Conventional wisdom is quickly con­geal­ing around the idea that Alan Greenspan, pre­sid­ing genius of the dot-​conomy, is to blame for the sub­prime mort­gage mess. The argu­ment, artic­u­lated by Steve Forbes and others, goes like this: by low­er­ing short-​term inter­est rates to near-​zero in the early years of this decade, Greenspan encour­aged the spread of adjustable-​rate mort­gages (with low ini­tial “teaser” rates that rise after three, five, or seven years) and ill-​advised lend­ing practices.

In his new book The Age of Tur­bu­lence, Greenspan offers this defense against these critics:

I believed then, as now, that the ben­e­fits of broad­ened home own­er­ship are worth the risk. Pro­tec­tion of prop­erty rights, so crit­i­cal to a market econ­omy, requires a crit­i­cal mass of owners to sus­tain polit­i­cal support.

It’s hard to care much about the Forbes/Greenspan fight, but Greenspan’s response is intrigu­ing on its own.

What’s inter­est­ing is that Greenspan gives a polit­i­cal defense, not an eco­nomic one, for encour­ag­ing home own­er­ship.