How to Stabilize the Housing Market

Published October 25, 2011

(NOTE: This  letter was submitted to the Washington Post on October 25, 2011.)

Economics has been called a dismal science, but after reading Larry Summers’ column, one may conclude economics is a wrong-headed religion (“How to stabilize the housing market,” Oct. 24).

“The central irony of a financial crisis is that while it is caused by too much confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending, it can be resolved only with more confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending,” wrote Summers, who served as U.S. Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration and until one year ago was director of President Obama’s National Economic Council.

Is it any wonder our economy is so troubled when one of the nation’s most influential economists believes the economy needs more of what caused the troubles in the first place? And when that esteemed economist apparently has failed to notice trillions of dollars of money creation, bailouts and mortgage rescues designed to give us these things?

His belief is not based on evidence and reason. It is based on faith in economic theories that have been and are being disproven by reality.

Steve Stanek
The Heartland Institute
Chicago, IL