We realize that it’s often politically incorrect to agree with Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, but this time we do. All sorts of studies that we cite in our book say it’s hard for people to acknowledge that they made mistakes, and weren’t just the victims of bad luck, but the only way to prevent a recurrence of the Great Recession (or least delay it) is to take a hard-nosed look at what went wrong in recent years. As Krugman explains, that doesn’t seem to be happening.

Now, if someone could just explain to us how Rep. Barney Frank, who did as much as any congressman to promote sub-prime lending, could possibly reposition himself as the voice of sanity on how to resolve the housing crisis…