The Soviets would envy such perfect capture of private property.
Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.
Posted on 02/08/2011 5:12:11 PM PST by CutePuppy
Late last week the Obama Administration does what it often does when it's about to announce something controversial: It leaks a little bit to the news media to soften the blow. And so it was with the highly-anticipated, and currently overdue, "white paper" on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The paper is expected by the end of this week.
As we have reported on this blog before, it will likely include several options and scenarios, playing each of them out to conclusion. We already know that the goal is to reduce the government's role in the mortgage market, which right now is 95 percent of all new originations, according to a report out today from Lender Processing Services. Republicans want that sooner than later, but most say it will take at least five years.
What leaked last week was the idea of reducing Fannie, Freddie and FHA loan limits, currently at $729,750 for high-priced markets to $625,000. I'm not sure that is going to make a whole lot of difference. Remember that the loan limit used to be $417,000, before the housing crash. It was raised because government was the only game in town. Home prices have since fallen dramatically, and depending on what report you choose to believe, are still falling. ..... < snip >
..... The FHA is currently too big. Even its commissioner, David Stevens, admits that openly whenever and wherever he can. FHA has made itself more expensive already, but it still has far too large a market share. Tough QRM standards and a pricey Fannie and Freddie system would push more borrowers to FHA, which is exempt from QRM. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
The percentage of home ownership in the U.S. hasn't been higher relative to other developed economies, such as Canada, so these relics of the Great Depression should have been dismantled long time ago. Instead, the "progressives" used them as a bulwark in their "politically correct" policies of "ownership society" and even doubled down with Carter's CRA and Clinton's HUD and DOJ enforcement policies, and "community organizers" like Obama filing lawsuits against the banks to force "subprime" lending.
The result of all this massive government intervention in the market economy was not "unexpected," with nine out of ten mortgage loans now effectively under government control.
Just think how many votes that would buy!
Fannie and Freddie were the enabling conduit that allowed companies like Countrywide to originate their crap loans and pass them along to be securitized and ultimately poison the MBS market, and subsequently cause the housing crash. That we had a quasi-govt entity creating securities to sell with implied govt backing was a ludicrous thing to start with. Now we’re paying for it.
Here’s Bush’s 2002 speech pushing home loans to unqualified minorities...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqR15H0gNBU
Opps, that was supposed to be put into the memory hole!
The Soviets would envy such perfect capture of private property.
Yes, Bush actually originated the phrase “ownership society” sometime around 2003-2004.
Unfortunately, by that time at least half of the “home-ownership society” has been tightly integrated with and controlled directly or indirectly by the government, via GSEs, FHA and VA programs. The rest is history.
I hope black conservatives like Allen West, Herbert Cain and Thomas Sowell are comfortable with what you say, because we sure need them and I hope they feel welcome here. Incidently, I had the ignominy recently of opening an envelope from Wells Fargo to find a letter that they’d sold my mortgage to Fannie Mae. Ugh.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama eventually hands over Freddie and Fannie to China to pay off our debts...
Problem is W's noble vision got gamed by folks who were more like Henry F. Potter than George Bailey....
"__Ooops!__"
Welcome to Pottersville.
And why do you think that happened?
They forgot to send me the memo. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
The PRC isn't as stupid as 48% of America. But point taken.
Still spreading that silly claim? LOL!
"We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. "They were totally opposed to it," Born says. "That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?"
Blue dress or not, even a monkey don't need a Weatherman to see which way the Wind blows.
LOL!!!
Well it would make over 95% of mortgage holders instant renters...lol
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