Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- If you and I were in a bar together,
and you suffered a nasty bump on your head when I accidentally
whacked you with a pool cue, there probably would be no
disputing that my action caused your harm. But for my careless
swing of the stick, the injury wouldn’t have happened.
Not all examples of causation are so simple. Often there is
more than one cause when a person is hurt, just as there are
usually multiple causes for any major historical event. This
brings us to the long-running kerfuffle over the role that
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in causing the financial
crisis of 2008, which hasn’t really ended.
