The Mortgage Mess, the Press, and the Politics of Inattention

Andrew Caplin and Roy Lowrance

American Economic Review, 2014, vol. 104, issue 5, 77-81

Abstract: In reviewing the Challenger tragedy, Richard Feynman identified a flawed O-Ring as the proximate cause and NASA's flawed safety culture as a deeper cause. There has been no similar investigation of the mortgage mess, which has been baptized rather than understood. In part, this is due to committed ideological views in the public and press that eliminate the call for expert analysis and reform. Broader and deeper policy problems are identified and illustrated using NASA's past behavior and FHA's ongoing behavior. The Columbia tragedy sounds an ominous warning on the future stability of housing finance markets.

JEL-codes: D72 G21 G28 R31 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.5.77
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.104.5.77 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10405/P2014_1099_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:104:y:2014:i:5:p:77-81

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().