The Great American Housing Bubble

The Road to Collapse

Robert M. Hardaway

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780313382284
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780313382291
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Real Estate
• Index: Business

This meticulously documented work sets forth the major causes of the greatest asset bubble in world economic history—the American housing bubble, which began in 1940 and collapsed in 2007.

In the aftermath of the American housing collapse in 2007, many ask why. The Great American Housing Bubble: The Road to Collapse asks a different and more fundamental question—how the bubble was created in the first place. To answer that question, it examines the causes, both political and economic, of the American housing bubble, created between 1940 and 2007.

Those causes encompass everything from federal income tax subsidies for housing to local exclusionary policies, banking, accounting, real estate appraisal, and credit agency rating practices and policies. The book also takes into account the impact of greed, government regulation, speculation, and psychology—including blind faith in investment advisors—on the creation of the greatest asset bubble in the economic history of the world. The author takes a comparative historical approach, examining the current crisis in the light of notorious bubbles of the past. In the end, he concludes that the events precipitating the most recent collapse can be traced, at least in part, not to too little government regulation, but to too much.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Overview: An Allegory
• Chapter 2 Blind Faith
• Chapter 3 Greed
• Chapter 4 Regulation
• Chapter 5 Local Exclusionary Practices
• Chapter 6 Bubbles of the Past
• Chapter 7 Economic Education
• Chapter 8 Speculation
• Chapter 9 Psychology
• Chapter 10 Bankruptcy Laws
• Chapter 11 Banking Practices and Redlining
• Chapter 12 The Federal Reserve
• Chapter 13 Tax Policy
• Chapter 14 Real Estate Practices
• Chapter 15 Credit Rating Agencies
• Chapter 16 Appraisers
• Chapter 17 Accounting
• Chapter 18 Fallout: The Litigation Mess
• Chapter 19 Conclusions
• Glossary
• Selected Bibliography
• Appendix A: Securitization
• Appendix B: Itemized Deductions for Individuals and Corporations
• Appendix C: Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975
• Appendix D: Community Reinvestment Act of 1977
• Appendix E: Housing and Community Development Act of 1992
• Appendix F: Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994
• Appendix G: Regulations Assigning Regulatory Authority to the Secretary of Housing Regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• Appendix H: Performance Tests, Standards, and Ratings, in General
• Appendix I: Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
• Appendix J: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• Notes
• Index