The Foreclosing of America (4): Vicious And Virtuous Circles

Submitted by Rick Perlstein on July 19, 2007 - 12:38pm.

[Thus concludes our series. Read previous installments here, here, and here.]

I've written about now-dead GOP dreams of creating a nation of conservatives by goosing the percentage of Americans who own their homes - because, as the American Enterprise Institute once fantasized, people who own real estate "have a deeper commitment to their community, a more profound sense of family obligation and personal responsibility, a stronger identification with the national fortunes, and a personal interest in our capitalist economy. (They also have a greater propensity to vote Republican.)"

I've written about the victims, ordinary, cash-strapped Americans who made the mistake of presuming that the people selling them their "NINJA" - No Income, No Job, No Assets - mortgages wouldn't be cutting these deals had they not believed in their' ability to honor the obligations - even in the face of a (anti-) regulatory environment that let mortgage brokers make a killing whether the loans succeeded or not.