This is a story about how you can directly help Main Street without bailing out Wall Street.The COVID-19 pandemic upended our daily lives and transformed the political landscape. The crisis was not only an unprecedented shock to our health care system but also an unprecedented threat to our economic well-being, including the mortgage and housing markets. While the primary focus of the federal response was appropriately on public health, a critical aspect of that response was the efforts to keep families in their homes. Despite the reforms following the 2008 financial crisis, our financial markets were not prepared. March 2020 brought another financial crisis, moderated by the responses of our financial regulators. Calls for bailouts rose again, but some were determined not to repeat the many mistakes of 2008. As the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, Mark Calabria was responsible for leading that response. In Shelter From the Storm, he tells the story of how millions of families were provided mortgage and rental assistance--both to keep them safe and to keep our financial markets functioning. He offers readers a peek behind the curtain of government decisionmaking in a crisis and shows how FHFA minimized housing disruptions at little to no cost to the taxpayer and resisted repeated calls for industry bailouts and subsidies.
Mark Calabria is a senior advisor to the Cato Institute and the cofounder of Cato's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. He is the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates and supervises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Calabria lives in Washington, DC.
"A powerful story of maintaining principle in the face of tremendous pressure. A critical lesson for future crises and a must-read for students of government and finance."--Ben Carson, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, pioneering neurosurgeon, and author of Gifted Hands "Crisis tests character and conviction in this lesson on facing down big government bailouts and building a more resilient housing finance system. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Mark Calabria was a steady force for fiscally responsible decisionmaking, even as the mortgage industry clamored for special treatment. Thanks to his leadership, we have a stronger financial system and a firmer commitment to free enterprise than we otherwise would."--Sen. Pat Toomey, former ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs "Dr. Calabria is one of the world's foremost policy experts on mortgage finance. We were fortunate to have him at the helm to guide the mortgage market safely through the pandemic."--Sen. Richard C. Shelby, former chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs "Mark Calabria led the charge to protect taxpayers and reform our housing finance system."--Mike Pence, Vice President "This first-hand account of life as a federal regulator during a crisis details how Mark navigated difficult policy choices, politics, and institutions while trying to stay true to one's core beliefs. It is a must-read for anyone interested in regulation, policy, or politics."--Aaron Klein, Brookings Institution
