Editing American Enterprise Institute (section)

====2008 financial crisis====
During the [[2008 financial crisis]], ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' stated that predictions by AEI staff about the involvement of [[Government-sponsored enterprise#United States|housing GSEs]] had come true.<ref name="WSJ-Wallison">{{cite news | last=McKinnon | first=John D.|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121582252066647817 | title=Critic of the Firms Sadly Says 'Told You' |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=July 12, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524070502/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121582252066647817.html|archive-date=May 24, 2012}}</ref> In the late 1990s, [[Fannie Mae]] eased credit requirements on the mortgages it purchased and exposed itself to more risk. [[Peter J. Wallison]] warned that Fannie Mae and [[Freddie Mac]]'s public-private status put taxpayers on the line for increased risk.<ref name="NYT-Wallison">{{cite news|last=Holmes|first=Stephen A.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html|title=Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending|work=The New York Times|page=C2|date=September 30, 1999|access-date=April 7, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323141815/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html|archive-date=March 23, 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> "Because of the agencies' dual public and private form, various efforts to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fulfill their public mission at the cost of their profitability have failed—and will likely continue to fail", he wrote in 2001. "The only viable solution would seem to be full privatization or the adoption of policies that would force the agencies to adopt this course themselves."<ref name="Two Masters">{{cite book|last=Wallison|first=Peter J.|author-link=Peter J. Wallison|year=2001|contribution=Introduction|editor-last=Wallison|editor-first=Peter J.|editor-link=Peter J. Wallison|title=Serving Two Masters, Yet Out of Control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac|series=AEI Studies on Financial Market Deregulation|place=Washington, DC|publisher=AEI Press|page=4|isbn=978-0-8447-4166-6|url=http://www.aei.org/books/filter.all,bookID.233/book_detail.asp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418152140/http://www.aei.org/books/filter.all%2CbookID.233/book_detail.asp|archive-date=April 18, 2009}}</ref>

Wallison ramped up his criticism of the GSEs throughout the 2000s. In 2006, and 2007, he moderated conferences featuring [[James B. Lockhart III]], the chief regulator of Fannie and Freddie<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1392/event_detail.asp | title=Breakfast with Jim Lockhart and Senator Chuck Hagel | date=September 13, 2006 | website=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418123537/http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1392/event_detail.asp | archive-date=April 18, 2009 | access-date=October 17, 2018 }}</ref> In August 2008, after Fannie and Freddie had been backstopped by the [[US Treasury Department]], Wallison outlined several ways of dealing with the GSEs, including "nationalization through a receivership," outright "privatization," and "privatization through a receivership."<ref>{{cite news|last=Wallison|first=Peter J.|author-link=Peter J. Wallison|date=August 26, 2008|title=Fannie and Freddie by Twilight|url=http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.28517/pub_detail.asp|periodical=Financial Services Outlook|publisher=American Enterprise Institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418011610/http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.28517/pub_detail.asp|archive-date=April 18, 2009}}</ref> The following month, Lockhart and Treasury Secretary [[Henry Paulson]] took the former path by putting Fannie and Freddie into federal "[[Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac|conservatorship]]."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/business/08fannie.html|title=In Rescue to Stabilize Lending, U.S. Takes Over Mortgage Finance Titans|last1=Labaton|first1=Stephen|author2-link=Edmund L. Andrews|date=September 7, 2008|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=December 20, 2018|last2=Andrews, Edmund L.|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=December 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221043318/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/business/08fannie.html|url-status=live}}</ref> As the housing crisis unfolded, AEI sponsored a series of conferences featuring commentators including [[Desmond Lachman]], and [[Nouriel Roubini]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1468/event_detail.asp | title=Mortgage Credit and Subprime Lending: Implications of a Deflating Bubble | date=March 28, 2007 | website=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418135510/http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1468/event_detail.asp | archive-date=April 18, 2009 | access-date=October 17, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1519/event_detail.asp | title=The Deflating Mortgage and Housing Bubble, Part II | date=October 11, 2007 | website=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418135416/http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1519/event_detail.asp | archive-date=April 18, 2009 | access-date=October 17, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aei.org/events/filter.all,eventID.1678/event_detail.asp | title=The Deflating Mortgage and Housing Bubble, Part III: What Next? | date=March 12, 2008 | website=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419183408/http://www.aei.org/events/filter.all%2CeventID.1678/event_detail.asp | archive-date=April 19, 2009 | access-date=October 17, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aei.org/events/filter.all,eventID.1813/event_detail.asp | title=The Deflating Mortgage and Housing Bubble, Part IV: Where Is the Bottom? | date=October 30, 2008 | website=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418054852/http://www.aei.org/events/filter.all,eventID.1813/event_detail.asp | archive-date=April 18, 2009 | access-date=October 17, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aei.org/event/100022 | title=The Deflating Bubble, Part V: Forecast and Policy Recommendations for the Next Six Months | date=March 17, 2009 | website=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091228173734/http://www.aei.org/event/100022 | archive-date=December 28, 2009 | access-date=October 17, 2018 }}</ref> Makin had been warning about the effects of a housing downturn on the broader economy for months.<ref>{{cite news|last=Makin|first=John H.|author-link=John H. Makin|date=December 2006|title=Housing and American Recessions|url=http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25209/pub_detail.asp|periodical=Economic Outlook|publisher=American Enterprise Institute|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418001515/http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25209/pub_detail.asp|archive-date=April 18, 2009}}</ref> Amid charges that many homebuyers did not understand their complex [[mortgage loan|mortgages]], Alex J. Pollock crafted a prototype of a one-page mortgage disclosure form.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pollock|first=Alex J.|author-link=Alex J. Pollock|date=May 2, 2007|title=To Make Mortgages Fair, Keep Disclosures To a Page|periodical=The American|url=http://www.american.com/archive/2007/may-0507/to-make-mortgages-fair-keep-disclosures-to-a-page|access-date=April 7, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626234144/http://www.american.com/archive/2007/may-0507/to-make-mortgages-fair-keep-disclosures-to-a-page|archive-date=June 26, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Rucker|first=Patrick|date=June 15, 2007|title=One-page mortgage form pitched as simplicity tool|periodical=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1526578520070615|access-date=April 7, 2009|archive-date=November 9, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081109121237/http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1526578520070615|url-status=live}}</ref>

The claim that AEI predicted the [[2008 financial crisis]] is heavily disputed. In her book, ''[[Dark Money (book)|Dark Money]]'' (2016), American investigative journalist [[Jane Mayer]] writes that contrary to their claims, AEI took the "lead role" in crafting a revisionist narrative about the [[2008 financial crisis]], promoting what equities analyst [[Barry Ritholtz]] called "Wall Street's 'big lie'".  AEI's argument, "that government programs that helped low-income home buyers get mortgages caused the collapse", did not "withstand even casual scrutiny", according to Ritholz.  Multiple studies, including those from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies and the [[U.S. Government Accountability Office]], did not support the conclusions about mortgages reached by AEI. Ritholz argues that AEI intentionally shifted the blame from the financial sector, many of whom worked or were affiliated with AEI, according to Mayer, to the government and the consumer, so as to continue promoting the questionable idea that the free market does not need regulation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mayer|first=Jane|year=2016|title=[[Dark Money (book)|Dark Money]]|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-53559-5|pages=291–293}}</ref>