I think only three of these are new and surprising–“it’s not just the lenders” seems to me to be mischaracterized, and not to carry the implications Tyler wishes us to drawn from it. [From Tyler Cowen Learns Four New Things]
As I still don’t know what libertarians really believe, this is one more datapoint. Cowen claims that blame for the subprime lending crisis can can be apportioned to “predatory borrowers” or people who made false or ambitious statements on their loan applications. But who makes money based on the loan going through? There is a disincentive for greedy lenders to look too closely at those papers and some of them got caught in that.
Next up, how patients are to blame for malpractice . . . .