Wednesday 2017-06-28

Prior to 2008, politicians saw lenders as making type II errors, meaning that they did not lend to borrowers who probably would repay their loans. So they imposed "affordable housing goals" on lenders.

After 2008, politicians saw lenders as making type I errors, meaning that they made loans that borrowers did not repay. So they extracted "settlements" from big banks that were involved in lending prior to the crisis. And they made it known that Freddie and Fannie could force lenders to repurchase any loans that go bad, unless the underwriting file is pristine.

-- Arnold Kling