The #1 seller of mortgage backed securities were, by far, the government through the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The #1 money losers on the resulting disas

The #1 seller of mortgage backed securities were, by far, the government through the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The #1 money losers on the resulting disaster were--again--the GSEs to the tune of several hundred billion dollars. By contrast, the private market bailouts are actually above water. Mortgage backed securities are not a very good example of free market distortions. Edit: I noticed you've added something about the housing ownership structure in Denmark. I think this is not very relevant to the discussion, but I also think it would be nice in the US if the law were more encouraging to the sort of ownership structures you described. I also think that kind of thing would still be rare because US citizens are a lot more mobile than Europeans and happen to like it that way.