Twenty-five mortgage firms controlled 90 percent of the market by 2007

Evidence

Combined with stunning increases in concentration in the mortgage origination market, such that the top 25 mortgage originators controlled 90 percent of the market in 2007, the consensus interpretation of events was that the mortgage boom was an adjunct to bigger changes in the private financial sector, and not prompted by some outbreak of rabid mendacity amongst the newly conniving population of home purchasers. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 888

Categorization

• CANDY: The striking concentration figure (25 firms, 90% of market) is a punchy elevator fact illustrating pre-crisis consolidation.