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GOOD READS GET INSPIRED GAIN INSIGHT AND Remarkable Women in Real Estate: Success Secrets of the Real Estate Superstars By Alyse Martin New author Alyse Martin interviews seven women in real estate, selected from the Wall Street Journal's rankings of top producers, and shares with readers their insight into what it takes to be successful and tips on becoming a top real estate agent, all from a woman's perspective. The print edition was just released last month; it's also available in Kindle format. All proceeds from sales of the book benefit Habitat for Humanity. 90 Days to Success as a Manager By Anthony T. Meola Learn how to manage people, processes, and technology to create a high-performance environment that motivates others and fosters success. Mortgage executive Tony Meola goes beyond management theory and relates success-driving principles to actual on-the-job scenarios. Backed by his 30 years of proven success, as well as the experience of all the mentors and coaches he's worked with, this guidebook provides new managers with a clear plan of action. Regaining the Dream: How to Renew the Promise of Homeownership for America's Working Families By Roberto Quercia, Allison Freeman, and Janneke Ratcliffe Based on their exhaustive examination of a portfolio of mortgage loans made to lower-income borrowers over the past decade, the authors argue that affordable lending doesn't have to equate to excessive risk-taking. They reveal that a mortgage product can either amplify or mitigate the negative impact of a borrower's risk profile, offering data-driven evidence on how to extend sustainable homeownership to America's working families. 22 COMMENTARY: SOLVING THE WRONG PROBLEM By Mark Lieberman, Chief Economist for the Five Star Institute The story is told of a Good By gobbling up the Samaritan walking down the poorly unwritten, unafford"Instead of suggesting able mortgages, the investstreet one evening spotting a Fannie and Freddie man on his hands and knees ment banks became enablers, patting the ground. be replaced to restore encouraging the lenders to "Can I help?" the Samarido more and more questionthe nation's housing tan asks. able loans. Shortly after the markets, the president federal government allowed "I dropped my keys," the man replies. Lehman to collapse, Merrill should be proposing Where? sold itself to Bank of America to return them to "Over there, across the before suffering a similar fate. their original charters While the institutions suffered street." of supporting 'plain "Then why are you looking significant financial setbacks, here?" the individuals leading them vanilla' loans." "The light is better," he have emerged unscathed. Even says, pointing to the street WaMu executives who settled lamp overhead. a multi-million dollar lawsuit aimed at them Just like the man looking for his keys, Presipersonally were covered by insurance. dent Obama is trying to solve the wrong problem Yet Fannie and Freddie became the poster by calling, as he did in his speech in Phoenix early children for the crisis, all the while critics charged last month, for the end of Fannie Mae and Fredprivate investors were raking in the profits while die Mac as we know it. the government struggled with any losses. The White House, in its suggestions to After their creation, Fannie and Freddie were reform the housing finance system, describes the able to significantly reduce mortgage costs by government guarantee of "more than 80 percent standardizing applications and setting prudent of all mortgages" as "unsustainable" and says the underwriting standards, which if followed, gave president wants to "put private capital at the center lenders an outlet for their loans. The system broke of the housing finance system." The "reform," acwith the arrival of private capital—the same capicording to White House propaganda, will end "an tal the president proposes to use to replace them. era of housing bubbles and taxpayer bailouts." Private investors demanded profits, which Fannie He's right about the bubbles and bailouts, but and Freddie attempted to provide by developwrong to blame Fannie and Freddie, who strayed ing and increasing their appetites for riskier and from their mission when they morphed into quasi- riskier loans. public companies, emulating Wall Street counterTo believe the private sector will step into that parts, all but abandoning their original objectives role is naïve. It's the reason we have government: dating back to Fannie's birth in the 1930s—to to provide necessary services affordably, which the develop and sustain a secondary mortgage market. private sector can't or won't. Private, profit-driven To be sure, Fannie and Freddie were not the companies aren't building and maintaining streets hallmarks of responsibility in the mortgage meltor roads, nor will they. down, but they have gotten a bad rap. For all their Instead of suggesting Fannie and Freddie be housing expertise, they missed all the signals of replaced to restore the nation's housing markets, the housing bubble (but then again so did Federal the president should be proposing to return them Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his sucto their original charters (without private invescessor Ben Bernanke, who dismissed it even when tors) of supporting "plain vanilla" loans, which the first signs of the meltdown emerged). would not be profitable—or profitable enough— The fact is, though, Fannie and Freddie did for private investment banks. not buy and securitize the worst of the junk mortThe two agencies can continue to play a vital gages generated ahead of the housing collapse. role in the housing sector, as boring companies That honor goes to Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, without the bright lights of Wall Street. Maybe Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and other then we can find the keys to solve the housing private investment banks, which eagerly swalmess. lowed the worst of mortgages that Countrywide, Hear more of Mark Lieberman's commentary Ameriquest, and Washington Mutual (WAMU) every Friday on P.O.T.U.S (Sirius-XM 124) at 6:20 foisted on would-be homebuyers. a.m. (EDT).

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