[g2ah5z]

> Capitalism is a prerequisite for lobbying. Regulations are not.

In order for lobbying to be effective, there must be a large and powerful government which can be lobbied to. The reason the farm lobby spends millions of dollars is because they get billions in subsidies in return. It would be more accurate to say that big government is a prerequisite for lobby, since a small government that merely enforces property rights wouldn't be worth lobbying to.

> This is bank propaganda. It's been debunked countless times

It's an empirical fact that Fannie and Freddie, which are government sponsored entities that buy the largest share of mortgages, lowered their standards significantly leading up to the crash in order to make artificially cheap loans more accessible to people who would otherwise be considered too risky to lend to.

> The bad loans were made by people who knew exactly what they were doing.

Lenders originated subprime loans because the government guaranteed to buy them via Fannie and Freddie. If Fannie and Freddie hadn't existed, these bad loans would have never been made in the first place.