No, according to the measured conclusion of this paper by Atif Mian, Amir Sufi and Francesco Trebbi:
Moreover, given the nature of political influence and the complexity of government decisions, our results should not be seen as a “smoking gun”. Instead we provide suggestive evidence of the influence of subprime borrowers and lenders on policy.
But for all that, it’s a disturbing read:
Taken together, our results suggest that constituent interests, measured with the fraction of subprime borrowers in a given Congressional district before the subprime mortgage expansion, and special interests, measured with campaign contributions from the mortgage industry, both helped to shape government policies that encouraged the rapid growth of subprime mortgage credit.
And thence the global recession.
