Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Why Are We Rushing To Get Rid Of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

by Barkley Rosser via Econospeak (reposted with authors permission) Why Are We Rushing To Get Rid Of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? “How many Virginians does it take to change a light bulb? Five: One to change the bulb and four to talk about how great the old bulb was.” I think I am turning […]

Subprime and the crisis

Financeaddict comments on a St. Louis Fed study: Their research asks whether there’s evidence that lenders changed their behavior to meet CRA, Fannie or Freddie-mandated goals by: making more subprime loans than they otherwise would have? lending to riskier borrowers than they otherwise would have? charging risky borrowers less than they otherwise would have? …If […]

Refinancing bad for business?

Robert Waldmann comments on the Freddie Mac story recently in the news (lifted from Stochastic Thoughts): Freddster (noun): Fraudster who profits from conflict of interest at Freddie Mac (the knife). Jesse Eisinger, pf ProPublica and Chris Arnold, of the public sector NPR News have the most interesting article about ruthless greedy uh socialism I guess at […]

Fannie and Freddie and William Black

William Black writes this post Fannie and Freddie’s Managers bought Nonprime Paper for the same Reason Merrill Did: (hat tip Rebecca) This subdivides into four arguments: the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), Congress’ rejection of an administration proposal to give OFHEO greater supervisory powers, specifically, the power to place Fannie and Freddie in receivership, the ability […]