11 “Those of us who have looked”: “Greenspan Concedes Error on Regulation,” by Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times, October 23, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html
19 “one of the biggest potential paydays in history”: “Westhus Reaping Fannie Windfall to Rival Big Short: Mortgages,” by Jody Shenn, Bloomberg, March 10, 2014. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-10/westhus-reaping-fannie-windfall-to-rival-big-short-mortgages
21 “suggesting that they might together”: On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System, by Henry Paulson (Business Plus, 2010).
22 “permanently address the structural issues presented”: “U.S. takes control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” by Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times, September 7, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/business/worldbusiness/07iht-treasury.4.15955496.html
22 “This is an opportunity to get rid of institutions”: “How Mr. Volcker Would Fix It,” by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times, October 22, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/business/volckers-advice-for-more-financial-reform.html
22 “I believe that our housing system should operate”: “Remarks by the President on Responsible Homeownership,” August 6, 2013. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/06/remarks-president-responsible-homeownership
22 quite deliberately did not deal with Fannie and Freddie: “Why has Congress left housing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?” by Neil Irwin, Washington Post, March 5, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/05/why-has-congress-left-housing-to-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/
22 “The current state of the GSEs can best be summed up”: “A Realistic Assessment of Housing Finance Reform,” by Laurie Goodman, Urban Institute, August 18, 2004. http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/413205-A-Realistic-Assessment-of-Housing-Finance-Reform.pdf
23 some $5 trillion of securities outstanding: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Conservatorship,” by Mark Jickling, Congressional Research Service, September 15, 2008. http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/110097.pdf
23 taking practically every penny of profit: “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to send $6.8 bln to U.S. Treasury,” by Lindsay Dunsmuir, Reuters, November 6, 2014. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/06/usa-housing-idUSL1N-0SW0SS20141106
25 “If you’re not relevant, you’re unprofitable”: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, January 2011. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pdf/GPO-FCIC.pdf
27 “opened the floodgates to the reckless private label”: Testimony of Joshua Rosner, U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, March 6, 2012. http://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-113-ba16-wstate-jrosner-20130306.pdf
27 a staggering 82 percent of subprime mortgages were refinancings: “Curbing Predatory Home Mortgage Lending: A Joint Report,” Department of Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development, June 2000. http://archives.hud.gov/reports/treasrpt.pdf
28 private-label issuance reached $1.15 trillion: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
28 a third of subprime mortgages … were used to buy homes: “A House Is Not a Credit Card,” by Bethany McLean, New York Times, November 13, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/opinion/a-house-is-not-a-credit-card.html
28 homeowners cashed out approximately $966 billion: “Housing Finance System: A Framework for Assessing Potential Changes,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, October 7, 2014. http://gao.gov/products/GAO-15-131
29 market share fell from 57 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2004: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
29 “customers who do not satisfy the stricter credit: “Subprime Lending: Defining the Market and Its Customers,” statement of the Coalition for Fair and Affordable Lending and New Century Financial Corporation, joint hearing of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity and Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, March 30, 2004. http://financialservices.house.gov/media/pdf/033004st.pdf
30 3.8 percent of subprime issuance in 2001 … 28.9 percent in 2005: “The Effect of Large Investors on Asset Quality: Evidence from Subprime Mortgage Securities,” by Manuel Adelino, W. Scott Frame, and Kristopher S. Gerardi, April 2014. https://www.frbatlanta.org/research/publications/wp/2014/14_04.aspx
31 “We face two stark choices”: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
33 “Following the lead of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan”: The Mortgage Wars: Inside Fannie Mae, Big-Money Politics, and the Collapse of the American Dream, by Tim Howard (McGraw-Hill, 2013).
34 “If you’ve got a bazooka”: On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System, by Henry Paulson.
35 “Some of us who have helped Fannie and Freddie”: Remarks by Charles Schumer, the Brookings Institution, December 19, 2007. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/events/2007/12/19-us-economy/20071219_economy.pdf
36 “The idea strikes me as perverse”: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
37 “Just maybe a bailout of Fannie … would be a good thing”: “Is Fannie Mae the Next Government Bailout?” by Jonathan R. Laing, Barron’s, March 10, 2008. http://online.barrons.com/articles/SB120493962895621231
37 “A government seizure is inevitable”: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
38 “Senior Bush administration officials”: “U.S. Weighs Takeover of Two Mortgage Giants,” by Stephen Labaton and Steven R. Weisman, New York Times, July 11, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/business/11fannie.html
39 “If the U.S. government allows Fannie and Freddie to fail”: “Freddie, Fannie Failure Could Be World ‘Catastrophe,’ Yu Says,” by Kevin Hamlin, Bloomberg, August 22, 2008. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aslo2E01QVFI
41 “prevent current shareholder speculation”: Minutes to the meeting of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, December 17, 2008. http://www.fasab.gov/pdffiles/dec08mins.pdf
42 “Treasury took advantage of the 2008 financial”: “Treasury, the Conservatorships and Mortgage Reform,” by Timothy Howard, January 16, 2015. http://fanniemae-shareholder.blogspot.com/2015/01/treasury-conservatorships-and-mortgage.html
42 “They have to be used”: “Fannie, Freddie to Buy $40 Billion a Month of Troubled Assets,” by Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg, October 11, 2008. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aDjJYMSphyM0&pid=newsarchive
43 Foreign institutions … owned around $1 trillion: “The Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” by W. Scott Frame, Andreas Fuster, Joseph Tracy, and James Vickery, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, March 2015. http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr719.pdf
46 “not deregulation, but dumb regulation”: Jeb Hensarling’s opening statement at the Committee on Financial Services hearing, January 27, 2015. http://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398651
47 31 million mortgages, or over half: Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again, by Peter Wallison (Encounter Books, 2015).
49 “I continue to think that Peter overplays the mortgage issue”: “An Examination of Attacks Against the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission,” Democratic Staff Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 13, 2011. http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/FCIC%20Minority%20Report.pdf
49 “I think wmt [William M. Thomas] is going to push”: ibid.
51 from 2005 to 2007, roughly $2.9 trillion: “Fannie, Freddie and the Right Wing Myth of a ‘Mortgage Meltdown,’” by David Fiderer, February 7, 2015. http://www.opednews.com/populum/pagem.php?f=Fannie-Freddie-and-the-Ri-by-David-Fiderer-Freddie-Mac_Housing_Insolvency_Meltdown-150207-203.html
54 the FCIC archives at Stanford University: http://fcic.law.stanford.edu/resource
54 the best performers were Fannie and Freddie: Testimony of Mark Zandi before the Senate Banking Committee, September 12, 2013. https://www.economy.com/getlocal?q=306BF929-5A1A-41FC-9737-691E189D7D2F&app=eccafile
56 wealthiest 40 percent of borrowers: “Changes in Buyer Composition and the Expansion of Credit During the Boom,” by Manuel Adelino, Antoinette Schoar, and Felipe Severino, National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2015. http://www.nber.org/papers/w20848
58 “What’s good for American housing”: “Fannie Mae’s Last Stand,” by Bethany McLean, Vanity Fair, February 2009. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/02/fannie-and-freddie200902
59 “attracts too little private capital”: “Early Steps Down the Path of GSE Reform,” by Jim Parrott, the Urban Institute, March 2015. http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/2000155-Early-Steps-Down-the-Path-of-GSE-Reform.pdf
60 “scoring an executive post at Fannie Mae”: “Nice work if you can get it: how Fannie Mae became Washington’s biggest power player,” by Michelle Cottle, Washington Monthly, June 1, 1998. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Nice+work+if+you+can+get+it%3A+how+Fannie+Mae+became+Washington%27s…-a020789484
61 “Fannie has this grandmotherly image”: “Crony Capitalism: American Style,” by Owen Ullmann, The International Economy, July/ August 1999. http://www.international-economy.com/TIE_JA99_Ullmann.pdf
62 Sarah Lehman Quinn’s dissertation: “Government Policy, Housing, and the Origins of Securitization, 1780–1968,” by Sarah Lehman Quinn, 2010. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7sq3f6xk
63 “Roosevelt Charges Federal Neglect of ‘Little Fellow,’” New York Timest April 8, 1932. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9907E3DC1431E633A2575BC0A9629C946394D6CF
65 “extraordinarily difficult to try to compare”: David Min’s testimony at a hearing before the Committee on Financial Services, June 12, 2013. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg81763/html/CHRG-113hhrg81763.htm
71 “one of the most powerful men in the United States”: “The Big Chair; James Johnson, Head of Brookings, Fannie Mae and the Kennedy Center, Is in the Catbird Seat,” by Lloyd Grove, Washington Post, March 27, 1998.
72 “OFHEO was structurally weak and almost designed to fail”: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
72 “hobbled, muzzled, and underfed”: “The Fall of Fannie Mae,” by Bethany McLean, Fortune, January 24, 2005. http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/01/24/8234040/index.htm
82 “extensive advertising has created”: Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks: Why and How, by Peter J. Wallison, Thomas H. Stanton, and Bert Ely (AEI Press, 2004).
84 “financing strategies fueled by creativity”: All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera (Portfolio, 2010).
85 “He had a deep disdain”: On the Brink, by Henry Paulson,
86 “to fend off possible future systemic difficulties”: Alan Greenspan’s testimony before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, February 24, 2004. http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2004/20040224/
88 “Frustrated by its inability to win”: “Regulators Hit Fannie, Freddie With New Assault,” by James R. Hagerty and John D. McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2004. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB108310651573395309
89 “These findings cannot be explained”: “Regulator Has No Confidence in Fannie Leadership,” by David S. Hilzenrath, Washington Post, September 24, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45910-2004Sep23.html
94 “It was amazing how little actual authority”: Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises, by Timothy F. Geithner (Crown, 2014).
99 “You have the power to help”: Letter from Timothy Geithner to Ed DeMarco, July 31, 2012. http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/tfg-letter-demarco.aspx
99 “Is This Man Single-Handedly Stifling the U.S. Housing Recovery?” by Christopher Matthews, Time, March 21, 2013. http://business.time.com/2013/03/21/why-are-so-many-lawmakers-and-ags-calling-for-this-mans-job/
100 “The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous”: “Judge’s Ruling Against 2 Banks Finds Misconduct in ’08 Crash,” by Peter Eavis, New York Times, May 11, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/business/dealbook/nomura-found-liable-in-us-mortgage-suit-tied-to-financial-crisis.html
104 “People who own Fannie and Freddie debt”: “Rep. Barney Frank warns of Fannie, Freddie risks,” by Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post, March 6, 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030501764.html
106 “This paper lays out the Administration’s plan”: “Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market: A Report to Congress,” Department of Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development, February 2011. http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/Documents/Reforming%20America%27s%20Housing%20Finance%20Market.pdf
111 “will not be able to earn their way back”: Speech by Ed DeMarco, September 30, 2011. http://problembanklist.com/fhfa-head-says-fannie-mae-and-fred-die-mac-cannot-be-fixed-0407/
112 The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History, by Gregory Zuckerman (Crown Business, 2009).
114 “make clear the Administration’s commitment”: “The Untouchable Profits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times, February 15, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/business/the-untouchable-profits-of-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac.html
118 “Undoubtedly, rosy reporting”: “Revealing Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s Budget Costs: A Step Toward GSE Elimination,” by Romina Boccia, The Heritage Foundation, March 16, 2014. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/03/revealing-fannie-maes-and-freddie-macs-budget-costs-a-step-toward-gse-elimination
124 “the perpetual conservatorships”: “FHFA’s Permanent Conservatorship Ignores the Law,” by Michael H. Krimminger, American Banker, December 17, 2014. http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/fhfas-permanent-conservatorship-ignores-the-law-1071687-1.html
128 “Investments in quality education”: “Michael Milken: How Housing Policy Hurts the Middle Class,” by Michael Milken, Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2014. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304610404579401613007521066
130 “While housing usually leads the country out of recession”: “Obama to Outline Proposals to Bolster a Lagging Housing Sector,” by Jonathan Weisman, New York Times, January 7, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/us/obama-to-outline-proposals-to-bolster-a-lagging-housing-sector.html
135 “four core principles for what I believe reform should look like”: President Obama’s remarks on homeownership, August 6, 2013. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/06/remarks-president-responsible-homeownership
141 “The critical flaws in the legacy system”: Michael Stegman’s remarks, March 5, 2015. http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl9987.aspx
142 “The housing lobby likes to pretend”: “Life Without Fannie and Freddie,” Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2014. http://www.wsj.com/articles/life-without-fannie-and-freddie-1419635987
147 “Housing for housing’s sake”: “Karen Petrou on Mortgages and Medicare,” by Karen Shaw Petrou, Federal Financial Analytics, June 28, 2013. http://www.fedfin.com/blog/1318-karen-petrou-on-mortgages-and-medicare