Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance
By Viral V. Acharya, Matthew Richardson, Stijn van Nieuwerburgh, and Lawrence J. White
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) designed to expand the dream of home ownership to millions of Americans, cost taxpayers $150 billion to date and growing as bad loans collapsed during the financial crisis.
Four NYU Stern professors ask “where is the outrage?” in running “the largest hedge fund on the planet,” in Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie, Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance. They propose a unique model of mortgage reform, using a novel public-private partnership as the means to transition to a fully private-based system.
Press coverage
Reckless Optimism (Book Review, Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2011/12)
How to Put an End to Fannie and Freddie (Author Opinion Editorial, Forbes, January 10, 2012)
Financial Economics (Book Review, Journal of Economic Literature, December 2011)
Costly creations (Book Review, Business Standard, October 20, 2011)
Why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to diet (Book Review, The Economist, October 15, 2011)
The Downsides Of Mortgage Tax Breaks (Viral Acharya Interview, NPR, August 23, 2011)
Read more press coverage about Guaranteed to Fail
Endorsements
"...A down-to-earth analysis of why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed..." --Nouriel Roubini, coauthor of Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance
"...A comprehensive and well-written study..." --Raghuram G. Rajan, author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy
"...An excellent book... presents a cogent proposal..." --Dwight Jaffee, University of California, Berkeley
NYU Stern Faculty on Mortgage Reform
- Read the NYU Stern Blueprint on Mortgage Finance Reform (PDF)
- Watch a webinar by contributor Stijn van Nieuwerburgh or download slides from his presentation (PDF)
- Watch videos of NYU faculty presentations at the 2011 NYU Stern/University of Maryland Conference on GSEs, Housing, and the Economy
- Watch April 20 Event Video
Other Voices on Mortgage Reform
Click a title below to download a specific proposal, or browse all proposals here.
NYU Stern Faculty on the Dodd-Frank Act
The NYU Stern authors of Guaranteed to Fail contributed also to Regulating Wall Street, a definitive analysis of The Dodd-Frank Act written by 40 Stern faculty.