NEW YORK CITY—In his most recent post, Ethan Penner asks what could have been done about the 2008 housing crisis, and tries to figure out if the underlying principles were rotten, or based on solid judgment.
Penner first discusses the various fallacies involved with the market breakdown: that the richest in the population are the primary actors (rather, it's pension and sovereign wealth funds), that a money manager should invest in what is best for the world (rather, they are entrusted with the best returns for their investors), and that government has no role in a solution to the next crisis (in fact, the basic job of government is to work towards an interpretation of the public good over personal gain).
Penner weighs how the economic pressures on individuals versus the needs of the public influenced the crisis, and analyzes the actions and moves by the politician at the nexus of the housing sector against what could have been done: Barney Frank.
To read Penner's full analysis in the post "Barney Frank," click here. For other posts from Ethan Penner, click here.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Geoffery Metz
Geoffery Metz is the content manager for ALM's GlobeSt.com, Credit Union Times and Treasury & Risk. Before joining ALM, he spent several years overseeing the newsroom at the financial wire service Business Wire, with special focus on multimedia presentation for the web.
