Home ownership was the fig leaf for the rise in subprime lending. But that was really about cash-out refinancings, not buying homes.
Fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in isolation, without looking at the big picture, would be short-sighted.
Privatization of assets that most of us consider public goods - like airports and highways - has a long, often-uncontroversial history.
The big banks advise cities about whether privatization is a wise choice. They also control the ability of states and cities to access the market for their financing needs.
No city embraced privatization more eagerly than Chicago, where I live.
Proponents of privatization argued that cities and states needed private capital to fund all the upgrades that our decaying infrastructure so desperately needed.
