Draw your own conclusion Obamas Vision on Housing On August 6th, President Barack Obama delivered a major speech in Phoenix on housing. This was the third in a series on what the administration calls “big eco-nomic speeches.” Most of what he said included ideas he’s proposed before and failed to get from Congress. But at 21 minutes, 54 seconds into the speech I al-most fell off my chair. He said: “To prevent another housing bubble, we must wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For too long, these companies were allowed to make huge profits buying mortgages. It was wrong.” Before it was the banks that caused the bubble, now it is Fannie & Freddie? I don’t know one economist who has said the bubble was caused by Freddie & Fannie. The President’s words were that these companies are broken, don’t work and must be killed by 2018. The President’s vision is for a private company to take over the risk that these two companies have provided. I would love to be in the audience and ask these questions or raise some of these points (the President did not take any questions): Why get rid of Fannie and Freddie - the only government agencies that made money? Perhaps they should be the standard by which other government agencies are judged. As a business-man, I firmly believe that any company such as Fannie & Freddie, that has made money for 71 of it’s 76 year history, obviously knows what they are doing and are good at it! If Fannie & Freddie are broken, don’t work and must by killed off by 2018, why are they the 3rd most profitable company in America? According to CNN Money, only Exxon and Apple make more money than Fannie & Freddie. I don’t under-stand the logic of killing off a company that makes more money than icons such as IBM, Berkshire Hathaway, Walmart, Microsoft and GE to name a few. Fannie & Freddie have a combined profit of over $28 Billion since the recession. This begs another question: Mr. President, why is profit wrong? I don’t understand when you said it was wrong to make a profit. One thing many experts and economists agree on, is without Fannie & Freddie, Americans will lose the 30-year mortgage since private companies will not insure that far out. Let’s not re-invent the wheel—it’s rolling just fine! Leave Fannie & Freddie alone!
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 13:43:06 +0000