As the mortgage mess unravels and takes down more and more of the players, bits and pieces of information become available about who played central roles, and who benefited the most from unscrupulous lending schemes. One suprising conclusion that I drew is that much of this was in the making during the Clinton years, and [...]

The “sub-prime” mortgage crisis is a euphemism that does not exist. Realtors and mortgage companies are only small fish – big money has feasted off an exploding real estate market for so long that, in order to maintain the growth rate, it was necessary to reach further and further into the pockets of people who [...]

I often hear arguments in discussions, both on the news and in person, that government oversight of certain industries is bad, and that the government should stay out of regulating businesses, because such practices increase burocracy and ultimately our taxes. I always believed that people who support this argument either profit directly from the lack [...]

Bubble or no bubble – for many, this is the dominating personal-finance question for many. I have been expecting the bubble to burst every year since 2000 when I purchased my second home, and I can barely express my amazement about how this market managed to put the inevitable off for so long. Finally, common [...]