“It appears to me that the last 8 years, and maybe more, we went a little too far with some of the de-regulation.....”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were directly managed and regulated by the US Congress.
The value of their stocks fell almost $130 billion.
By contrast, Enron lost $60 billion, most of that because federal regulators caused the panicked destruction of Enron's trading business in less than 24 hours.
Also of note, Detroit and central California have the highest home mortgage default rates and home price declines in the nation.
The reason:
Federal regulators, using the threat of discrimination lawsuits, essentially eliminated credit and income standards for mortgages for Blacks and Hispanics.
More than any other factor, government regulation caused the collapse of the home mortgage financial market.
Federal regulators, using the threat of discrimination lawsuits, essentially eliminated credit and income standards for mortgages for Blacks and Hispanics.
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Relaxing the standards is, imo, deregulation. Not regulation. The feds effectively forced the free market to ignore regulations for certain ethnic/income groups.