INNOVATION - LEADERSHIP - STRATEGY
In The News
In The News
Recent Articles by Barry Zigas
American Banker "Viewpoint" on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, published March 2, 2010
National Housing Conference Open House Blog,"What's Next for Fannie and Freddie?" December 24, 2009
What Does the Future Hold for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?, Shelterforce Magazine, Fall, 2009
Retooling HUD for a Catalytic Federal Government: A Report to Secretary Shaun Donovan, Chapter 1: Preventing Foreclosures, February, 2009
What Does Financial Capital Owe Society?, The American Prospect, July/August 2009
News Stories Featuring Barry Zigas
Bloomberg, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Debate Begins, July 8, 2010
Washington Independent, "A 'Disastrous' Republican Proposal to Redo Fannie and Freddie," May 11, 2010
Associated Press, "Freddie Mac Seeks $10B in Aid After 1Q Loss," May 5, 2010
Washington Post, "Discrepancies Detailed in Minority Foreclosures," April 28, 2010
Bankrate.com, "Four Tips for Single, Female Homebuyers," April 23, 2010
American Banker, "Treasury's HAMP Cash: From Carrot to Cudgel," April 23, 2010
Baltimore Sun, "HAMP: What the Loan Mod Changes Mean," March 27, 2010
Boston Globe, "Frank wants details on mortgage lender overhaul," March 24, 2010
Weekend Marketplace radio program on FHA and HUD IG reviews of lenders with high claim rates, January, 2010.
ULI webinar on Obama housing policies, December, 2009
Marketplace on mortgage delinquencies, December 2, 2008
Boston Globe, Obama Housing Budget Proposals, February 19, 2009
Kiwis Pull It Out!
Watch New Zealand’s All Whites World Cup team pull it out from Down Under in the final 30 seconds of play to seal a draw with Slovakia and live to fight another day!
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NHC Seeks Legislative Director
The National Housing Conference is seeking a Legislative Director to lead NHC’s work on public policy issues related to affordable housing and advocating for NHC’s policy priorities at the national level.e Director to lead its policy. The candidate will report directly to NHC’s CEO, and indirectly to the Director of the Center for Housing Policy, NHC’s research and… Read More...
Fannie and Freddie Charges Hurting Recovery, Consumers?
Brian Chappelle is a respected expert on FHA and the mortgage business. He wrote a Viewpoint in the May 4, 2010 American Banker that calls out two ways in which he believes Fannie and Freddie’s current policies are hurting consumers and weakening a possible housing recovery.
Both GSEs are charging up-front fees at closing for borrowers with lower credit scores. Chappelle makes the point that these… Read More...
CFA Handicaps Senate Markup
Consumer Federation of America is publishing a “cheat sheet” on the Senate Banking Commitee’s markup of financial services reform legislation, pointing out “who wins and who loses” on major amendments pending before the committee, which begins its markup this week.
“Recklessness among big banks and Wall Street firms and regulatory failures by federal agencies triggered a prolonged recession that continues to cause great hardship for many Americans,” said… Read More...
Nice Tattoo!
NY Times columnist Frank Rich uses the best-selling novel and just-released movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to tee off on Wall Street and the Senate’s consideration of financial reform in today’s column. As only Rich can, he focuses on this pop culture phenomenon’s sub-plot of financial wrong doing and the financial press’s credulous complicity with financial manipulations by high-flying moguls.
It’s… Read More...
Fannie and Freddie at Fault?
Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers’ national economics reporter, was interviewed recently on The Real news Network about a possible future for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as utilities. His perspective on the companies’ role in the financial crisis is particularly interesting to me because of McClatchy’s stand-out reporting on the financial crisis and their refusal to pull punches or accept “common wisdom” in their coverage.
American Banker “Viewpoint”
The American Banker published a commentary by me in the March 2, 2010 “Viewpoint” section entitled “Sustain the GSEs’ Legacy.”
Read More...Admin Quiet on GSE Future in 2011 Budget
In spite of widely held expectations that the Administration’s FY2011 budget would lay out some significant outline of its plans for housing GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the future, the actual budget documents contain only one short paragraph about this topic. In the “Special Topics” subsection of its “Analytical Perspectives” addendum to the budget, the Administration devotes a number of pages to the companies’ history and current status under… Read More...
Pitchforks, Anyone
The blog “Econompicdata” has some graphics showing growth in Wall St. compensation that should rouse the populist spirit in just about anyone.
The blog cites other sources to note that while the
level of compensation remains exorbitantly high across all of financial services, the lack of competition among the largest banks has caused compensation within the industry to become even more concentrated.
Before specifically detailing those firms, lets…
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Joseph Stieglitz on Lessons Learned from the Financial Crisis
Thanks to Barry Ritholz of The Big Picture for posting this pithy column from the China Daily Post.
Ritholz summarizes the column by distilling these lessons from the financial crisis of the late ‘00’s:
“1. Markets are not self-correcting, and without adequate regulation, they are prone to excess.
2. There are many reasons for market failures. Too-big-to-fail financial institutions had perverse…
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Treasury Commitment to GSEs Stirs Debate
According to the Wall St. Journal, the Treasury Department’s Christmas Eve announcement of an uncapped commitment to backstop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has caused a bit of a stir. The article also details pay packages for the five highest paid people at both companies.
Read More...Fannie, Freddie Top Exec 09 Pay Noted
Fannie Mae’s CEO Michael Williams and Freddie Mac’s CEO Charles Haldeman received about $6 million each in compensation in 2009, reports CNN today. Other senior executives also had enviable pay packages. But unlike many other financial firms, including those under the supervision of pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, these packages did not include long term stock awards or options. The Federal Housing Finance Authority approved all the GSE compensation packages,… Read More...
Odd Couple Attacks Rahm Over Freddie Mac
In a weird “East meets West” alliance, conservative activist Grover Norquist and liberal Firedoglake blogger Jane Hamsher are attacking White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel over his short stint as a board member of Freddie Mac, the New York Times’ Caucus Blog reports.
Read More...ACORN broke no laws, CRS report says
The Congressional Research Service reports that its investigation of ACORN found the group did not break any laws in administering a number of contracts with federal agencies. CRS examined ACORN contracts over the last 5 years and found no instances of the group violating the terms of its funding, reports the NY Times.
Loan Mods Not Working As Hoped
A good report from Alan Zibel at the Associated Press on progress—or lack of it—in the Obama loan modification program.
Read More...CFA’s Travis Plunkett on Al Jazeera
Check out CFA’s Legislative Director Travis Plunkett on Al Jazeera discussing consumer financial protection.
Read More...Fed Regulation of Banks Fell Short, Washington Post Suggests
As the Senate considers Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s renomination for another 4-year term, the Washington Post has published a thorough review of all the signals the Fed missed in the run up to the mortgage crisis. Will a chastened Federal Reserve learn from its lessons, or does this sad history argue for a different regulatory overseer, and possibly a different Chairman?
Schumer slams bank fees
As banks continue charging consumers high fees for ATM’s and other credit uses, NY Sen Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calls them out.
Fannie, Freddie Long Term Federal Wards?
The New York Times reported in a story on December 17, 2009 that Fannie, Freddie, GMAC and AIG may be settling in for a long stay under the U.S. Government’s protection.
Read More...Donna Brazile op ed on foreclosures
Democratic Party strategist and consultant Donna Brazile’s op ed in the AZ Daily Sun newspaper dishes it out as only Donna can.
The Paradox of Toil
Paul Krugman cites work by Gauti Eggertsson, husband of our friend Helima Croft, on why economic policies that work in normal times don’t when interest rates are at zero.
Read More...HUD Secretary Shaun S. Donovan speaks at CFA’s Financial Services Conference
HUD Secretary Shaun S. Donovan addresses CFA’s 2009 Financial Services Conference in Washington, DC on December 4. 2009. Watch the speech and Q&A on CSPAN.
NY Times reports homebuyers have trouble competing with investors for foreclosed homes
This NY Times report on Sunday, December 13, 2009, recounts the difficulties owner occupant buyers have in outbidding “vulture” investors. Quoting a number of experts, including Barry Zigas, the story also mentions efforts like Fannie Mae’s to offer foreclosed property first to owner-occupants.
Read More...How’d We Get Here?
This hysterical powerpoint presentation entitled "The Subprime Primer" has been making the rounds through the Internet. I wish I knew who had authored it so I could give them credit!
Warning: there is some crude language in this presentation that could trigger corporate firewalls/security/filters.
Read More...Successful CDC’s?
Dee Walsh, Executive Director of REACH Community Development in Portland, OR, and Bob Zdenek, Interim Director of the National Housing Institute and former Executive Director of the National Congress for Community Economic Development have published a thoughtful piece in Shelterforce Magazine titled "Balancing Act" detailing the tough choices nonprofits face in deciding whether and how to "go to scale."
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