Setting aside the fact that the government can come take your home, with or without a mortgage, it’s hard to say you really “own” it unless it’s all yours.

Given their role in the companies’ failures, we should encouraging long-time Fannie/Freddie employees to leave, not stay.

I suspect many Republicans, at least those not closely aligned with the real estate industry, are torn between wanting to immediately get rid of Fannie and Freddie and getting the taxpayers’ money back.

Well, Obama's victory means that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will keep his job, at least until the end of his term in 2014.

It is worth noting that the issue of auditor independence had been subjected to repeated analysis in the academic literature. The conclusions of that literature so contradict the provisions of SOX that Yale Law Professor Roberta Romano labeled them as "quack corporate governance".

As long as we allow the narrative to run that Lehman’s collapse caused the crisis, then “solutions” like Dodd-Frank will continue to dominate the debate, rather than recognizing a housing bubble drove the crisis.

The most recent LPS data, covering to the end of August 2012, shows that for the first time, over half of foreclosures are for borrowers that were previously in foreclosure.

The CFPB is only one of the many obstacles to job creation and consumer credit in our economy. Restructuring or eliminating the agency would certainly improve outcomes, both for our economy and consumers in general.

So if Democrats want to continue to push for higher minimum wages, with the resulting higher unemployment, they should stop claiming to have any scientific backing for the position and just admit that they want to redistribute from one group of Americans to another group.

Essentially, the Treasury has amended its agreements with Fannie and Freddie so that the companies no longer have to pay a fixed dividend to the U.S. taxpayer, but instead “every dollar of profit” from the companies to the taxpayer.

Under Section 1071, Subtitle G, labeled "Regulatory Improvements" (who says Congress doesn't have a sense of humor?), the act establishes a system of small business loan data collection. Translation: Push affirmative action in small-business lending.

The proponents of Glass-Steagall also ignore one of the basic rules of finance: diversification generally reduces risk.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence to me is that most of the really bad features of our financial regulatory system were the result of lobbying efforts by small banks. Such disasters as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the FDIC, or restrictions on branch-banking (thankfully now gone) all came about from the demands of small banks.

Having one’s read of the law vindicated by the Supreme Court is always a nice feeling, even if I had to wait about a decade. From 2002 to 2003, I managed the HUD office which administered the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

In September 2003, when warned of problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, then-House Financial Services Chair Barney Frank stated, "I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation." Well, Chairman Frank did indeed "roll the dice," and now the American taxpayer is almost $200 billion poorer.

Calabria discusses JP Morgan's $2 billion loss and too big to fail.

As I’ve written elsewhere, Presidents of both parties have in recent years behaved as if Wall Street owned a certain number of seats at the Fed. It appears Wall Street has now come to collect.

As reported in today’s Financial Times, instead of pushing for an increase in the value-added tax, Italy will focus its next austerity measures on cutting government.

There has been much debate over whether the law will accomplish its stated intent, but there are also growing concerns about its constitutionality, primarily due to separation of powers, vagueness, and due process issues.

While we are lacking a direct test for Goldman Sachs, or even investment banks in general, a recent study in the April 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Banking and Finance does shed some light.