This book started off promisingly, with a well-paced, easy-to-understand explanation of housing markets. I learned a few interesting facts was excited to learn more. Slowly, however, it started sliding downhill. First, there were some racially tinged comments, essentially assuming that racism can't be real because there's no way homo economicus would allow that. Then, he starts to complain about politicians, both broadly and specifically. Some of these complaints had more merit than others, and I'm sure there's some lessons to be learned here. Somehow, he managed to blame the housing crisis on regulation as opposed to deregulation, an idea which is presented as gospel without a lot of cogent argument behind it.

It really feels like Sowell only had about 90 pages worth of content, because after that, the book devolves into insane rants about government intervention, and ends with 10 pages claiming that FDR wasn't all that great and that the New Deal was maybe bad for America. According to Sowell, more people are beginning to realize this truth recently.

There is a pattern of odd repetition of ideas and phrases in here, often several pages apart. Sowell also a very strange habit of lambasting others for ignoring empirical data or massaging statistics, and then turning around and almost immediately making unsubstantiated claims or engaging in bizarre statistical interpretation. Overall, it's very odd, and makes a book that would have been an easy read quite the slog to finish. ( )

Certainly not an impartial account. Economics is messy but this is tied up in a neat little editorialized package. Nobel prize winners in economics famously have completely opposite opinions on this subject, always aligning with their personal politics, interestingly enough. This book is not about the confusing evidence that leads to so many diverging opinions about the 2008 financial crisis. It is a one-sided argument. I saw the author had also written "Basic Economics", which sounded like innocuous fundamentals. Then I saw that blamed all political parties and market players. But having finished the book, he really strongly blames liberal politicians acting on their own self interest, while at times some republicans played along. He does not agree that nobody saw this coming. He argues that conservatives did, and pled for reform to deaf ears (which I assume surely includes their own ears during their years of legislative power in the 1990s and 2000s, leading up to the crisis, though this is not discussed).

Affordable housing programs and environmentalism caused it all. Seriously. He barely mentioned the toxic derivatives created by investment banks or the large real estate investor speculation. He brushed aside bank mortgage fraud. He did not mention the deregulation of investment banking, the creation of unregulated real estate bonds, nor the large scale migration of investment holdings from treasuries (at too-low interest rates) to these new real estate securities (at better returns, and somehow risk free). He did not see market reasons for the bubble, only oppressive government forcing risky mortgage innovations down our throats.

I don't think I share the author's politics. And that shouldn't be a problem if we're just discussing the boring facts. But this is not a book about boring facts. This is a manifesto against government intervention in general. ( )

I listened to this on tape. It was very interesting and informational about the housing boom and bust. I enjoyed his thoughts about how helping people get into housing they can't afford doesn't really help them. He discussed failed policies aimed at getting more minorities to own homes by lowering lending standards, which only causes problems when they later find that they can't afford the home. He also discussed how land regulation actually increases housing prices. It seems like there needs to be a happy balance between a lot of the competing factors he discussed such as a balance between need for housing and the need to have open space and homes that aren't too close together. ( )

I listened to this on tape. It was very interesting and informational about the housing boom and bust. I enjoyed his thoughts about how helping people get into housing they can't afford doesn't really help them. He discussed failed policies aimed at getting more minorities to own homes by lowering lending standards, which only causes problems when they later find that they can't afford the home. He also discussed how land regulation actually increases housing prices. It seems like there needs to be a happy balance between a lot of the competing factors he discussed such as a balance between need for housing and the need to have open space and homes that aren't too close together. ( )

An extremely concise book recapping the housing collapse of late 2000s. Not mincing words or pulling punches, Dr. Sowell likely refers to President Bush by name more than he did to President Obama. But that is not to say he doesn't squarely place much of the blame for regulatory and economic meddling on those who deserve the "credit."

Most interesting was his lesson of the Great Depression and federal involvement which only worsened, or at least prolonged the misery of unemployment. Dr. Sowell illustrates that is was World War II which ended the lingering effects of horrible economic circumstances of the late 1930's. Yet is was not for the popular reason of "ramped up war production"; rather it was the war effort put an end to the New Deal! Also, consider those serving in the military are not factored into unemployment numbers.

The conclusion of the first chapter sets the tone for the rest of the book (p. 29):

" When it comes to the home mortgage boom and bust, who was to blame? The borrowers? The lenders? The government? The financial markets?

The answer is yes. All were responsible and many were irresponsible.

Economics cannot explain such things. For that, we must turn to the politics of housing."

( )