Wall Sides With Treasury On Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Income Sweeps

As the lawsuits against the US government, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and others over preferred shareholders unpaid dividends wind their way through the courts, one of the central questions that is being raised is how much taxpayers ought to get back for the risk they took on during the crisis. Income sweeps as an accounting, legal, and economic question “As an accounting matter, one could argue that [Richard] Epstein is correct; the dividends equal the amount of Treasury funds provided to the GSEs,” writes Larry D. Wall, executive director of the Center for Financial Innovation and Stability at the…