Author: BretLudwigBretLudwig
Date: Jul 14, 2008 17:34
Treasury announces bailout plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
>>"Normally, financial crises happen because really, really rich people
screw up, because they're the ones who have most of the money. Yet, the
mortgage meltdown is much more egalitarian in origins than the typical
collapse. For instance, until a few months ago, mortgages backed by the
now tottering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were capped at $417,000.
Certainly not all, but some of the blame should rest on the bipartisan
consensus to social engineer the home ownership rate above the 64 percent
level, where it had been stuck since the 1960s.
Here are some excerpts from my June 22 article in Taki's Magazine on "The
Diversity Recession:"
In 1992, Congress passed the Government Sponsored Enterprises bill,
which set ātargetsā (i.e., quotas) for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
which are quasi-governmental publicly-traded for-profit thing-a-ma-bobs,
to encourage āaffordableā and āunderservedā (more or less
minority) home loans.
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