Bo Lundgren and Lars Hörngren know financial crises. Lundgren was Sweden’s Minister of Fiscal and Financial Affairs during the epic bank meltdown that hit the country in the early 1990s; Hörngren was an adviser to the governor of Sweden’s central bank. Now they both work at the country’s National Debt Office (Lundgren is director general, [...]
Bryan from Houston, who’s been asking a lot of good questions lately, wonders apropos of the Frannie bailout: Why don’t we just allow the market to work? In my mind, this will bring everything back into equilibrium. But what if there isn’t just one possible equilibrium? Then the choice becomes, Do you want the equilibrium [...]
Manhattan, Riverside Park, Sept. 7
The giant lender, with a mortgage book of $2.2 trillion, has seen its stock market capitalization drop below $1 billion this morning. Fannie Mae is still above the $1 billion threshhold, but not by much.
Four interesting things I’ve read this morning about the big renationalization Fanniefredderung: From former Freddie Mac employee Arnold Kling: If I were the czar of the mortgage market, I would attempt to bring back the 30-year amortizing fixed-rate mortgage with a 20 percent down payment. … I think that a housing market that is based [...]
