In case you missed it: in a recent piece, mortgage finance and housing expert Edward Pinto writes that the 30-years mortgage could well be the cause of a new housing bubble.

A fair settlement could facilitate the restart of lending and help accelerate the repair of the housing sector. But if President Obama successfully capitalizes on a deal, banks may be inviting four more years of his anti-Wall Street agenda.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most common way U.S. buyers finance a home purchase, isn’t the ideal instrument its supporters claim it to be.

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.

As Congress prepares to debate how to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, those in politics and real estate who support a government-backed housing finance system are predicting calamity.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission produced a story about the financial crisis, but not what caused the financial crisis.

In this paper, I endeavor to show that continuing U.S. government involvement in the housing-finance system will inevitably involve serious losses for taxpayers and that the U.S. housing finance system could function well without GSEs or any other form of government financial support simply by ensuring that only good quality mortgages are allowed to enter the securitization system. 

What lessons on student loans can be learned from the searing national misadventure with mortgages?