Congressional Issues 2010
ECONOMY
Housing

• Stop intervening in the housing market
• abolish federally-created lending institutions

The American ideal was living safely under one's own "Vine & Fig Tree," with no threats from government, lawyers, or bankers. The Big-Government policies of both Republicans and Democrats have turned the original American Dream into a nightmare.

On October 11, 2008, President Bush announced, "The supply of homes now exceeds demand." This never happens in a Free Market. Prices relentlessly push supply and demand together. Government-manipulated prices distort the market, creating shortages or "illiquidity."

A relatively Free Market allowed housing to become plentiful in the first half of the 20th century. Federal interference and intervention in the latter part of the 20th century has created a "crisis" in the early 21st century.

Government does not have solutions for this problem. Government is the problem.

• Nobody in America in 2008 would want to live in the "average" house in America in 1776.
• Everybody in America in 1776 -- even the richest -- would love to live in the average house in America in 2008.
• Even the poorest houses in America have television, microwave ovens, forced-air heating, indoor toilets that represent a vast increase in hygiene and sanitation, plus an extraordinary range of goods and services unavailable in 1776 that transform a "house" into a "home."
• This unimaginable increase in the standards of housing are the gift of capitalism, not socialism.

• Don't Blame the Market for the Housing Bubble | Congressman Ron Paul
• Will the housing bubble burst? Our socialist mortgage system and easy money policy have created a dangerously inflated housing bubble that, if pricked, could take the economy down with it -- William Norman Grigg, May 17, 2004 | update
• Did the Fed Cause the Housing Bubble?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Freddie Mac: A Mercantilist Enterprise, by Paul Cleveland, March 14, 2005 Fannie Mae: Another New Deal Monstrosity, by Karen De Coster, July 2, 2007 How Fannie and Freddie Made Me a Grumpy Economist, by Christopher Westley, July 21, 2008 Who Made the Fannie and Freddie Threat? By Frank Shostak, March 5, 2004 Are Fannie and Freddie Too Big to Fail? By Frank Shostak, September 17, 2008 Fannie Mae Distorts Markets, by Robert Blumen, June 17, 2002 The Housing Bubble The Real Cost of a Full Bailout, by Don Rich, August 22, 2008 The Subprime Mortgage "Crisis" Will Fix Itself, by Steve Berger, May 30, 2007 Did the Fed Cause the Housing Bubble? By Robert Murphy, April 14, 2008 The Mortgage Market Mess, by Christopher Westley, May 17, 2007 Housing Bubble: Myth or Reality? By Frank Shostak, March 4, 2003 Community Reinvestment Act The CRA Scam and its Defenders, by Thomas DiLorenzo, April 30, 2008 Regulatory Sneak Attack, by Thomas DiLorenzo, September 16, 1999 What To Do Don't Bail Them Out, by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., September 10, 2008 How to Avoid Another Depression, by Mark Thornton, September 10, 2008 Taking Money Back, By Murray N. Rothbard, June 14, 2008 Beware the Alchemists, by Ludwig von Mises, February 3, 2006 Reflation in American History, by H.A. Scott Trask, October 31, 2003 Money and Freedom, by Joseph Salerno, February 2, 2002 The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar, by Murray Rothbard

Inflationary Finance What's Behind the Financial Market Crisis? by Antony Mueller, September 18, 2008 Our Financial House of Cards, by George Reisman, March 25, 2008 Will Central Bankers Become Central Planners? by Robert Blumen, July 31, 2008 Inflation is a Policy that Cannot Last, by Thorsten Polleit, March 14, 2008 The Widening Safety Net, by Christopher Mayer, March 19, 2004 The Fed's New Tricks Are Creating Disaster, Frank Shostak, March 18, 2008 The Fed's War on the Middle Class, by Mark Thornton, June 4, 2008. Austrian Economics and Financial Markets conference at The Venetian Hotel Resort Casino, Las Vegas, 02-18-2005 The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle The Idiocy of Wall Street, by Don Rich, September 24, 2008 The Fed is Culpable, by Hans F. Sennholz, November 11, 2002 Skyscrapers and Business Cycles, by Mark Thornton, August 23, 2008 Economic Outlook 2008: Darkening Clouds, Dominick Armentano, January 2, 2008 Business Cycle Primer, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. February 8, 2001 Economics Depressions: Their Cause and Cure, by Murray Rothbard Who Predicted This? The Financial Apocalyptics are Back, Robert Blumen, July 25, 2007 Sowing the Seeds of the Next Crisis, Thorsten Polleit, April 25, 2006 Credit Crisis: Precursor of Great Inflation, by Thorsten Polleit, February 7, 2008 Mr. Bailout, by Anton Mueller, September 30, 2004 America's Unsustainable Boom, by Stefan Karlsson, November 8, 2004 Who Predicted the Bubble? Who Predicted the Crash? By Mark Thornton, July 14, 2003

More on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The Fannie Mae Gang | Paul Gigot, Wall Street Journal Treasury's Thieves Polluted Markets Thomas Sowell on Government "Solutions" on National Review Online EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Fannie and Freddie Own A Record $6.9 Billion Foreclosed Homes Fannie Mae acquired twice as many homes through foreclosure in the first quarter as it sold, regulatory filings show. Together, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. mortgage finance companies, owned a record $6.9 billion of foreclosed homes on March 31, compared with $8.56 billion held by all 8,500 U.S. commercial banks and savings and loans. This is how the government helps Americans with home ownership. Paulson-Bernanke Plan Would Give the Fed Broad New Powers | The New American Cato-at-liberty » Fannie and Freddie Paul Krugman's Millionaires Fannie, Freddie, and a Primer in Finance | William L. Anderson Stop the Printing Press! | Congressman Ron Paul Goodbye Capitalism | FT.com Notes on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Bailout | Robert Higgs Terminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac | Michael S. Rozeff Fannie, Freddie, Fascist | Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. How Things Get Too Big to Fail Bernanke and Paulson: Economic Prostitutes | Michael S. Rozeff Let the Bankruptcies Roll | Michael S. Rozeff Fannie and Freddie | Rep. Ron Paul Solving the Fannie/Freddie Problem - Rep. Hensarling & Rep. Ryan, Politico White House Drops Veto Threat on Housing - Ian Swanson, The Hill

The Crumbling of Fannie Mae | Bill Bonner Fannie Mae: Another New Deal Monstrosity - Karen De Coster and Eric Englund - Mises Institute Fannie Mae Distorts Markets - Robert Blumen - Mises Institute Freddie, Fannie, and Curses on FDR - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Housing Finance: Why True Privatization Is Good Public Policy Get Out of the Way | Anthony Gregory The Mega-Bailouts Begin | Will Grigg's Liberty Minutes End the Mortgage Duopoly Bailing Out Fannie and Freddie | Arnold Kling EconLog, Perspective on Freddie and Fannie | Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty Why the Bail Out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: is Bad Economic Policy | Michael Hudson It Begins | $5.3 trillion bailout triggers economic meltdown. Tax Rebates and the Housing Market | Ozarks Virtual Town Hall - March 29, 2008 Stimulating the Economy, Preventing Recession | Ozarks Virtual Town Hall - March 15, 2008 The Alternative Minimum Tax and the Mortgage Mess | Ozarks Virtual Town Hall - December 8, 2007 The Subprime Mortgage Mess | Ozarks Virtual Town Hall - September 1, 2007 What you're not being told | DownsizeDC Too Big to Fail? Long-Term Capital Management and the Federal Reserve Fannie/Freddie Should Be Cut Down and Cut Loose - A. Reynolds, Cato

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