Repeatedly we hear democrats charge that the collapse of the housing market and subsequent recession was the result of capitalism run amok. Indeed this has become a mantra of the anti-capitalist left. Yet we almost never hear Republicans challenge the left’s assertions and defend capitalism.

In fact the housing bubble and subsequent collapse was the result of artifically low interest rates by the fed and government backed loan programs that ignored credit worthiness, along with “anti-discrimination”regulations that forced lenders to make bad loans, all of which removed normal market forces from the supply and demand equation. The predictable results were an artificial increase in demand leading to rising prices along with growing numbers of bad loans. Lending institutions were then forced to find ways to mitigate the risks forced upon them by the government which lead to the toxic mortgage backed securities. From start to finish this was ALL the fault of government regulation, NOT free market capitalism. This would not have happened in a real free market.

So my question is this: Why don’t Republicans make this argument and defend capitalism and market economics?