Luke Ford writes: The crash of 2008 destroyed $14 trillion in American household wealth. Who's to blame? I'm reading Paul Sperry's new book — The Great American Bank Robbery. He says that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwrote $1.8 trillion worth of toxic subprime loans and that KO'd our financial system. Why did Fannie and Freddie underwrite such loans? Because their HUD (Housing and Urban Development department) pushed them to. What was Wall Street's role? They sold the subprime securities that Fannie and Freddie underwrote and guaranteed to earn Affordable Housing Credits from HUD.
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