Press Releases

Stern Economist Lawrence White to Address Housing Finance Reform at the Federal Reserve Bank

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The US Departments of Housing and Urban Development, and the Treasury, are convening policymakers, industry groups, private industry participants, and citizen advocacy groups to discuss the policies and goals of housing finance reform.
NYU Stern Professor of Economics Lawrence J. White, a former bank regulator who served as a Board Member of Freddie Mac, is a conference panelist and available for interviews.  He holds the following views related to the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

“It is clear that the hybrid GSE model has blown up. The mixing of private incentives and public support brought out the worst possibilities, not the best. The GSE model should be abandoned.”

“The social functions Fannie and Freddie should have been fulfilling—to help low- and moderate-income households become first-time homeowners—should be transferred to HUD. Then Fannie and Freddie should be truly privatized.”

Professor White is a contributing author to Regulating Wall Street: The Dodd-Frank Act and the New Architecture of Global Finance (forthcoming from Wiley, 2010). He is co-authoring a forthcoming book about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to be published by Princeton University Press.

Professor White is available onsite at the conference for interviews and reachable by cell phone at 646-705-3593. Alternatively, please contact Jessica Neville, jneville@stern.nyu.edu, 514-840-3830, in NYU Stern’s Office of Public Affairs, to arrange an interview following the conference.
Conference Information:

Date: Monday, September 27, 2010

Time: 9:00 a.m. (EDT) – 12:30 p.m. (EDT)

Location: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, 1455 East 6th St., Cleveland, OH 44114

September 27, 2010: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100927005158/en