In less than twenty-five years, government “affordable housing” and other housing policies have turned a healthy market into a financial ruin. Until Fannie and Freddie’s market dominance and the government’s role in the housing finance system are substantially reduced or eliminated, the United States will continue to have an inferior and unstable housing market.

Do public insurance programs improve social welfare? Or does government intervention risk moral hazard and result in inefficient programs that would be better handled by the private sector?

In a new AEI volume, a group of leading economists critically examines whether the government should increase its role in five private insurance markets.

This is the second event in AEI's project on the privatization of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and federal home loan banks. The original plan has been revised to take into account the many helpful comments proposed at the first conference held on October 27, 2003. This discussion will...

Online registration for this event is closed. Walk-in registrations will be accepted.

Economic events in recent months have underscored the large role that the federal government plays as both an explicit and implicit insurer of a wide range of economic activities. For everything from terrorism, crops, floods, and natural catastrophes, to...

Following testimony by Alan Greenspan, key members of Congress have begun to focus on the retained mortgage and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolios of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a major source of the risk they pose to taxpayers and the economy in general. Chairman Richard Shelby of the Senate...

The future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is becoming cloudier. Legislation in Congress and a clear lack of support at the Treasury are harbingers of political difficulties ahead. Perhaps more important is the fact that these two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are growing faster than the housing market. By...

Privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is the best option as a matter of policy, but Congress is likely to take the path of least resistance and restore them as government-sponsored enterprises once the housing market is stable.