Tag Archives: Barack Obama

When the Federal Open Market Committee completed its two-day meeting at the beginning of May, it issued the usual six-paragraph post-meeting statement.

In the budget he unveiled this week, President Obama, as he has in so many policy initiatives, attempted to reshape the political lexicon.

The Obama administration released Wednesday its budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2014, revealing that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) may require a bailout of up to $943 million to reinforce its capital reserves. In a conference call with reporters, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan explained the agency has taken steps to ensure safer new business and to increase recoveries on the older, riskier loans that brought its Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund to a negative balance.

It's been two weeks since the dreaded sequester took effect, and so far, the only casualty has been the White House tour. There actually have been some positives, with both parties presenting budgets. However, both the GOP budget and the Democratic plan have one major similarity: Each is dead on arrival and destined to at best be a one-house budget, which leaves the country back where it was. Setting a target for practical balance would bring us closer to reducing the deficit and with less pain.

Fifty-four Senate Democrats and Independents issued a letter to the president last week defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and pledging to support the re-appointment of current director Richard Cordray. In their letter, Cordray's Senate supporters decried the opposition's efforts as an attempt to "weaken the CFPB through structural changes" from "a minority of Senators [who] do not support the existence of the agency." The issue of Cordray's nomination comes at a pivotal time for CFPB.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama acknowledged the progress that has been made in the housing market with rising prices, increasing home purchases, and an uptick on construction. However, "even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are being rejected," he said. Obama also proclaimed his support for expanding access to refinancing, calling on Congress to pass a refinance bill currently in the pipeline.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods released its predictions of what actions the government is and is not likely to take to further assist the housing market.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday that the controversial recess appointments made by President Obama in January 2012--which includes the appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)--are "invalid from their inception." Administration officials insisted the president was acting correctly under the Constitution; critics argued that the Senate was not actually in recess and that the president was skirting around the confirmation process.

The debt ceiling controversy and its impact on the nation's financial credibility demands a solution that will last for more than just a few months.

Now that Obama has won a second term, his administration is charged with leading phase two of the housing recovery.