The title of this posting sounds like a Broadway play, but it captures the core of an article carried in the New York Times in September 2003. I didn’t realize it, but five years ago the Bush administration proposed increased oversight and regulation of Fannie and Freddie, but a few high-ranking Democrats fought against it… A couple of interesting excerpts from the NY Times article:
“The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
[…]
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Hat tip to Bob Morris