The Federal Home Loan Banks are the less well-known siblings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Since these government-sponsored enterprises were created in 1932, changes in housing finance markets have rendered largely irrelevant their original purpose of increasing the availability of mortgages....

Intro -- MISSION EXPANSION IN THE FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK SYSTEM -- CONTENTS -- FIGURES AND TABLES -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1. GROWTH AND MISSION EXPANSION IN FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANKS -- 2. GROUNDED RESEARCH AND COMPETING PARADIGMS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE -- 3. HOUSING FINANCE MISSION -- 4....

Biographical note: Susan M. Wachter is Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management and Professor of Real Estate and Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of City and Regional Planning at PennDesign. She codirects the Penn Institute for Urban...

Leading economists and other housing market researchers examine key elements of the mortgage meltdown in this volume of original essays. More than a critique in hindsight, this volume offers pragmatic solutions to the problems facing American home ownership.

Empirical research on the causes of financial crises has grown in recent decades. Early work, such as that by Kaminsky and Reinhart, helped establish the link between asset prices and banking crises. While this initial research focused on equity prices, subsequent research expanded the analysis...

The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 led to one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in history. The bailout has already cost American taxpayers close to 150 billion, and substantially more will be needed. The U.S. economy--and by...