Abstract
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in conservatorship for over a decade. In September 2019, the U.S. Treasury proposed a plan to release the Government Sponsored Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from conservatorship through administrative action. This article shows that every action in this plan is much harder in theory than in practice; they will either take longer than anticipated, present more issues than is initially apparent, or is inherently contradictory. As a result, there is substantial doubt this plan can be completed in the next five years.
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This paper was based on a presentation I gave at the “Housing Finance Reform: The Future of Fannie and Freddie” session at the 36th Annual National Association for Business Economics (NABE) Economy Policy Conference, Washington DC, February 25, 2020. I would like to thank Jim Parrott for comments on an earlier draft.
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Goodman, L.S. Housing finance reform: the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bus Econ 55, 73–79 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s11369-020-00169-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s11369-020-00169-1