Still More on Credit-Worthiness of Bank Lending in Housing Bubble: Loan Originations vs. True Bank Lending
This is what I stated, adding the words [banks thought]. The email from reader David follows this recap. Five Reasons Banks Extended Credit in Housing Bubble Years [Banks thought] People would pay mortgage loans because they always did [Banks thought] Housing prices would rise sufficiently to cover defaults [Banks thought] Mortgage interest rates to subprime borrowers were high enough to cover risk [Banks thought] Defaults would happen over a long period of time, not quickly concentrated Banks could pass the trash to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (without clawbacks for non-performance), and/or loans could be sliced and diced in tranches to investors If any of those conditions were true, then banks were indeed making loans to “credit-worthy” borrowers
