Asset bubbles come and go. Only the housing bubble, however, brought the economy to its knees. Why? What makes housing uniquely a cause of macroeconomic risk? This article examines the workings of the housing market as well as theories and empirical evidence about the housing bubble. It explains...

We revisit the relationship between financing constraints and homeownership rates using the 2004 wave of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The survey respondents are a nationally representative sample of Americans 39-47 years of age as of this wave. As most of the sample had been...

The present period of financial instability is also likely to become known as the end of an era; an era of economic calm and policy consensus on ways to maintain market stability. After World War II, the federal government operated on the Keynesian principles that the right mix of spending,...