Housing Crisis, Sentencing Guidelines, You Say To-mah-to

Very interesting op-ed on how the move away from face-to-face lending and individual judgment on loan worthiness by local bankers to actuarial determination of worthiness using a few key variables has led to much of the meltdown we’re now seeing in the housing market. Sounds a lot like the complaints doctors have over statistical medicine, educators have over judging by test scores, and . . . oh, gosh, I just can’t think of another area where people are very skeptical that top-down enforcement of decisions based on just a few variables is relevant. Can anyone help me here?