Joseph Smith

The behind-the-scenes push to get rid of Edward DeMarco 

A couple weeks ago I was having a beverage with a former comrade from the trenches of mortgage research (He’s now a big money manager). My comrade took me to task for criticizing outgoing Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco’s performance at a September congressional hearing on the GSEs. What did I expect? he asked. Congressional Banking Committee leadership had just sandbagged DeMarco for courageously going after the banks that issued the private-label mortgage securities rotting in Fannie and Freddie’s portfolios.