Maybe Federal Mortgage Guarantees Aren't Inevitable

"The financial regulation bill passed this summer left out one key component: housing finance policy. While there is broad agreement that government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were a disaster, there isn't a clear answer to how to reshape the mortgage market to function better going forward. Since Democrats in didn't feel like approaching this very messy debate when drafting the summer's financial regulation bill, they just punted to the next Congress. At this time, little has changed, as the government continues to back most new mortgages in the U.S. Early talks implied that the government would ultimately continue to stand behind most mortgages, but suddenly housing policy's fate isn't looking as inevitable."