by guest author Chris McConnell TBTF (too big to fail) banks kept a massive secret from other market players, as well as regulators. In academic circles it’s called an “information advantage.” Joseph Stiglitz won a Nobel Prize for it in 2001. "Market economies are characterized by a high degree of imperfections," Stiglitz said during a press conference held at Columbia. "Older models assumed perfect information, but even small degrees of information imperfections can have large economic consequences. Our models took into account asymmetries of information, which is another way of saying 'Some people know more than others.' " more »

Of course Fannie and Freddie are at least partially responsible, they purchased hundreds of billions of dollars of loans that were used to buy properties at what they should have recognized as bubble-inflated prices. If they had refused to buy such loans, it almost certainly would have brought the irrational exuberance of the housing bubble to a quick halt. more »

 by Rick Davis We have received a number of thought provoking responses to our back-of-the-envelope calculations about the impact of mortgage delinquencies (and so-called "strategic defaults") on consumer spending. One such correspondence has been with… more »

William K. Black discusses extensive documentation that he says shows FCIC Commissioner Peter Wallison's minority report is a complete contradiction of factual history and his own role in it. more »

William K. Black finds that the financial crisis was filled with white collar crime, yet the investigators focused on apologies for the perpetrators. more »