Subprime Virtues

The Moral Dimensions of American Housing and Mortgage Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID6325407
AuthorsRichard Avramenko (0000-0002-7611-2610, University of Wisconsin–Madison), Richard Boyd (Georgetown University)
Year2013
Volume11
Issue1
Pages111-131
Publication date2013-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePerspectives on Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1537-5927 • E-ISSN: 1541-0986
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1537592712003672
OpenAlexW2115499864
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited80

The so-called “subprime mortgage crisis” has led to intense scrutiny of American housing policy, mortgage finance, and even the goods of homeownership. Some critics allege that the housing bubble and ensuing financial crisis were consequences of misguided state intervention, while others contend that the sources of the crisis lay in the pathologies of unregulated markets. Both sides, however, treat the crisis and its underlying causes primarily through an economic lens of cost-benefit analysis. Building on the insights of contemporary political theorists and the new institutionalism in political science, we consider American housing policy from the vantage of virtue theory. Not only is housing and mortgage policy inevitably normative, but public policy can be an important tool in fostering what we call the “subprime virtues” of truth-telling, promise-keeping, frugality, moderation, commitment, foresight, and judgment that are absolute prerequisites for any decent society

Economics · Financial crisis · Financialization · Insurance policy · Keynesian economics · Law and economics · Mortgage insurance · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Secondary mortgage market · Shared appreciation mortgage · State (computer science · Subprime mortgage crisis · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Finance