For any housing finance reform plan to be credible, it must do much more than wind down the GSEs. Because of the Dodd-Frank Act a number of formidable legal obstacles now exist that must be cleared away before a private securitization market will come back. If the administration is serious, its plan must address all these issues.

Only by ensuring mortgage quality and fostering the accumulation of adequate capital behind housing risk can a robust housing investment market be created without government guarantees.

In 2011, the Government Mortgage Complex accounted for 88 percent of all first-mortgage originations in the United States, with the government also controlling an estimated 90 percent of the student loan market. The government’s growing dominance in the home mortgage and student loan categories is cause for concern, posing a threat to private investors, borrowers, and taxpayers.

The U.S. housing finance market should be governed without direct government financial support, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

A new report by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argues that one of the greatest mistakes the United States can make is to imagine that Iranian activities in a given arena--the nuclear program, for example--are isolated from Iranian undertakings in another. The report examines those other areas

When confronted with a problem such as the one currently playing out in the housing market, policy makers are by nature oriented toward identifying and implementing a solution. However, government intervention should be reserved for market failures, and this is not one.

The digital revolution is opening the doors for greater citizen participation in political events and government should create incentives to engage and expand the role of small donors.

Barack Obama’s presidency has had profoundly negative consequences for our national security. From debilitating cuts in defense budgets, to gutting national missile defense efforts, to his unwillingness to acknowledge a continuing war against terrorism, to his inability to stem the nuclear proliferation threats posed by North Korea and Iran....the picture is bleak.