While I agree that the foreclosure crisis was not caused by subprime event, the article leaves out  that The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s report (you can get it online) on the housing meltdown found most of the blame with risky lending practices by the banks, inflated home values by appraisers, and banks making money from originated fees by bundling and selling off a lot of the risk as MBS mixed with good and bad loans and getting the blessing of an A+ rating by the credit rating agencies.

Each month, the NBER Digest summarizes several recent NBER working papers. These papers have not been peer-reviewed, but are circulated by their authors for comment and discussion. With the NBER’s blessing, Making Sen$e is pleased to begin featuring these summaries regularly on our page.

The following summary was written by the NBER and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Making Sen$e. We will tell you, however…

• Credit Suisse report shows cash is leaving bond, equity funds
• First back-to-back months of simultaneous outflows since 2008

Mom and pop are running for the hills.

Since July, American households — which account for almost all mutual fund investors — have pulled money both from mutual funds that invest in stocks and those that invest in bonds. It’s the first time since 2008 that both asset classes have recorded back-to-back monthly withdrawals, according to a report by Credit Suisse.

Credit Suisse estimates $6.5 billion left equity funds in July as $8.4 billion was pulled from bond funds, citing weekly data from the Investment Company Institute as of Aug. 19. Those outflows were followed up in the first three weeks of August, when investors withdrew $1.6 billion from stocks and $8.1 billion from bonds, said economist Dana Saporta.

“Anytime you see something that hasn’t happened since the last quarter of 2008…