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Monday, February 6, 2012

Bernanke’s Housing-Market Meddling Tarnishes Trust

Constant meddling to save themselves and their buddies.

Shlaes: Bernanke’s Housing-Market Meddling Tarnishes Trust - Bloomberg

In 2009, an economist named Paola Sapienza came up with an image to describe the challenge the U.S. economy faced after the financial crisis. The economy was like a board game, Sapienza, a professor atNorthwestern University, told me. Especially like the old favorite “Monopoly.”

Despite the name, “Monopoly” isn’t really about antitrust. It’s about trust. Trust and commerce, Sapienza said. If people want to buy properties, if renters pay their rents and the bank acts predictably, then the game will move merrily forward, and hotels will replace houses on the board.

But if the bank can’t be trusted -- if it cheats or proves too erratic -- there is a problem. The players walk away from the table.

-read on link-

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