James Grant--one of the most skeptical, insightful, and witty writers on the adventures and foibles of financial markets--chronicles the various epidemics of investment excesses that have erupted over the past decade in his new book, Mr. Market Miscalculates (Axios Press, November 2008). Grant investigates, among other topics, mass psychology in...

Can policymakers and private investors reprivatize American finance? Should they? If so, how?

At this event, panelists discussed how to prevent the next real estate bubble.

For many years, community financial institutions have been denied fair and equal access to the secondary market. Banks prosper by making prudent loans with an adequate return and maintaining a reasonable cost structure. Today 97 percent of our banks are community banks and they are increasingly finding this business model under siege.

Since the mortgage meltdown began in the summer of 2007, many observers have commented that government policy has seemed to lag events. Predictions about the scope of the problems in the housing and mortgage markets, and particularly how they might affect the health of the financial system, have consistently been...

Since the beginning of the subprime meltdown, policymakers, housing experts, and economists have been looking for data that would enable them to predict housing price declines for individual states and for the nation as a whole. To date, no academic study has offered a quantitative basis for evaluating the potential...

The accounting problems of Fannie Mae have focused attention on the two ways they make their profits. A substantial part of their earnings comes from buying and holding mortgages and mortgage-backed securities (MBS), but they also earn substantial amounts by charging fees for guaranteeing that investors will receive full payment...

President George W. Bush revealed last week his policy response to the mortgage crisis.