With regard to the CRA, the largest players in the subprime market were private-sector firms that were not subject to CRA stipulated rules and regulations. Therefore, for the story to work, the bulk of the subprime action had to happen in the GSEs, but as we shall see, it did not. Furthermore, in institutions subject to the CRA, not all loans fell under the CRA guidelines; so the proportion of loans affected were quite small. Then the timing seems a little off, since the CRA came into effect in 1977, but the housing boom dates from much later. It has become commonplace to point out that housing bubbles happened in many countries in the first decade of the millennium; but none of those other countries had any legislation similar to the CRA.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 883