{"podcast":{"title":"Capitalisn't","slug":"capitalisn-t-910873","podcast_index_feed_id":910873,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/XytPkydI","website_url":"https://capitalisnt.com","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/2e7c76ad-7ecc-479b-8749-f0cb2f4f2dc5/448252be-b0dd-4ca9-94e2-d1edc241d7ba/3000x3000/capitalisn_t_updated_s2_v3.jpg?aid=rss_feed","author":"University of Chicago Podcast Network","episode_count":242,"summary":"We investigate how capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today. Hosted by economist Luigi Zingales and business journalist Bethany McLean, our podcast explains why capitalism can go wrong and what we can do to fix it. Send us your questions or comments by emailing capitalisntpod@gmail.com Cover photo attributions: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/stigler/about/capitalisnt.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/capitalisn-t-910873"},"episode":{"title":"Will Privatizing The Mortgage Giants Solve The Housing Crisis?","slug":"will-privatizing-the-mortgage-giants-solve-the-housing-crisis","published_at":"2025-09-04T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/capitalisn-t-910873/will-privatizing-the-mortgage-giants-solve-the-housing-crisis","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/capitalisn-t-910873","url":"https://capitalisnt.com/episodes/will-privatizing-the-mortgage-giants-solve-the-housing-crisis-keXfqiEO","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/afp-920658-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/912f8fce-96d2-4583-92f5-2279c08e377a/episodes/44011fcb-7bcc-4b67-bd3e-cf1cd5930355/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=912f8fce-96d2-4583-92f5-2279c08e377a&awEpisodeId=44011fcb-7bcc-4b67-bd3e-cf1cd5930355&feed=XytPkydI","summary":"This week, the Trump administration announced it would sell around 5% of mortgage giants and government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The sale would begin to reintroduce the two firms to private markets after 17 years of government conservatorship. The decision to re-privatize two of the largest mortgage firms in the world, and a prominent reason why the United States is one of the only countries where people can get 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, will have enormous implications for the U.S. economy, housing market, and the American dream. Fannie Mae was founded during the Great Depression with the idea of making mortgages more widely available to Americans by buying mortgage loans from banks. Freddie Mac came along in 1970 to provide competition and increase liquidity for mortgages. In part, Fannie and Freddie increased liquidity by repackaging their mortgages into mortgage-backed securities and reselling them to investors. In the early 2000s, the subprime mortgage crisis began as smaller, unregulated financial actors started offering risky mortgage loans and likewise repackaged them to investors. When the crisis imploded in 2008, it gutted the market for mortgage-backed securities, and the U.S. government seized Fannie and Freddie to prevent them from collapsing. The government feared that without Freddie and Fannie, many Americans would no longer be able to afford home ownership. Today, Fannie and Freddie still back roughly 50% of all mortgage loans, with other government agencies making up another chunk. The Trump administration’s plans to take these GSEs public again will allow the two firms to raise billions through new stock offerings and shift risk back to the private sector. But the question is, why is the government doing this? Will…","meta_description":"This week, the Trump administration announced it would sell around 5% of mortgage giants and government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2698,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/capitalisn-t-910873/episodes/will-privatizing-the-mortgage-giants-solve-the-housing-crisis/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/capitalisn-t-910873/will-privatizing-the-mortgage-giants-solve-the-housing-crisis.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}