Tag archives for Barney Frank

Bad Policy Yields Lower Confidence – Thanks to Frank-Dodd Reforms, Trust in Financial System Drops Precipitously

While the massive economic turmoil that sparked the housing crisis and “necessitated” multiple actions to “bail out” lending institutions and other business entities deemed “too big to fail” incited Americans to demand financial reform, a new report on public sentiment regarding the Dodd-Frank Reform Act indicates that the controversial overhaul may not really have done all that much good. In Read full article »

Congress Calling for Legal Action Against Lenders who Sold Bad Debts to Fannie and Freddie

Earlier this week, we reported on a movement gathering momentum in Congress that would enable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to force lenders to buy back bad loans to help the mortgage giants recoup some of their combined $354 billion in losses due to delinquent mortgages and bad debt. Now, some members of the House of Representatives (Barney Frank, D-MA, Read full article »

Congressional Budget Office Declares Fannie, Freddie “Government Entities”

Despite the fact that taxpayers have already contributed more than $145 billion to bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner refuses to follow the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) recommendation that these two entities be considered part of the federal government. At this point in time, taxpayers own about 80 percent of the GSEs, and the Read full article »

Suspending Foreclosures – A Government Idea To Increase Foreclosures

Congressman Barnie Frank (Democrat from Massachusetts) is urging lenders to suspend foreclosures.  Granted, he's currently focusing this request on lenders who have received federal money from the TARP program, but if that happens, he'll certainly pressure all major lenders to do the same thing.  So the question is:  Is it a wise idea? I'm going to weigh in on this right Read full article »

Blood In The Streets From The Bailout Plan – Will it Be Yours?

Don't be tempted to think that this is a "political" issue.  This is about the real estate market, pure and simple.  If this bailout plan passes, the U.S. economy and the real estate market will likely be on incredibly shaky ground for years to come. My friend, let's put "labels" aside for a moment.  Let's suspend being "republicans" or "democrats" or Read full article »

The Politics of Real Estate

Few industries are as profoundly impacted by the political machinations in Washington as the real estate industry. Whether it's old legislation like Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act or Barack Obama's massive mortgage bailouts, the U.S. political machine has a huge impact (usually bad) on the business of real estate.

Ideally, we could ignore politics. But here at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter, we insist on seeing the world with clarity - including the reality of Washington's aggressive involvement in every facet of our business, from mortgage lending to real estate sales license; from loan modification regulations to appraisal requirements... every piece of our business is profoundly impacted by politics. So rather than stick our heads in the sand and ignore reality, readers of the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter choose to be informed and prepared.

About Bryan Ellis

Bryan Ellis is an Atlanta-based real estate analyst and publisher of the widely read newsletter "The Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter". With over 200,000 subscribers - including real estate investors, agents, brokers, appraisers and other real estate professionals - the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter is among America's largest sources of unbiased coverage of politics and public policy for the real estate industry.

Bryan Ellis serves as editor in chief for the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter and is assisted by an extraordinary staff of writers, researchers and editors who are each real estate experts in their own right and who assure that the news we report is well researched, factual, and highly relevant to today's real estate industry.

Bryan is very happily married and has two wonderful daughters. He makes his home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. You can contact the team at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter here.