Two Excellent Reasons To Keep DeMarco As FHFA Director, NOT Mel Watt

Confounded Interest ^ | 11/30/2013 | Anthony B. Sanders

[whitedog57]

The Senate will likely take up the confirmation of Mel Watt (D-NC) as Director of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Now that Harry Reid (D-NV) triggered the nuclear option allowing Democrats to use simple majority voting on most appointments, it is likely that Watt, who has no regulatory experience, will be confirmed as FHFA Director.

What has Ed DeMarco accomplished as a regulator? Many things including,

• Significant progress has been made on the development and initial testing of the Common Securitization Platform (CSP); however challenges, including necessary changes to Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s technology and business processes, remain before full implementation. • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have formally established Common Securitization Solutions, LLC as the joint venture that will own the CSP and related business and operational functions. • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have each executed multiple risk-sharing transactions totaling more than $30 billion. • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have achieved the Scorecard objective of gradually reducing the less liquid portions of their retained portfolios. • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed review of pre-conservatorship loan acquisitions and have recovered more than $18 billion in restitution for breaches of selling representations and warranties.

In addition, under DeMarco’s leadership, Fannie Mae has seen a decline in serious delinquencies.

fannieserdelinq112913

Furthermore, DeMarco has overseen the winding down of Fannie Mae’s retained portfolio.

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Now, rising house prices and declining U6 unemployment have helped improved Fannie Mae’s situation. BUT DeMarco has been a vigilant regulator in tightening Fannie Mae’s credit box.

u6caseshillwer

And, of course, The Federal Reserve has tried to keep mortgage rates low and helping house prices to recover.

csfedbalsss

On a negative note, the declining activity rate for the 15-24 segment of the US population does not bode well for younger people entering the housing market as home owners.

actrate

Here is a chart of the US homeownership rate and real median household income. Not a pretty picture.

horatemedrtealinc

So, DeMarco has helped oversee a return to profitability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Why mess with success?

[whitedog57]

Mel Watt is Obama's pick to plunder Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Socialism at its worst.

[humblegunner]

So you’re stealing charts from a different source now?

Still scared to post them though.. so apparently there is still a fear of liability.

[shibumi]

Now, now..... It could well be that he’s not afraid to post them. He may simply fall far short of the reasonable expectations of the Moderators and participants on FreeRepublic. That expectation being, of course, that posters have the basic HTML skills to handle the posting of their own material.

He may not be afraid at all. Simply inept. Copy and paste of source code might be well beyond his ability to grasp.

[humblegunner]

Copy and paste of source code might be well beyond his ability to grasp.

But that is only two clicks, a grab and a paste.

Surely the least among us could master something so simple, to
say nothing of someone bright enough to provide financial analysis.

[shibumi]

(Maybe he doesn't know it's there!)