To combine a few old chestnuts into one grand expression of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot amazement: those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it, first as tragedy, then as farce. The Washington Post brings word that President Obama wants another crack at the same policies that nearly crashed the financial system of the Earth in 2008, not coincidentally fueling his own rise to power: | Read More »
In 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the new “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB),” an all-powerful agency vested with the power to limit the choices of consumers in financial markets, making it harder and more expensive to obtain credit. This unaccountable agency operates autonomously within the Federal Reserve and will not be subjected to congressional appropriations or oversight. Yesterday, the CFPB announced | Read More »
When it comes to setting public policy fires, Democrats get away with serial arson. A maladroit opposition party and a complaisant media ensure that the public will never pin the tail of blame on the donkey. Nowhere is this more evident than with interventionist housing policy. Decade’s worth of government intervention in the housing market almost single-handedly took down the economy. Bill Clinton’s National Homeownership | Read More »
On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss how the beer you drink correlates with your politics and your propensity to vote, dowered revised GDP and more trouble with the housing market.
Read More »There’s nothing that exemplifies the deleterious effects of government intervention into the private sector than the housing market. Bill Clinton’s National Homeownership Strategy did to the housing sector what Obamacare will do for the healthcare sector. His administration created entire offices and programs dedicated to forcing banks to underwrite risky mortgages under the dubious goal of universal home ownership. Concurrently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac | Read More »
The cost of the bailouts seems never-ending and more of the mounting evidence that it didn’t work, like a bailout recipient laying off 16,000 workers this year, continue to make the news. Tied to the root cause of the financial meltdown of 2007-2008, are mortgage giants Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae in light of their penchant for bundling sub-prime mortgage securities in the years preceding | Read More »
What’s worse than Congress picking winners and losers and distorting the free-market with bailouts, stimulus, and tendentious interventions on behalf of specific industries? Unelected members of the Federal Reserve doing the same through monetary policy. It is amazing to watch how many Republicans will speak with such conviction against Keynesian fiscal stimulus policies, yet they will fervently promote monetary stimulus policies by the unaccountable Federal | Read More »
“Click here to call your Congressman and make your voice heard. Tell him to let the Export-Import Bank charter expire.” The Export-Import Bank is a federal agency whose sole reason for existence is to use your tax dollars to subsidize sales of American manufactured goods to foreign buyers. It is nothing short of corporate welfare, and its business model (providing loans and loan guarantees at | Read More »
The annual federal budget is a whopping $3.6 trillion, but that figure fails to capture the true burden of government on taxpayers. There are a number of GSEs (government sponsored enterprises) that are considered off budget. Politicians use off-budget entities like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Postal Service to obfuscate the true cost of government. Additionally, the government runs a number of credit programs, | Read More »
While heading Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist founded the lobbying firm of Janus-Meritt Strategies with David Safavian, the former Chief of Staff of the General Services Administration (GSA) who was convicted of lying to prosecutors during the Abramoff scandal and sentenced to prison. Safavian’s conviction was recently upheld. One of the more interesting clients for Mr. Norquist was Fannie Mae. In 2000, Janus Merit | Read More »
This is a copy of a letter from 2004 House Democrats and sent to then-President George W Bush. In it, the signatories complained that the administration had taken a hard line with ‘housing-related government sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by insisting on emphasizing fiscal prudence and responsible lending over increased affordable housing access. The relevant section? We have been concerned | Read More »
Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be making some house calls for one-on-one courtesy meetings with Senators. I can’t tell you how many times over the past two days I hear conservatives say “yeah, Kagan is bad, but if she is defeated or withdrawn, we will get somebody worse.” As many teams are finding out right now in the NBA and NHL playoffs, never look past | Read More »
Hey, is this not Freddie Mac’s strategy? Freddie Mac is asking for $10.6 billion in additional federal aid after posting a big loss in the first three months of the year. It’s another sign that the taxpayer bill for stabilizing the housing market will keep mounting. Asking the government to keep you afloat as an alternative to actually operate under sound fiscal principles, that is. | Read More »
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