Inspired by President Obama’s cheap election-year politicking, Congress has launched into a frenzied, bipartisan panderfest over the Stafford loan program. Late last week, an emotional House speaker John Boehner led House Republicans to vote for an Obama-proposed giveaway he’d denounced just a few days previously.For those who don’t...

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.

Here we go again.  A series of uncoordinated government policies are once more setting up the U.S. banking system for major losses and possibly another financial crisis.  

Americans lose when the government guarantees 30-year-fixed-rate mortgages.

There's nothing wrong with these loans, but there's no good policy reason why taxpayers should subsidize them.

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.

History has shown--and simple economics would anticipate--that a government subsidy for a freely prepayable 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not good policy.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not the unmitigated blessing Fannie and Freddie loyalists imply. It is a big reason U.S. mortgage markets are in such bad shape.