In the wake of the burst tech stock bubble and the shock of the terrorist attacks, the Greenspan Gamble was to purposefully ignite a housing boom. Ex ante, it was a reasonable gamble, and it almost worked.

A reason frequently given for financial market behavior in recent years is the belief that the Fed will bail out the market's mistakes.

As the debt hangover works its way through the system, the outlook is for housing to continue along an extended rocky and bumpy bottom, generally moving sideways in nominal terms.

The real name of the Dodd-Frank Act should be the "Faith in Bureaucracy Act." This is a faith I do not share. I see no evidence that the human minds operating in regulatory bureaucracies, and driven to political defense and expansion of their own jurisdiction and power, have any superior insight into the unknowable future and its ineradicable uncertainty.

Economic and financial cycles are natural and cannot be avoided.

The government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is similar to the savings-and-loan collapse of only twenty years ago.

Independent bodies like the Financial Accounting Standards Board need a system of check and balances.