Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Derivatives are what inflated the housing bubble prior to 2008. Yes derivatives are a big part of what inflated the bubble prior to 2008, but the fed purchasing them didn't do anything to maintain home prices. The combination of (ARMs + low interest rates) and lenders being able to immediately flip mortgages to other to be combined in CDOs and other MBS derivates inflated housing. Lenders could make loans that they…
You are making this too complicated. If the fed did not buy any MBS, what would have happened to home prices in the long run? Financial markets would have failed, and then home prices would have plummeted.
That's like saying "Avoiding nuclear war is propping up the housing market. If we have nuclear war then society ends, the population collapses and the housing market with it. So avoiding nuclear war is propping up the housing market."
It's a terrible analogy to attempt to make. And it's wrong.