Getting Our Money Back from Fannie and Freddie

Mark Calabria

Any forecast of housing activity is going to have some error. So the numbers above are likely off, in one direction or another. The point is a surcharge on the purchases made by these Government-Sponsored Enterprises can kill two birds with one stone: getting the taxpayers’ money back and reducing the GSEs’ footprint in the mortgage market.

This work by Cato Institute is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Mark Calabria

Mark A. Calabria, is director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute.

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24 Comments So Far

smokytoo Wrote: Dec 02, 2012 4:06 PM

HA , dream on.

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MariansMusings Wrote: Nov 28, 2012 11:56 PM

I should add that private mortgage insurance companies were effectively run out of town by Fannie and Freddie. Now we want them back? They should never have left in the first place. As far as surcharges are concerned, they are penalties assessed against the victims instead of the perpetrators. Case in point is the rising MIP fees on FHA and VA loans. As to real estate fees, they are typically split among 4 individuals, whose gasoline costs have doubled. Average sales per agent are around 2 to 3 per year. Few agents get rich and most of those do it buying and selling. Can't we reduce the outrageous salaries and bonuses of the officials at Fannie and Freddie for starters? & forbid anyone working there that has worked for a politician.

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MariansMusings Wrote: Nov 28, 2012 11:44 PM

Fannie and Freddie were redundant from the git-go. We already had FHA and VA loans for smaller down payments. Private mortgage insurance filled in the chinks for people who did not have the requisite 20 to 30% down payments. Since Fannie and Freddie's bones have been picked clean through raids by community organizers, the pickers are moving n to suck the FHA program dry. I have covered this at www.MusingsbyMarian.com
Fannie and Freddie should be shut down immediately. We are victims of embezzlement who refuse to prosecute in hopes of recovering some of the money. Ain't going to happen, folks.

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adrianvance Wrote: Nov 27, 2012 12:35 AM

People on the left never realize or admit to the power of the collective intelligence of the free market.

See The Two Minute Conservative at http://adrianvance.blogspot.com for political analysis,
science and humor. If you read us every day when you speak ladies will swoon and liberal
gentlemen will weep.

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crude Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 8:40 PM

A conservative says, "liberals invoke God, charity, and the teachings of Jesus in an attempt to further their agenda, fail to recognize the difference between individual responsibility and the proper role of government and try to merge the two and have the government act as individuals and/or churches."

Conservatives want to replace science with Intelligent Design in America's curricula.

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Ali Bertarian Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 3:19 PM

The troll now known as Crude/q16penn/troglidite posts irrelevant ad hominem arguments of the following form: "[Joe Republican Politician] did XYZ, and we all know that Republicans don't like XYZ, so why do you Republicans still revere [Joe Republican] and vote for Republicans?"

Do you really think, Crude/q16penn/troglidite, that we don't know that Republican politicians perform hypocritical actions?
Do you really think, Crude/q16penn/troglidite, that we don't know that Democrat politicians also perform hypocritical actions?
Do you really think, Crude/q16penn/troglidite, that we don't know who is more conservative/libertarian when we have a ballot choice between a Republican and a Democrat?

Do you really think, Crude/q16penn/troglidite?

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troglidite Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 3:11 PM

I am one of those Red State higher earners who votes against what is in their own best interest. I was raised with a large amount of Catholic guilt back in the days when the Catholic Church actually was the champion of the dispossessed and disenfranchised. I left the church in the wave of the pedophilia scandal and the Bishops using the pulpit to preach politics. When a northeastern Bishop said that Catholics should be excommunicated for voting for John Kerry I voluntarily excommunicated myself form this archaic institution of control and misogyny.

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q16penn Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 2:15 PM

When Paul Ryan voted to shore up the National Flood Insurance Program to the tune of $10 billion last year; is this an example of crony socialism? I mean, why should any of my taxpayers dollars go to millionaires with million dollar beach front homes??

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Ali Bertarian Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 2:08 PM

The troll now known as Crude/q16penn posts irrelevant ad hominem arguments of the following form: "[Joe Republican Politician] did XYZ, and we all know that Republicans don't like XYZ, so why do you Republicans still revere [Joe Republican] and vote for Republicans?"

Do you really think, Crude/q16penn, that we don't know that Republican politicians perform hypocritical actions?
Do you really think, Crude/q16penn, that we don't know that Democrat politicians also perform hypocritical actions?
Do you really think, Crude/q16penn, that we don't know who is more conservative/libertarian when we have a ballot choice between a Republican and a Democrat?

Do you really think, Crude/q16penn?

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troglidite Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 1:25 PM

Some military veterans say "health care in my district is exorbitant."

Can't the Ryan-style health care voucher you receive to get small government, free market health care in the dreaded private sector be exorbitant to cover the premiums?

Can't we all agree that government run health care is EVIL?

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Doggoneit Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 12:42 PM

Nice plan, but it would never work. It just isn't complicated enough. Everyone could understand it and there's no hidden fees, extra charges, value-added items, under the table swaps, you pat my back & I'll pat yours next time clauses. What are you thinking? This is too simple for Congress to get. Where's the fine print?

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restoreliberty Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 11:09 AM

This solution makes far too much sense for democrats to ever go along with the idea. The banks and the real estate lobby will never let this fly....why then they would have to compete without their friends in the Demwitcrat party distorting markets to get votes from the non-workers and non-savers that believe the government should give them everything, like cheap low interest mortgages, that others work to earn.

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Rick 2811 Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 10:13 AM

It's all so fuzzy...is it meat to be that way. Who in the heck are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Are they living together...married?? Are they even still alive? They must live in Hollywood. Lets subpoena them in and talk?

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JamesMonroe1775 Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 9:44 AM

Are you interested in learning about Constitutional Economics, Austrian Theory - Economics, Apprortioned Taxes, etc. ?
Check out (see below):

www.constitutionliberty. com

Sign up for the Newsletter!

Thanks.

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Robert125 Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 8:12 AM

Not a bad idea, good luck trying to sell it to those in power.

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DHWood Wrote: Nov 25, 2012 5:51 AM

Gee, charge the thieves as they continue their condoned thievery ?
Make those who owe pay the bills as they spend a trillion more every year ?
What a novel concept.
Seems much too difficult, complex, and frankly wrong.
The repercussions and racism contained in such a ludicrous idea are a throwback to the old boy eons gone by.
I cannot fathom Jamie Gorelick not recieving another 32 million plus for the next five years, taxpayer money well spent.

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Getting Our Money Back from Fannie and Freddie

Mark Calabria

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