Today’s article by Stanley Kurtz at NRO is absolutely essential reading.

Bear with me — I’m going to connect this to higher education.

Kurtz has the story right. The sine qua non of this disaster is the leftist vision that home ownership rather than renting would make life better for the poor. When you think about that, it’s ridiculous. A house you own isn’t necessarily any better a dwelling than a rented house or apartment. The way to help poor people is to promote economic growth so they can find better paying jobs and lower cost goods and services, but left-wing activists are not interested in anything so fundamental. Activists want immediate results they can claim credit for. That calls for grandiose government projects where they play a starring role, along with the politicians who give them power, of course.

We now see the macro consequences — vast economic wreckage.

I would like to suggest that professors with students who want to dig into a great topic for a thesis or dissertation suggest a micro look at the same thing. That is, precisely what were the consequences for the very people ACORN officials, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank et al, said they were doing so much to help?