A Chart that Explains the Entire Financial Crisis

The chart above appeared on this recent CD post showing the close historical relationship between: a) the U.S. homeownership rate, and b) the share of mortgages for home purchases with a 3% down payment or less (97% loan-to-value ratio or higher), especially starting in about 1995 when they both increased sharply.

Source: Seeking Alpha


There are no shortage of opinions on what caused our current economic crisis. The numbers on the chart at the top of this post make a very strong case for what the cause of the housing bubble was...easy credit. Then video that follows the chart makes a very strong case as for who is responsible for the housing bubble. You should remember this when you go to vote in 2012.

Here are some more articles on the above topics for you to read:

How Urban Planners Caused the Housing Bubble

Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble

Who caused the housing bubble?

What Caused the Great Recession of 2008-2009?

And for those who've been thinking that they see a light at the end of the tunnel, I suggest that they are seeing a locomotive coming our way. Read The Great Recession Just Became Greater for more on that, with an short excerpt from the article posted below:

And the revisions to the worst quarters of the “Great Recession” were even more depressing, with 4Q-2008 pushed down an additional 2.12% to an annualized “growth” rate of -8.90%. The first quarter of 2009 was similarly downgraded, dropping another 1.78% to a devilishly low -6.66% “growth” rate. And the cumulative decline from 4Q-2007 “peak” to 2Q-2009 “trough” in real GDP was revised downward nearly 50 basis points to -5.14%, now officially over halfway to the technical definition of a full fledged depression.