Any day now, the Federal Reserve will start making loans to small and medium-sized businesses, breaking new ground with its Section 13(3) lending authority. Yet this won't be the first time the Fed set its sights on Main Street businesses. In this post, I'll first review the…
Yesterday, Joe Nocera penned an extraordinary column expressing his bafflement at the Trump administration’s drive to release Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two firms that purchase and guarantee around half of single-family mortgages in the United States, from government conservatorship. Nocera argues against such a move, writing…
Earlier this month, the Department of the Treasury released its long-awaited housing finance reform plan, which focused mainly on the two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The feds took both GSEs over in 2008, when rising defaults jeopardized their viability. The blueprint’s release date was…
CMFA Director George Selgin recently appeared on EconTalk, the weekly podcast from the Library for Economics and Liberty hosted by Russ Roberts. He and Russ discussed the causes of the 2007–08 financial crisis and the Fed’s response to it, with George drawing on his Alt-M reviews (see…
With Puerto Rico’s continuing fiscal strains, some commentators have suggested that one avenue to give Puerto Rico breathing room would be the purchase of Puerto Rican municipal debt as part of Open Market Operations by the Federal Reserve. The most prominent proponent of this plan is Renssalaer…