How Smart Growth Exacerbated the International Financial Crisis


 

Publication Date: April 2008

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Wendell Cox

Research Area: Economics

Keywords: Economy; Smart Growth; federal reserve; subprime

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The U.S. mortgage meltdown has dominated business news for months. The crisis seems to deepen daily, and its impacts are felt throughout an increasingly interdependent financial world. Only recently, the Organization for Economic and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have suggested that losses of an additional $250 billion to $1 trillion may yet be in the offing. In the ongoing debate over the causes and cures of the mortgage meltdown, one of the most important factors has been virtually absent: the role of excessive land use regulations in exacerbating the extent of losses.