Since the enactment of a regulatory regime for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their regulator has had only the powers of a conservator. This ordinarily means that the regulator could take control of the two GSEs under certain circumstances, but couldn't--as a receiver could--marshal their assets, pay off their creditors,...

The Dodd-Frank Act recognizes that investor understandings about endgame rules influence a firm’s appetite for risk and that, higher capital requirements on systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) cannot by themselves end creditor perceptions that in most circumstances SIFIs are economically, politically, and administratively too difficult to fail and unwind.

In the Committee's view, limiting GSE mortgage portfolios to the amount necessary to facilitate securitization is a good policy.

Who has it right and who has it wrong in the economics of managing an NFL football team.

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.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson missed a chance to protect taxpayers via receivership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The financial crisis was not caused by the disorderly bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, but by a common shock to all firms: the decline in mortgage values after the housing bubble collapsed, exacerbated by mark-to-market accounting.

Sportswriters and economists have different opinions when it comes to choosing the winners and losers of this year's NFL draft.