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--></style><title>Re: Missoulian's 3 articles on housing in today's
issue</title></head><body>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"><b>Housing in
America</b><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size="+1" color="#000000">Nightmare on
Main Street</font><font face="Georgia" size="+2" color="#000000"><br>
</font><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"><b>America's
housing system was at the centre of the last crisis. It has still not
been properly reformed</b></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1"
color="#0040C2"><u><b
>http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21705317-americas-housing-syst</b
></u></font><font face="Arial" size="-1"
color="#000000"><b
>em-was-centre-last-crisis-it-has-still-not-been-properly</b></font></div
>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Excerpts</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">WHAT are the most dysfunctional parts of the
global financial system? China's banking industry, you might say, with
its great wall of bad debts and state-sponsored cronyism. Or the euro
zone's taped-together single currency, which stretches across 19
different countries, each with its own debts and frail financial
firms. Both are worrying. But if sheer size is your yardstick, nothing
beats America's housing market.</font><br>
<font face="Arial"></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">The slab of mortgage debt lurking beneath it
is the planet's biggest concentration of financial
risk. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Faced with this gigantic muddle, many
politicians and regulators just shrug. The system is mad, but the
thicket of rules and vigilant regulators will prevent crazy lending
from taking place, they argue.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">That seems wildly optimistic. Because housing
is seen as one of the few ways in which less-well-off Americans can
accumulate wealth, there is an inbuilt political pressure to loosen
lending standards. As a result, housing crises are a recurring feature
of American life. Before the subprime debacle in 2008-10, there was
the savings-and-loans fiasco in the 1980s.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">It is no surprise that Congress has shirked
its duty. But until America's mortgage monster is brought to heel, the
task of making finance safer will remain only half-done.</font></div>
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"The gap between high- and low-income families has widened steadily
since about 1980, hitting a new high every year since 1985. "<br>
<br>
Business Week, November 21, 1994, p. 72.</font><br>
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