Will Privatizing The Mortgage Giants Solve The Housing Crisis?

Will Privatizing The Mortgage Giants Solve The Housing Crisis?

This week, the Trump administration announced it would sell around 5% of mortgage giants and government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The sale would begin to reintroduce the two firms to private markets after 17 years of government conservatorship. The decision to re-privatize two of the largest mortgage firms in the world, and a prominent reason why the United States is one of the only countries where people can get 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, will have enormous implications for the U.S. economy, housing market, and the American dream.

Fannie Mae was founded during the Great Depression with the idea of making mortgages more widely available to Americans by buying mortgage loans from banks. Freddie Mac came along in 1970 to provide competition and increase liquidity for mortgages. In part, Fannie and Freddie increased liquidity by repackaging their mortgages into mortgage-backed securities and reselling them to investors. In the early 2000s, the subprime mortgage crisis began as smaller, unregulated financial actors started offering risky mortgage loans and likewise repackaged them to investors. When the crisis imploded in 2008, it gutted the market for mortgage-backed securities, and the U.S. government seized Fannie and Freddie to prevent them from collapsing. The government feared that without Freddie and Fannie, many Americans would no longer be able to afford home ownership. Today, Fannie and Freddie still back roughly 50% of all mortgage loans, with other government agencies making up another chunk.

The Trump administration’s plans to take these GSEs public again will allow the two firms to raise billions through new stock offerings and shift risk back to the private sector. But the question is, why is the government doing this? Will it help fix the country’s housing crisis—which Trump has reportedly called a national emergency—or will it make matters worse? Bethany and Luigi get together to discuss what it would mean for Fannie and Freddie to go public, who benefits from these developments, and their implications for home loans, the housing market, and the American economy.

Also check out Bethany’s book, published in 2015: Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants

Avsnitt(218)

Martin Wolf: Is Capitalism Killing Democracy?

Martin Wolf: Is Capitalism Killing Democracy?

Read the following articles in ProMarket:There Is a Direct Line from Milton Friedman to Donald Trump's Assault on Democracy, by Martin WolfGeorge Stigler and the Challenge of Democracy, by Anat AdmatiCorporations Are Not “We the People,” by Geoffrey StoneeBook: Milton Friedman 50 Years Later, a ReevaluationAlso, check out relevant past Capitalisn't episodes:Why Capitalism Needs DemocracyThe Breaking Point Of Democracy With Morton Schapiro and Gary Morson

16 Feb 202351min

Google: The New Vampire Squid? With Dina Srinivasan

Google: The New Vampire Squid? With Dina Srinivasan

In a Wall Street Journal article about Google’s Secret ‘Project Bernanke,’ Jeff Horwitz and Keach Hagey quoted Google Chief Economist Hal Varian's answer to a question he was asked during the Stigler Center's 2019 Antitrust and Competition Conference. Watch the video excerpt here."Why Google Dominates Advertising Markets," by Dina Srinivasan, Stanford Technology Law Review, December 2019Read ProMarket's ongoing coverage of Google here.

9 Feb 202350min

The End Of China’s Miracle?

The End Of China’s Miracle?

Show notes:On February 9th, 2023, "China’s New Covid Strategy," the next webinar in the Stigler Center's series on China's political economy, will feature Chang-Tai Hsieh, along with Schwarzman Scholars/Harvard Medical School's Joan Kaufman and the Financial Times' Nian Liu (Stigler Center Journalist in Residence, 2021). Register here.Revisit previous webinars hosted by the Stigler Center on China’s political economy and read a summary: https://www.promarket.org/2023/02/02/event-notes-chinas-political-economy-in-review/ Economists share blame for China’s ‘monstrous’ turn, Janos Kornai in the Financial Times.

2 Feb 202350min

Shattering Immigration Myths: Data Beyond Borders

Shattering Immigration Myths: Data Beyond Borders

19 Jan 202335min

Revisiting The Meritocracy Debate With Adrian Wooldridge And Michael Sandel

Revisiting The Meritocracy Debate With Adrian Wooldridge And Michael Sandel

Capitalisn't will be back in your feeds with a brand new episode on January 19. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast if you haven't already, and leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/Capitalisnt.

5 Jan 202354min

He Foresaw Inflation. Here’s What He Expects Next. Feat. Lord Mervyn King

He Foresaw Inflation. Here’s What He Expects Next. Feat. Lord Mervyn King

22 Dec 202248min

Taylor Swift, Ticketmaster, and Chokepoint Capitalism with Cory Doctorow

Taylor Swift, Ticketmaster, and Chokepoint Capitalism with Cory Doctorow

Read an excerpt from the book here: https://www.promarket.org/2022/10/03/why-streaming-doesnt-pay/

8 Dec 202256min

The "Woke" Capitalism Game With Vivek Ramaswamy

The "Woke" Capitalism Game With Vivek Ramaswamy

We're taking the holiday off to be with our families, but that doesn't stop the economic news. And there is no story bigger than the collapse of the crypto exchange, FTX. One aspect that attracted our attention was Sam Bankman-Fried, the young CEO of FTX, officially bought into a philosophy called Effective Altruism, where you make the most money to give it to the poor. However, in a text exchange with a Vox reporter SBF said "this dumb game we woke westerns play where we say all the right things and so everybody likes us". It reminded us of what Vivek Ramaswamy said about woke capitalism on the show last year. We've decided to replay that show for you, and we'll be back in two weeks with a brand new episode of Capitalisn't. Vivek Ramaswamy, a scientist, lawyer, and former venture capitalist and entrepreneur, has a new book out: "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam". In this book, he argues that "wokeism" has become a way for corporations to wrap themselves in a mantle, which then furthers the idea of crony capitalism and extends their power into spaces they were never meant to be in. Luigi Zingales and Bethany McLean sit down with Ramaswamy to discuss his perspectives on the role of virtue, ethics, and politics in business and society.

24 Nov 202250min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
varvet
badfluence
uppgang-och-fall
rss-borsens-finest
svd-ledarredaktionen
lastbilspodden
avanzapodden
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
rss-dagen-med-di
affarsvarlden
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
fill-or-kill
borsmorgon
tabberaset
dynastin
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
market-makers
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
montrosepodden