Every year that passes, politicians, bankers and even some financial regulators forget how illiquidity helped the 2008 financial crisis spread like wildfire.
The FHA should calculate and publish its properly-called capital under standard GAAP accounting. Taxpayers could thereby be much better informed about what it is charging up on their credit card.
What the FHA calls its "capital" actually includes claims about what it might earn in the future. Bankers would get laughed at for trying the same ploy.
It is time for the FHA and its supporters to put the interest of working-class families ahead of real estate agents and other interest groups who want to expand its abusive lending practices.
As an industry, we do not need to be piling new regulations on our own head. When we fail to present a unified front and effectively communicate to professional lawmakers, the result will be ill-conceived laws.
We must pay more attention to placing blame where it exists and punishment where warranted, not foisting penalties off on shareholders, investors, customers and employees.
A new study concludes the agency's basic business model puts homeowners at an unacceptably high risk of default with negative consequences for communities. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Although this initial phase of the program may seem beneficial as it seeks to keep European competitors honest, enforced convergence is a double-edged sword that raises worrisome issues for our country.
