madasiwannabe

It's All About Guaranteeing Counter-Party Risk [Housing Tracker]

The GSE's were better capitalized before conservatorship then they are now. The takeover was just a knee jerk move to treat the symptoms. The cure ended up being worse than the problem.

Buying troubled assets is another treatment for a symptom. The banks got themselves in trouble, and should be allowed to get themselves out. Buying equity stakes in the companies is a much better solution for the markets as well as the taxpayers. It doens't relieve the banks from their responsibility, but it does give them the capital they need to work through the issues, and in the end, the taxpayers will be rewarded.

Since the government takeover had nothing to do with insolvency, and had everything to do with restoring market confidence at the expense of the GSE's, the terms of the intervention are completely out of line with today's market reality. Only question now is will the treasury level the playing field by cancelling the warrants and instead take equity stakes in the GSE's equivelent to the capital they have injected?