Fannie and Freddie: a fool’s errand

``It is comforting to think of the late, calamitous bubble in US subprime real estate as having been caused by greed. If greed were the culprit, Americans could become better people as they grew more solvent. Unfortunately, there is a strong case that sentimentality and social conscience did as much to drive the US economy into a ditch as hard-headedness and lust for profit. Four New York University finance professors make a version of that case in Guaranteed to Fail.''