Congress & Obama Clueless About How to Fix the Housing Crisis

Too many chiefs?

With the housing crisis still heated and stabilization seemingly wishful thinking, 2010 will continue to be the year of finger pointing and as proof, everyone seems to have an idea that they feel will fix the housing sector. All ideas seem to be aimed directly in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s direction.

FHFA has set new goals to overhaul Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Barney Frank has called to abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac altogether, the National Association of Realtors recommends that Fannie & Freddie be converted into “government-chartered, non-profit secondary mortgage market authorities,” Credit Suisse is calling for them to be privatized while Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson suggests they should be set up as public utilities.

Pipe down, everyone

The Obama administration confirmed this week that it will not entertain any legislation regarding Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac until next year which we suspected would be the case, given that housing has not been a priority of the administration (as shown in his State of the Union speech which devoted 3 lines in the entire 70 minutes to the housing crisis).

Congress has no idea or consensus on what could actually help the housing industry and the White House seems to be following that same sentiment. Abolish? Overhaul? Privatize? Since The Hill doesn’t intend on doing anything, we unfortunately have ample time to debate this- what do you think would make the most impact in fixing the housing crisis?