Gregg: Congress’ Social Agenda Caused Financial Crisis

Many experts say greed, leverage, and hubris represent the key drivers of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Former Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., disagrees. “The primary driver of the fiscal disruption we experienced at the end of 2008 was not greed or excessive speculation or even fraud in the lending markets,” he wrote in The Hill.

Judd Gregg (AP photo)

“It was not the explosion of syndications of mortgage loans or the use of derivatives to try and insure inherently unstable assets. It was not regulatory somnolence,” Gregg argues. “Rather, this crisis, with its ensuing international recession and near-meltdown of our financial system, had as its root cause the social-justice agenda of Congress.”

Government subsidization of home ownership abetted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was at the heart of the issue, he writes.