Abstract
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are two large companies – ‘government-sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs) – that are heavily involved in the secondary market for residential mortgages. The GSEs’ expansion into lower quality mortgages, especially during the middle years of the 2000s, was supported by insufficient capital and led to their insolvency and conservatorships on 6 September 2008 – which essentially placed them under full government control. As of the spring of 2011 they remain as mainstays of the US residential mortgage market; but they also remain in conservatorships. Their future and the future of mortgage finance is an active topic of political debate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Acharya, V.V., M. Richardson, S. Van Nieuweburgh, and L.J. White. 2011. Guaranteed to fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the debacle of mortgage finance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Fannie Mae. 2011. Fannie Mae 2010 credit supplement, 24 February 2011. Available at: http://www.fanniemae.com/media/pdf/newsreleases/q42010_credit_summary.pdf; jsessionid = JTHEGVQCJCC1DJ2FQSHSFGA
Federal Housing Finance Agency. 2010. Report to Congress, 2009.
Frame, W.S., and L.J. White. 2005. Fussing and fuming over Fannie and Freddie: How much smoke, how much fire? Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(2): 159–184.
Freddie Mac. 2011. Fourth quarter 2010 financial results supplement, 24 February 2011. Available at: http://www.freddiemac.com/investors/er/pdf/supplement_022411.pdf
Jaffee, D.M. 2003. The interest rate risk of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Journal of Financial Services Research 24(1): 5–29.
Jaffee, D. M. 2010. The role of the GSEs and housing policy in the financial crisis. Prepared for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 27 February.
Paulson, H.M. 2010. On the brink: Inside the race to stop the collapse of the global financial system. New York: Business Plus.
Sorkin, A.R. 2009. Too big to fail. New York: Viking.
Wallison, P.J., eds. 2000. Public purposes and private interests: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Wallison, P.J., eds. 2001. Serving two masters yet out of control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
White, L.J. 1991. The S&L debacle: Public policy lessons for bank and thrift regulation. New York: Oxford University Press.
White, L.J. 1993. A cautionary tale of deregulation gone awry: The S&L debacle. Southern Economic Journal 59(3): 496–514.
White, L.J. 2003. Focusing on Fannie and Freddie: The dilemmas of reforming housing finance. Journal of Financial Services Research 23(1): 43–58.
White, L.J. 2004. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and housing finance: Why true privatization is good public policy. Policy Analysis, No. 528, Cato Institute, 7 October.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
White, L.J. (2018). Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Crisis in US Mortgage Finance. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_3002
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_3002
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences