Picture says it all.
Via Jeff Bezo’s Washington Post:
President Obama on Tuesday will for the first time insist that any future housing system in the United States makes 30-year mortgages widely available to borrowers, senior administration officials said, preserving a linchpin of the American economy but also continuing to expose taxpayers to risk from another housing meltdown.
Obama previously called for the end of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that have helped ensure the availability of 30-year mortgages for generations. He has not said, however, what system should replace Fannie and Freddie — and that raised concerns that the 30-year mortgage might disappear, because banks have been unwilling to lend for such a duration without a government guarantee.
Traveling to Phoenix on Tuesday, Obama is planning to call for a new system, built in part on government backing, that will enable wide access to 30-year mortgages, which are a rarity in other countries. That will require, officials said, some form of government guarantee that means lenders will be reimbursed by taxpayers in the event of a housing catastrophe like the one that occurred several years ago.