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 […]

The notorious GSE bailout will probably cause the US Federal debt to be considerably lower than it would have been without the bailout. It could cause the US Federal debt to be much lower than it would have been, but that won’t be allowed to happen. Fannie and Freddie are now profitable. They are likely […]

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 […]

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 […]

By Divorced one like Bush ”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out […]