Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[NeoSunTzu]

GSE saga twist | Pulte | Wrase ... well, the greenstreet.com story on Pulte "falling out of the Trump In-Crowd" that Navy posted and commented on X to which Roger Stone replied is certainly a quite ugly twist in our continuing saga. Here's a link to the greenstreet.com article posted on Friday, July 11th (https://www.greenstreet.com/news/asset-backed-alert?breakdownId=76). Navy's comment with which he provided a link to the article succintly and faithfully relayed the gist of the article. Roger Stone's comment is silly and really more or less meaningless to our plight; however, the greenstreet.com article is definitely cause for some concern about where we are headed once Trump gets around to signing off on any final housing policy.

EVERYTHING in D.C. is a rumor ... until it isn't. In reference to the title of the greenstreet's article they suggest that Pulte seems to have colored outside the lines with the last few announcements (X posts) about FHFA/FnF policy changes regarding credit scores and accepting rent payment history for mortgage credit purposes. They stated that it is common practice to run these kind of decisions by key people in the regulatory and industry framework before just announcing settle/finished policy changes. Also, the credit score decisions seemed to have ruffled FICOs feathers as well as lenders who as of yet have not considered or known they should implement VantageScore into their systems. Basically, Pulte has just been over-eager and not understood, even though he oversees FHFA, that FHFA still has to work within a framework of how the mortgage industry does it's business. But this aside, wider housing policy was ALWAYS going to be decided by those with broader economic scope. All of the problem issues mentioned with Pulte have just recently occurred in the past two weeks.

One of the key individuals mentioned in the article who is apparently given some charge to come up with the housing plan is Jeff Wrase. Here is a link to his bio: https://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/7561/Jeffrey_M_Wrase.html (his government employment history). He is currently special advisor to President Trump and sits on the National Economic Council. He has a background very similar to Calabria's - they are both policy wonks. Because of the issues we've had with Calabria and, now Wrase's similar employment history, there is some cause for concern; HOWEVER, this was ALWAYS going to take someone with this kind of background to navigate the government / congressional side. Wrase will know ways to get enough buy-in from those we need to bypass (in Congress) to get this across the finish line. He seems to have more seniority and experience than Calabria as well.

Make no mistake about this Trump is NOT making the housing plan - it is likely in good part being made by those mentioned in the article. Note, Treasury (Bessent) will NOT likely be involved in the "housing" portion of the plan, but highly involved in what Treasury will allow to happen with the current FnF funding status. Trump will likely have alternatives presented to him with scenarios for which he will likely push one or another based on what this team presents, their recommendations, and some other broader economic and potential legal realities. There needs to be explicit pressure from our side that the warrants will face new legal suits - takings cases in particular. I am not sure that Wrase or any other policy wonk will look at the fraud history we ALL KNOW has taken place; Wrase and Calabria types will want a feather in their cap of a final action that looks like they did something great for the "American people" and that is what concerns me most - window dressing without properly addressing, or possibly even recognizing the theft, obfuscation, and shareholder rights destruction.