A play about homelessness entitled "The Good Neighbor" debuts today in Northeast Washington, courtesy of the generous support of Fannie Mae - and, by extension, the U.S. taxpayer. Given the mortgage giant's prominent role in spreading misery and homelessness throughout the country, it's hard to think of a less appropriate corporate benefactor.
Busybody regulators who purport to protect consumers often do so by limiting consumer choice. One example is a rule proposed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are well on their way to becoming the biggest and most enduring black holes for taxpayers coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, with a new estimate of their bailout cost nearly doubling the tab to as high as $259 billion.
We applaud President Obama for taking concrete steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency at the White House ("Solar panels to go atop White House," Politics, Oct. 6). The president's decision to go solar also serves as a renewed call to Congress and the administration to restore local-government Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, which effectively were killed in the spring by the regulatory overreach of the Federal Housing Finance Agency at the request of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
White House sends spending wish list
State Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the federal government Wednesday, asking a judge to stop government-sponsored mortgage buyers from blocking a program that lets homeowners pay for energy-efficient improvements through increased property taxes.
After another tumbling of shares for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage purchasers plan to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange.
