{"id":14949,"date":"2011-08-17T18:46:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T01:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=14949"},"modified":"2011-08-17T18:46:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T01:46:59","slug":"reforming-fanniemae-and-freddiemac-with-marx-rotarian-socialist-rent-seekers-of-the-world-unite-you-have-nothing-to-lose-but-your-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14949\/reforming-fanniemae-and-freddiemac-with-marx-rotarian-socialist-rent-seekers-of-the-world-unite-you-have-nothing-to-lose-but-your-brains\/","title":{"rendered":"Reforming FannieMae and FreddieMac with Marx: Rotarian Socialist rent-seekers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your brains!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Totally cool. An actual newspaper article about America’s favorite welfare program, government subsidized mortgages — and in The Boston Globe<\/a>,<\/em> no less:<\/p>\n

Amid all the clamor about entitlement reform during the struggle to raise the debt ceiling, one enormous cost – and potential source of future savings – largely escaped scrutiny: the billions of dollars the United States spends to support the mortgage market. Even before the 2008 financial crisis, the government assumed the credit risk on most loans, which allowed banks to offer better rates, but ultimately left taxpayers footing the bill when the housing market collapsed: $138 billion and counting.<\/p>\n

During the crisis, the government became even more involved in the mortgage market by rescuing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and agreeing to backstop larger loans. This furnished enough liquidity to prop up the housing market and helped bring about the low mortgage rates of the last three years. But getting in has proved much easier than getting out. Today, the government backs 95 percent of new loans, leaving taxpayers more exposed than ever.<\/p>\n

That could finally be about to change. After next month, federal loan limits in expensive areas like Boston, New York, and Los Angeles are set to decline from $729,750 to $625,500. Had the lower limits applied last year, the government would have backed 50,000 fewer loans. But even this modest pullback may not happen. At the urging of homebuilders and realtors, lawmakers in both parties want to extend the higher limits, possibly for good. It’s an early skirmish in the larger battle over the government’s proper role in the mortgage market. And the issue isn’t just when to pull back, but whether to do so at all: Many Americans have come to regard cheap mortgages as an entitlement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am so ecstatic to see Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie and FHAVAUSDA properly identified as welfare programs<\/u><\/em><\/strong> — invented by rent-seeking Rotarian Socialists for the benefit of other rent-seeking Rotarian Socialists — that I’m finding it hard to kvetch.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe not too<\/em> hard. Look at this:<\/p>\n

Liberals tend to support government intervention as a means of subsidizing home ownership for the poor and Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Totally cool. An actual newspaper article about America’s favorite welfare program, government subsidized mortgages — and in The Boston Globe, no less: Amid all the clamor about entitlement reform during the struggle to raise the debt ceiling, one enormous cost – and potential source of future savings – largely escaped scrutiny: the billions of dollars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[212,29,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-flourishing","7":"category-group-therapy","8":"category-lending","9":"category-marketing","10":"category-real-estate","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1794,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1794\/congressional-leadership-on-lending-policies-what-is-crisis-itis\/","url_meta":{"origin":14949,"position":0},"title":"Congressional “leadership” on lending policies: What is “crisis-itis?”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid, which should be in your feed-reader -- especially right now:What is \u201ccrisis-itis?\u201d It is my own diagnosis. 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