This fall I will be teaching Introduction to Property for the first time since Fall 2008. I think I would be remiss if I didn’t include something about the mortgage crisis that contributed to the more general economic crisis of that year. So I have a request to my fellow property professors and other relevant experts: Can you recommend one good, short, and clear article making the case that the mortgage crisis was primarily a market failure and one arguing that, to the contrary, it was a government failure?
I would also like to ask if there are any other major new property law developments and/or cases since 2008 that experts believe should be included in an intro course. You can assume that I am up on events that have occurred in my own subfield of takings and other constitutional property rights, so no need to mention cases such as Stop the Beach. I also generally do not cover more than a tiny bit of intellectual property in my Intro course, because we have a separate introductory course for IP at GMU.
I welcome responses by e-mail, as well as in the comments. I request that the latter focus as much as possible on reading and issue suggestions rather than debating the law and policy issues surrounding the mortgage crisis.