When the Great Recession began, many people heard about banks being insanely overleveraged, capitalism “gone wrong,” and the wealthy 1%. However, when the bailouts of several private companies started happening, there were whispers that certain firms may have anticipated these bailouts and therefore were more inclined to take risky actions. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two Government Sponsored Entities which previously played a small role in the mortgage market, suddenly became the most important players of the market in the run-up to 2007.
Our guest for today is Thomas E. Woods, who is a senior fellow of the Mises Institue and host of The Tom Woods Show, which is one of the most popular libertarian and free-market shows on iTunes. Tom has a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and his master’s, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has appeared on many popular news shows, has been a guest on hundreds of radio programs, and is also the author of 12 books, with many of them being New York Times bestsellers.
Today we are going to discuss…
- What role, if any, the Fed played in the run-up to the Great Recession and the aftermath
- Whether we would’ve entered a 20-year depression had the Fed not stepped in after the Great Recession
- How Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s incentives are different from a typical bank
- Why the repealing of Glass-Steagall is an integral part of this conversation
Learn more about our guest: