Dean Michael Barr sounds off: Washington politics put renters at risk

September 21, 2018

In a recent Market Watch article focusing on the lack of financial regulations in the housing market, Ford School Dean Michael Barr states that “Our politics in Washington right now are pushing us toward a set of steps that will make the financial system riskier.”

In his September 12th, 2018 article, Gregg Robb – quoting former Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson – reports a distinctive shift away from the “bootstraps mentality” of the American Dream. Noting the dangerous absence of adequate financial regulations, it seems that “the trend of homeownership…[is] more about investing than being about a place to live.”

Rather than capping mortgage lending in relation to income it appears that Washington will do little to help low-income and middle-class American renters while homeowners reap the lion’s share of benefits. Commenting on the apathy in the nation’s capital, Barr warns that “they [Washington politicians] are putting taxpayers at risk more than they should be.”

Visit Marketwatch to read the full article. 

Dean Michael Barr is also the faculty director of the Center on Finance, Law, and Policy as well as a senior fellow at the center at the Center for American Progress. A former Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department, Barr was a key contributor in crafting the Dodd-Frank Act.