When Jerome Powell recently reflected that "we could have -- and perhaps should have -- stopped asset purchases sooner," he understated one of the most consequential policy missteps of modern monetary history. His further claim that "the extent to which these [mortgage-backed securities] purchases disproportionately affected housing market conditions...is challenging to determine" simply doesn't hold up. The evidence is overwhelming: the Federal Reserve's massive pandemic-era MBS buying helped supercharge one of the largest housing booms on record.