Causes of the economic crisis: Can the flap of a butterfly wing in Brazil destroy the Coliseum … after 30 years?

Abstract

The current US-made economic crisis was caused by unintended perverse consequences of remote well-meaning political decisions, such as the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act and the demagogic exploitation of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae etc that began in the 1990s. The fivefold interest rate increases in the USA between 2003 and 2008 that charged an additional US$70bn to the three million holders of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) triggered the crash.