A recent article splashed across the front page of the mid-size mid-western city where I live tells a surprisingly unfamiliar story about how ordinary people have pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars by investing in subprime real estate. Though the current financial crisis has brought about intense discussion about the moral hazard of borrowing beyond [...]

With the U.S. credit crunch gone global and the $700 billion bailout package now looking like a small drop of water in a tidal wave of woe, the question of blame is now all over the media.
Who caused this mess?
If you read the Wall Street Journal you could easily come away thinking that the whole [...]

Financial institutions have a continuing and affirmative obligation to help local communities meet their credit needs. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) passed in 1977 requires financial institutions to reinvest deposit funds back into the communities in which they are located and encourages institutions to meet the credit needs of the local communities consistent with safe [...]

The subprime crisis in the U.S. has resulted in the decline of many companies. Many banks including large ones had to write off millions. The decline is not limited to banks and home loan companies alone.
Out of the total $12 trillion in mortgage debt today, two companies – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – own [...]

Virtually every town in the United States has zoning laws which affect land use, lot size, building heights, density, setbacks, and other aspects of property use. Zoning laws are government regulated restrictions on how a particular piece of land can be used – residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and recreational. They impose many use restrictions, such [...]