The Latest Myth About the Government’s Mishandling of the Housing Market

by Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica, Jan. 9, 2013, 12 p.m.

No matter how many times people debunk the notion that government policy created the housing bubble, it doesn't die. It's part of what the blogger Barry Ritholtz has called the "big lie" of the financial crisis. Now, we are having another argument about whether the government is creating a new housing disaster for taxpayers.

The target this time: the Federal Housing Administration, the government's mortgage insurer mostly for low-to-moderate income and minority borrowers.