Financial Services and Education Project

Despite a live presidential explanation Wednesday night, two days of testimony by top government officials, and an endless series of lawmaker press conferences, many questions about the proposed bailout plan persist. Below, we offer answers to some frequently asked questions:

Who is the bailout supposed to help? . . .

Why doesn't the government just buy vacant real estate? Wouldn't that be easier? . . .

Observers… more

This presentation, made by University of Washington Professor Lewis Mandell, was part of a webinar held September 26, 2008.

Ellen Seidman, former director of the Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision, testified in that capacity before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services on February 8, 2000 that her office had warned repeatedly of the risks of subprime lending: “Subprime lending, which involves lending to borrowers who have a significantly higher risk of default based on their credit repayment history, has been the subject of intensive OTS scrutiny by our policy and supervisory staff for several years. We started sounding warnings about risks arising from this lending activity… more

And while critics contend that CRA costs banks, other contend that once lenders move into underserved neighborhoods, profit can be made. Ellen Seidman of the New America Foundation’s Financial Services and Education Project told Congress, “Once these initiatives were started, many have proven to be sustainable in purely financial terms.” LINK

This paper, written for Furman Center at New York University in May 2008 by New America Foundation's Ellen Seidman and the Center for American Progress' Andrew Jakabovics, discusses asset disposition lessons learned from previous financial crises -- including the activities of the New Deal-era Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation formed in the wake of the savings and loan crisis, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's more recent Asset Control Area program to dispose of foreclosed… more

In standard U.S. policy-speak, “poverty” is an income concept. The “poverty line” is an income measure, access to social programs is largely related to income, and when policymakers examine distributional effects of a policy, they turn to income quintiles.

Income, however, provides an incomplete picture of family well-being. Income measures a household’s flow of funds, but that flow can be interrupted. In his recent book High Wire, Peter Gosselin presents disturbing evidence that income volatility in the United States--measured by the percentage of households experiencing a 50-percent decline… more

These materials were presented at the 2008 Assets Learning Conference.

This presentation was given at the 2008 Assets Learning Conference.

Presented at the National League of Cities' "Bank on and Beyond: A Roundtable for City Leaders"

Ellen Seidman, a former OTS director who is now the director of the New America Foundation's Financial Services and Education Project, said the agencies' options for helping banks whose capital levels are imperiled include requiring the suspension of dividend payments, working to restructure banks' balance sheets, and, "in extreme scenarios, engineering a merger." She stressed, though, that current law gives banks and thrifts significant time "to raise capital or do whatever is necessary to get themselves back into position." more