Paul Krugman finds himself in close proxmity to the nexus of the G.O.P.'s spin machine, that is either testament to how easy it is for the GOP to get its memes repeated, without question, or how easy it is to get something started, simply by repeating it enough times.
You have to wonder why the GOP are so shrill, so defensive on the issue.
People most familiar with Freddie and Fannie have pointed to the lack of participation in the industry's "affordability products", as a way of explaining why the two lost market share during the go-go days.
But the picture is more complicated.
I'm trying to understand the scope of OFHEO's authority a little more, in order to understand how to qualify some of the numbers I've cooked up: it looks like OFHEO under Bush, put its foot on the gas, at least in one way, when the GOP had all the branches of government. It was NOT the Clinton-era OFHEO...
The director of OFHEO is a Bush appointee.
Even though it's been a difficult task to come to a reasonably firm conclusion, so far, it's worth the effort because the analytics are recyclable: both of the GSEs are up for a questioning and reconsideration of their structure, for obvious reasons.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
More of Freddie, Fannie
