As Krugman explains in a recent NYT article, "a zombie idea is a proposition that has been thoroughly refuted by analysis and evidence, and should be dead - but won't stay dead because it serves a political purpose, appeals to prejudices, or both." He then  goes on to claim that Marco Rubio's mind is " zombie infested" and in particular accuses Marco Rubio of doing the "full Zombie" in claiming that  "a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies." Krugman asserts that Rubio's zombie idea that the government policies had a major role in the housing/financial crisis has "been refuted in detail." No, the government didn't force banks to lend to Those People; no, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn't cause the housing bubble (they were doing relatively little lending during the peak bubble years); no, government-sponsored lenders weren't responsible for the surge in risky mortgages (private mortgage issuers accounted for the vast...(Read Full Post)