Bubble, Bubble, Toil and . . . <br>Fannie, Freddie Back at It <br>As Clinton Blames Capital

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. That might as well be the new theme for the American economy. Washington, the White House, Congress, housing agencies, and the Fed, none of them have learned from the housing bubble of 2007-08.

So here we go again. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders keep blaming the last crisis on Wall Street greed and malfeasance, and, sure, there was plenty of that. The enabler was government through easy money, housing policies that pushed people into low down payment loans many could never repay, and a deluge of debt.

Now look at where we are at in 2015: The Fed can’t get off its zero interest rate policy, and the drug of choice for Wall Street is cheap money. We’ve had seven years of zero interest rates and Janet Yellen keeps extending it as some kind of weird Keynesian “stimulus.” It hasn’t stimulated growth, only a misallocation of financial resources. Perhaps, hopefully, the Fed can steer clear of the iceberg, but the record — think 1999 and 2008 — isn’t reassuring.

Next, Fannie May and Freddie Mac are back at it again. These two near-trillion dollar government enterprises are again guaranteeing mortgages with as little as 3 percent down payments. Hello? These are same kind of subprime mortgages that crashed eight years ago. The housing lobby demands it, and Congress complies, while taxpayers are back on the hook with the same Fannie and Freddie policies that required $150 billion in bailouts just a few years ago.

Then there is the consolidation of the big banks as Dodd Frank’s regulatory costs force mergers. Too big to fail is becoming a self fulfilling prophecy and the bailouts if these banks fail again will be even pricier than last time.

Finally, we have the deluge of government debt. When the crisis hit in 2008 the national debt stood at a little under $10 trillion. Now we are at $18 trillion. States and localities meanwhile continue each year to add to the time bomb of unfunded public pension liabilities. Government is hopelessly overleveraged, and now President Obama wants to raise the debt ceiling with no spending controls — a blank check.

One other factor that should make us nervous: In this week’s Democratic debate both Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders endorsed major tax hikes on investors and investment that could be the final nudge over the cliff.

Republicans, for their part, should be warning of the dangers ahead. If they don’t, President Bush, Wall Street, Republicans, capitalism and tax cuts will be blamed for a meltdown that Washington’s blunders again created.

Mr. Moore is a Fox News contributor and an economic consultant with Freedom Works.


The New York Sun

© 2024 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use