What caused the collapse?

When ACORN Founder Wade Rathke spoke recently at the University of Memphis, he cited the Community Reinvestment Act as the chief accomplishment of community organizers. When some of Rathke’s “interrogators” questioned him on that, he cited this blog entry by a writer named Mike Volpe, who posts at The Provocateur. Aside from some minor typographical errors, I find Volpe’s commentary surprisingly helpful, particularly his related “white paper” on the financial crisis — what caused it, and what should be done about it. In short, Volpe criticizes Republicans for blaming the entire crisis on the CRA, and both parties for bailing out quasi-governmental agencies and others that were “too big to fail.” He recommends that we break up Fannie and Freddie (a “duopoly”), stop trying to prop up the bad actors, quit papering over bad deals, and let the market correct itself.