God Bless and Keep the Residents of Boston

The Muse Temporarily Abandoned Me

I won't fool you, I don't have a lot I want to say this week. The muse  has wandered away from me.

Boston and all that goes with it left me pretty empty. I really can't add anything beyond what I said up top.

On the other hand, the Senate's gutless gun registration vote just angered me. The political cowards.

Nobody discussed anything about “gun confiscation,” but that didn't stop the crazies—mainly but not exclusively on the Right—from whipping enough enough votes to stop a bill to register guns sales from moving forward and, maybe, make it a little tougher for some bad people to get guns.

The GOP and their allies spun all sorts of grotesque arguments against a simple bill which could have had a major impact on Internet and gun show sales.

Recently, I was at a local establishment (casino) along side two gun advocates, one of whom was  a gun dealer who worried about the impact of registration on his “machine gun” collection (we were in Maryland, so state law got him when Washington failed). Barely prompted, he strung together a wild fantasy of gun registration leading to the “Feds” trying to stop cigarette smokers or others they deemed socially unworthy. It was like he was on acid and imagining demons everywhere.

 

People like him across the country leaned on their Senators to deny a vote on the legislative substance.

Mark Zandi and The Fannie/Freddie World

Back to a little bit of reality.

I want to reverse the blog a bit and have you tell me some stuff which could happen, if.......!

Let's wave the proverbial magic wand and assume two things, the first is that Mark Zandi well known economist, reportedly a registered D who counseled John McCain's presidential campaign, gets the nod from the Obama Administration to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and becomes Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's latest regulator.

Is he a big bank or Wall Street stooge, as some suggest, or a silent liberal intent on embedding Uncle Sam deeper in the mortgage finance system? Or, is he just a smart, rich guy who has some time to spend on the mortgage Gordian Knot?

Since the original buzz, there hasn't been much on this possible appointment, but that could be because of the intervening events which demanded our national attention.

Initially, there was some talk that Zandi has some strong ideas about reorganizing the nation's secondary mortgage market—which means it's primary market, too—and has hopes to implement those plans, as he oversees Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System, which people need reminded is part of his portfolio.

The story goes that Zandi might want to do this mostly via regulation, not legislation, because presumably this Congress can't agree on much including whether to do away with or employ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in some future incarnation.

So let me ask, readers, what do you think Zandi—if he gets the post—does or tries to do??

You can write your answer to my blog “Comments” section and share them with other readers or send them to me at either of the email addresses which grace your “New Blog Out” message. I'll try to summarize in future blogs—without identification if that is your choice--what you recommend. blogs.

Fire away at what you think Mark Zandi might try and do, if he succeeds Ed DeMarco as the new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and how willing this Congress may be to cooperate and let Zandi try policy innovation??

Maloni, 4-22-2013