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December 16, 2015|Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, Edward Pinto, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, GSEs, Hidden in Plain Sight, Peter J. Wallison, underwater mortgages

The Great Regulation Caused the Great Recession

by Brian Domitrovic|

There are so many canards about our dear, departed Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Some favorites:

Deregulation caused it.

The government had to bail out Wall Street from its own mess.

The stimulus bill of 2009 stopped an economic free fall and forestalled a second Great Depression. (This last is why Hillary Clinton, on the stump, gives President Obama an “A” for his economic policy.)

The thing about canards is that they cannot help but contain a pointer toward the facts. Their evasiveness and stridency create a sort of outline, in shadow, of the very reality that it is the point of canards to suppress and obscure. Prevarication, as Shakespeare had it, protests too much.

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October 1, 2012|

Toward a Softer, Kinder Constitutional Moment

by William Galston|

In response to: Constitutional Moments

I admire all of Michael Greve’s essay and agree with much of it.    Like him, I worry about the long-term solvency of the United States.  Like him, I doubt the capacity of partisan politics as currently structured to address that problem.  And like him, I am a dyed-in-the wool Madisonian institutionalist who views changes of incentives as a more reliable basis for reform than an outburst of civic virtue. It was not so long ago that I regarded Herbert Stein’s well-known aphorism as an antidote to despair.  Lately I have begun to wonder.  Yes, if something cannot go on forever, it…

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More Responses

Can America Undo Its Purple Compromise?

by William Voegeli

If something can’t go on forever, Herb Stein instructed us, it won’t. The relief that bad arrangements will not get eternally worse yields once more to alarm, however, when we contemplate how they will stop going on forever. With ample warning before we face mortal peril, and sufficient reservoirs of probity, good will, and intelligence…

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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