“Nationalization of the Morgage Market”
“On Sunday, September 7, the United States government took control of more than half the U.S. mortgage market, through its seizure—and that is the word used in mainstream press accounts—of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two colossal government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), hybrid organizations owned by private individuals yet created by the government. The likes of this and other recent actions taken by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have not been seen since the 1930s. Will the GSE takeover someday be viewed as a decisive step in bringing state socialism to the United States?
What is especially noteworthy is the process through which the American public has been desensitized to the explicit expansion of state power in eight short years. It is a virtue that humans adapt quickly to new environments, but this strength can be turned into a weakness by clever politicians.” Read more.
“Nationalization of the Morgage Market”
Robert P. Murphy
The Freeman, December 2008, Vol. 58, Issue 10.
Via the Foundation for Economic Education.
Image by jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
