Confessions of a former real estate bull

This is nauseating. While Lereah explains away the paradox between his previous forecasts as "positive spin", something he was obligated to do as head of an "industry association", he neglects to mention the NAR's lobbying activities. This was not just industry tunnel-vision; an association like the NAR has the ability to and took liberties toward changing public policy in their own favor. The NAR's political donations and involvement in drafting legislation make it a laughable claim that they are impartial, fair players in a free market.

What isn't directly said is that Lereah would probably have been fired if he had been more truth-centric. That is true (and probably has something to do with why he quit instead, a-la many Bush admin. Treasury secretaries), but does not excuse him personally. He took part in a system that exploited the public and dramatically harmed the economy.

The NAR of course has not learned anything (except perhaps what it can get away with), and today is involved in abominations like the HR 6694 downpayment assistance "FHA subprime" bill. They may understand that putting people into houses who cannot afford it is the cause of the crash, but I don't think they care. Presumably they would have us all breaking rocks chain-gang style to subsidize half of the population in "owning" overpriced houses they cannot afford.