reveal some surprising and sobering lessons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786747559
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	02/23/2010
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	154,284
File size:	271 KB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author of dozens of books including Charter Schools and Their Enemies, winner of the 2021 Hayek Book Prize. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including the National Humanities Medal, presented by the President of the United States in 2003.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Revised Edition vii

Preface to the First Edition ix

1 The Economics of the Housing Boom 1

2 The Politics of the Housing Boom 29

3 The Housing Bust 57

4 Housing Mystiques and Housing Mistakes 96

5 The Past and the Future 136

Sources 183

Index 227