Days of Slaughter
eBook - ePub

Days of Slaughter

Inside the Fall of Freddie Mac and Why It Could Happen Again

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Days of Slaughter

Inside the Fall of Freddie Mac and Why It Could Happen Again

About this book

The untold story of the disastrous financial and ethical unwinding of Freddie Mac.

In September 2008, beset by mounting losses on high-risk mortgages and mortgage securities, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation teetered on the brink of insolvency. Fearing that confidence in the housing market would collapse completely if Freddie Mac and its competitor Fannie Mae failed, the US government made the difficult decision to place the two firms into conservatorship, taking control away from shareholders. Although the taxpayer commitment of hundreds of billions was meant to stabilize the housing finance system, Freddie's fall at the start of the financial crisis set off shockwaves around the world.

In Days of Slaughter, Susan Wharton Gates, a former 19-year Freddie Mac employee and vice president of public policy, provides a vivid eyewitness account of the competing economic and political forces that led to massive losses for shareholders, investors, homeowners—and taxpayers. With a keen eye to the policy landscape, Gates relates the fateful decisions that led to Freddie Mac's downfall and desperate rescue. She also examines today's worrisome headlines about potential future bailouts, the uneven housing recovery, and stymied congressional reform efforts. Throughout the book, Gates argues convincingly that policymakers will be unable to safely reform the massive housing finance system that currently rests squarely on taxpayer shoulders without addressing deeper issues of ideology, moral hazard, and interest group politics.

The first book to tell the story of Freddie Mac from an insider perspective—while casting a prophetic eye to the future—this first-hand account of housing policies, complex financial transactions, and the crazy quilt of federal and state actors involved in the Great Recession is a must-read. A cautionary tale of failed policies and corporate mismanagement that compellingly addresses previously unexplored issues of political ideology, organizational dynamics, and ethics, Days of Slaughter will appeal to readers everywhere who want a fuller explanation of what went awry in the US housing market.

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Yes, you can access Days of Slaughter by Susan Wharton Gates in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Economics & Real Estate. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epilouge
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Prologue: Acknowledging the Obvious
  9. 1. Reckoning Day
  10. 2. Homeownership: Dream or Nightmare?
  11. 3. Securitization Breakdown
  12. 4. Charter Confusion
  13. 5. Affordable Housing
  14. 6. Subprime Semantics
  15. 7. Political Capture
  16. 8. Who’s Ultimately Responsible?
  17. 9. Scandal(s)
  18. 10. Battle for Responsible Credit Leadership
  19. 11. One Tough Bill
  20. 12. Stand Up and Say
  21. 13. The Unraveling
  22. 14. Sad Good-Byes
  23. 15. Housing’s Future
  24. 16. Wherefore Ethics?
  25. Key Acronyms
  26. Notes
  27. Index