The Lede

HousingWire, Apr. 12, 2016--Lane, Ben According to an article published Tuesday by the New York Times, a series of now-unsealed depositions given in the shareholders' lawsuits show that not only were Fannie and Freddie on track to be profitable for at least 10 years, the government allegedly knew that fact, and more, before choosing to sweep away the GSEs' profits.

Washington Post, Apr. 12, 2016--Swanson, Ana Foreign-owned shell companies play a big role in the U.S. economy through the real estate market. When purchased through a shell company, an offshore company or a trust, U.S. real estate offers wealthy foreigners a stable and secretive investment.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Apr. 12, 2016--Grant, Tim Losing a home to foreclosure has left such a bad taste with some former homeowners that they have lost much of their will and desire to go through the underwriting process to get approved for a new home loan - even though years may have gone by since the foreclosure episode.

Wall Street Journal, Apr. 12, 2016--Brown, Eliot Lawmakers in Congress are gearing up for a new round of fighting over who should benefit from a federal program that offers green cards to certain foreign investors.

Bloomberg, Apr. 12, 2016--Randow, Jana Two more Federal Reserve officials argued for caution over the timing of the next interest-rate increase as slower U.S. growth, a stronger dollar and weakness abroad hinder the central bank's effort to drive inflation higher.

Reuters, Apr. 8, 2016--Spicer, Jonathan The Federal Reserve must approach further rate hikes cautiously and gradually because of lingering external risks to the U.S. economy, despite some strength at home and welcome hints of inflation, New York Fed President William Dudley said Friday.

National Mortgage Professional, Apr. 7, 2016--Hall, Phil Two new data reports on the commercial real estate sector offer very different visions regarding the sector's vibrancy, with one detailing a healthy 2015 and the other forecasting a bumpy near-term future.

Wall Street Journal, Apr. 7, 2016--Glazer, Emily In a proxy released Thursday morning, J.P. Morgan pushed back against a shareholder proposal for a bank breakup, pointing to its business synergies, benefits of scale and value to clients.

Urban Institute, Apr. 7, 2016--Zandi, Mark In today's housing finance system, two behemoth institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, control most of the core infrastructure of the secondary market and take on most of its credit risk. While in many ways this system has served the nation well by providing a broad range of borrowers access to credit and a level playing field for lenders of all sizes, our reliance on this duopoly created perverse incentives that ultimately led to too much risk taking, forcing taxpayers to shoulder the resulting cost. 

The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a letter to HUD, said current FHA loan-level certification rules fall short in providing safeguards for responsible FHA lenders and urged FHA to adopt a "meaningful" quality control program.