Joseph N. Fried, CPA, MBA, has over 30 years experience performing certified financial statement audits for nonprofit organizations and HUD-approved mortgage companies. He is presently the director of the Public Program Testing Organization, an Ohio-based nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying waste and abuse in the government and nonprofit sectors. This is Joe's third book with Algora.

Unlike other books pertaining to the financial crisis of 2007/8, the author presents a wide variety of factors ' including some that originated in the governmental sector and others that originated in the private sector. The tone is...

Unlike other books pertaining to the financial crisis of 2007/8, the author presents a wide variety of factors ' including some that originated in the governmental sector and others that originated in the private sector. The tone is conversational. The book includes several subjects that are almost completely ignored in the rest of the literature. These subjects include the detrimental impact of automated underwriting systems that were heavily promoted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.�  Drive-by house appraisals.�  The impact of hundreds of local housing programs funded by HUD, state governments, and housing advocacy groups.;�  False delinquency statistics put forth by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.&�  'Silent second;'� and 'piggyback;'� loans.

What if US regulators had used their time and resources to ensure prudent lending standards instead of selling houses? Suppose that government auditors randomly test-checked bank loan files to make sure down payments were no less than 10...

What if US regulators had used their time and resources to ensure prudent lending standards instead of selling houses? Suppose that government auditors randomly test-checked bank loan files to make sure down payments were no less than 10 percent, borrowers had employment, and credit (FICO) scores were at least 660. Assume that banks could be sued and their expansion plans blocked if lending standards were found to be deficient. What would have happened? Nothing. There would have been no financial crisis. Republicans as well as Democrats supported liberal housing and lending policies that led to the collapse of loan underwriting standards. The disintegration of lending standards set the stage for the creation of millions of loans to subprime borrowers Ã??' at all levels of income and for homes big and small. This was the primary cause of the financial crisis, and it has led to a new era of class warfare politics. President Barack Obama would have us believe that the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 was caused by cutting Ã??'taxes for millionaires,Ã??'� Ã??'eight years of Republican deregulation,Ã??'� and Republican deficit spending. After reviewing all aspects of the crisis, I believe that the PresidentÃ??'s words are nonsense. This crisis was chiefly caused by aggressive and persistent governmental intrusions into AmericaÃ??'s private lending system and by the consequences of those intrusions. The primary cause of the financial crisis was the governmentÃ??'s effort to promote affordable housing through the modification of loan underwriting standards. That effort soon led to a weakening of un-derwriting standards for most residential housing loans. ...