The 2008 financial crisisamp151like the Great Depressionamp151was a worldhistorical event. What caused it will be debated for years if not generations. The conventional narrative is that the financial crisis was caused by Wall Street greed and insufficient regulation of the financial system. That narrative produced the DoddFrank Act the mostcomprehensive financialsystem regulation since the New Deal. There is evidence however that the DoddFrank Act has slowed the recovery from the recession. If insufficient regulation caused the financial crisis then the DoddFrank Act will never be modified or repealed proponents will argue that doing so will cause another crisis. A competing narrative about what caused the financial crisis has received little attention. This view which is accepted by almost all Republicans in Congress and most conservatives contends that the crisis was caused by government housing policies. This book extensively documents this view. For example it shows that in June 2008 before the crisis 58 percent of all US mortgages were subprime or other lowquality mortgages. Of these 76 percent were on the books of government agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When these mortgages defaulted in 2007 and 2008 they drove down housing prices and weakened banks and other mortgage holders causing the crisis. After this book is published no one will be able to claim that the financial crisis was caused by insufficient regulation or defend DoddFrank without coming to terms with the data this book contains.