Sadly, the mortgage industry has reached an equilibrium such that some level of consumer abuse is, practically speaking, necessary to compete. No one has successfully disrupted this market, because it requires simultaneous technical, product and policy change on the part of brokers, federally-guaranteed agencies like Fannie/Freddie/HUD, lenders, mortgage insurers and title companies. Not impossible, but as my start-up learned, incredibly capital intensive.

I always point to this as an example of how something reasonably close to a large, lightly-regulated market can still produce inefficient and negative outcomes for our society.