Sir, Lawrence Summers is certainly correct in asserting that the right focus of the European countries must be on restoring economic growth if they are to restore fiscal sustainability (“Growth not austerity is the best...

The banking industry suffered credit crises in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. An unavoidable conclusion is that its loan loss reserves were in all cases too small. 

How and why did the Canadian and U.S. housing finance markets react differently to the international financial crises of 2007-2009?

With the bursting of the US housing market bubble in 2007-08, praise for Alan Greenspan soon turned into almost universal condemnation. It is all too likely that a similar fate awaits Jean-Claude Trichet as the euro unravels over the next year or two.

When the bubble deflated in 2007, an unprecedented number of weak mortgages went into default - those that were held or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie, and those that had been securitized by Wall Street. This drove down housing prices and threw Fannie and Freddie into insolvency. 

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission produced a story about the financial crisis, but not what caused the financial crisis.

We are still suffering from the bursting of the housing bubble and now some people see signs that another bubble is bursting--the higher education bubble.

The housing finance system of the future needs to have countercyclical factors built into it and much bigger loan loss reserves in good times to avoid the illusory profits which feed booms and bubbles.