President Barack Obama is putting pressure on Congress to close down mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. With Phoenix as his backdrop, Obama will outline his proposal. There are competing measures in Congress. A bipartisan Senate plan would give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac five years to wind down operations. It would replace the two with a single federal guarantor. The President has praised the Senate effort. Advisors say he will call for Fannie and Freddie's investment portfolios to shrink by 15 percent a year. He wants the government to step in only after private capital has been exhausted.
Oh, great idea. Get all the private sector out and roll it all into one government run operation. Yep, then everyone would be able to afford a home. Yep.
He talks out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand he wants federal protection of mortgages, on the other the justice department refuses to prosecute anyone who precipitated the mortgage crisis to begin with: from Wall Street fat cats to mortgage brokers and their predatory lending practices to appraisers who were extremely generous in valuing homes.
Then there were the everyday people who put themselves in a jam by purchasing too much house or who were already desperate financially before refinancing. Some of them are still "stuck" because their mortgages are below market value.
Perhaps the feds should stay out of the lending business and go back to keeping an eye on the banksters.
Oh, great idea. Get all the private sector out and roll it all into one government run operation. Yep, then everyone would be able to afford a home. Yep.
ReplyDeleteHe talks out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand he wants federal protection of mortgages, on the other the justice department refuses to prosecute anyone who precipitated the mortgage crisis to begin with: from Wall Street fat cats to mortgage brokers and their predatory lending practices to appraisers who were extremely generous in valuing homes.
ReplyDeleteThen there were the everyday people who put themselves in a jam by purchasing too much house or who were already desperate financially before refinancing.
Some of them are still "stuck" because their mortgages are below market value.
Perhaps the feds should stay out of the lending business and go back to keeping an eye on the banksters.