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Obama Doubles Down on Housing
Last week, President Obama gave a speech highlighting his administration’s response to the ongoing crisis in the housing market. The speech material can be broken down into two broad categories: 1) a...
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Private Equity Experience a Plus for Government's Loan Programs
The Republican presidential primary elections have sparked a show trial about whether a candidate’s experience as a private equity investor effectively disqualifies him to be the president of the...
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Obama Administration's New Plan to "Re-Gift" TARP Funds: Fan and Fred Take...
Thus far, the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA), the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has been reluctant to forgive the outstanding principal balances on mortgages owned by...
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Critics of the Export-Import Bank Have a New Weapon at Their Disposal:...
Congress is currently debating whether to reauthorize the charter for the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Most of the debate has focused on whether the economic and public policy rationale...
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Large Banks Begin to Recognize Reality of Second Liens
On Monday, Citigroup announced first quarter earnings that beat consensus expectations thanks to cost cutting and better credit performance. Citigroup’s $1.2 billion net release of credit reserves...
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Restoring Trust in Mortgage-Backed Securities
The mortgage finance market has leaned heavily on government support over the past few years. More than 90 percent of mortgages originated in 2011 were securitized by government entities using taxpayer...
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Fannie and Freddie's Huge Profits Raise Questions for Future of Mortgage Finance
Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article.Never have the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) dominated the U.S. mortgage market as they do today. Through June 2012, the GSEs (Fannie...
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ECB Actions are Borne of Necessity
In recent months, both the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) have embraced additional unconventional policy measures to address chronic problems plaguing their respective economies....
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Is it Fannie and Freddie’s Turn to Bailout the U.S. Treasury?
As e21 first pointed out last October, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are extremely profitable. The cash flow relationship between the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and the Federal Government has...
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Housing Recovery on Firm Footing of Economic Fundamentals
The latest data from the S& P Case-Shiller house price index suggest that U.S. housing prices are increasing at an accelerating rate. Sufficient time has elapsed to conclude that U.S. house prices...
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Making Government “Profits” Appear and Disappear: Student Loans vs. Fannie...
Official Congressional Budget Office estimates show that the federal student loan program will earn $184 billion for taxpayers in the next 11 years—about 13 cents for every dollar lent out. Those...
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Fed Briefly Doubles Its Borrowings Through Reverse Repos; Good Step
The Federal Reserve is building the tools it will need to exit from its extraordinary monetary policy. Just as the market was against the Fed tapering, it will worry periodically about rate hikes, but...
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The Illusion of Reform and the Next Housing Crisis
This article is adapted from the authors’ new book, Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit (Princeton University Press, 2014). Is America’s housing finance crisis...
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e21 Asks: Privatizing or Eliminating Government Programs
This week, we gave readers four choices of government programs, and asked them to pick one to eliminate or privatize. The Department of Education was the most popular candidate for elimination,...
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The Politics of Banking
This article appeared in National Review on April 18, 2014.If you have time to read only one book about the causes of the 2008 financial collapse, read this one. You will discover that the banking...
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Redistributive Credit Policies Won't Fix Inequality
Teaser: Mel Watt, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, recently announced that he will reduce the minimum mortgage down payment requirement for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the housing...
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Government By 'Guidance' Quashes Economic Freedom and Rule of Law
Teaser: Freedom is declining in America. The Heritage Foundation-Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom ranks the United States at #12, as does the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the...
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