Goodbye Capitalism

by Liberty and Power

Joshua Rosner has written a fine defense of free capital markets here.

As he reminds his readers, every equity or debt offering of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac explicitly states that these"are not guaranteed by the US and do not constitute an obligation of the US or any agency or instrumentality thereof other than" of the two entities.

Rosner is the managing director of the research firm Graham Fisher.

comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Robert Higgs - 7/17/2008

Notwithstanding the provisos Fannie and Freddie have put into their offerings, everybody has always assumed that in a pinch the government would come to their rescue, as the (below market) interest rates they've paid on their borrowings have demonstrated. And now that these GSEs are in a heap of trouble, we see that the market's assumption was correct.

William Marina - 7/17/2008

Mark,
Rosner might have explained, for the unwashed, that GSE stands for Gov't Sponsored Enterprise, and not Grapefruit Seed Extract.
What I find interesting is that no commentator I have read also mentions that it is HUD that actually regulates Fannie & Freddie.
http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/gse/gse.cfm.
Note at that site, the comment that GSEs are exempt from State & local taxes, a huge market distortion, in and of itself, that is never discussed.
Bill