Links to my posts over the last three years on the causes of the crisis. This is an ongoing project, and I’ll add new items to the Financial Crisis page as they are posted. Ten posts:
1. What is the US economy? Introduction. Before blaming the economic crisis on either government regulation or free enterprise, we need to know what kind of economic system the U.S. had before the crisis. A survey of the relevant factors in identifying the degree of capitalism or socialism then in place.
2. Deregulation? The Federal Register’s size: Data on one measure of government regulation — page counts of its publication of new rules each year.
3. 
When was the financial sector deregulated? Data on two measures of regulation: The size of the federal government’s annual budget for regulating the financial and banking sector, and the total number of government employees regulating that sector.
4. The Subprime Mortgage Crisis: A simplified flowchart of subprime mortgages’ contribution to the crisis. Presidents, congressmen, Fannie Mae, and lenders’ changing incentives.
5. 
Pathologies of the mixed economy (or, How we got into this frackin’ mess): A big-picture overview of the development of our mixed economy. Integrating developments in ethics, economics and political history, and public choice. A video-lecture version.
6. Money and monetary systems: An introductory contrast of private/competing money systems to our government/monopoly money system. Includes an analogy of books to money: Books are to the intellectual realm what money is to the economic realm.
7. Has the Federal Reserve been a failure? A report on a conference paper given by economic historians George Selgin and Lawrence White comparing the Fed’s original mission with its track record over the twentieth century.
8. 
What is the OWS complaint? A question for those venting their frustration at Wall Street rather than Pennsylvania Avenue.
9. Warren Buffett and the power of corporations: On the crucial distinction between political power and economic power.
10. John Allison on the financial crisis: I can’t take any credit for this excellent talk, but the former CEO of BB&T had a front-row view of the events leading up to and during the crisis. I also can’t take any credit for economist George Reisman’s depressingly clear overview explanation.
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