In North Carolina, tornados spun off Hurricane Dorian, causing damage; The Treasury Department in a report suggested restructuring Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; New York’s attorney general launches an anti-trust probe into Facebook; And in Hong Kong, citizens continue to protest over a controversial extradition bill.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-backed housing corporations bailed out seven years ago by federal taxpayers, may be headed for trouble again.
The European Central Bank is ready to initiate a 60 billion euro ($69 billion) monthly government bond buying program—quantitative easing—but that won’t do much for the moribund continental economy.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Aug. 17 that they would accelerate the dismantling of Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.).