The Mortgage Wars: Inside Fannie Mae, Big-Money Politics, and the Collapse of the American Dream

CHAPTER 7Conflicts with Fast-Growing Lenders

DURING JIM JOHNSON’S CHAIRMANSHIP—WHICH RAN FROM THE beginning of 1991 through the end of 1998—Fannie Mae catapulted to a position of prominence in the mortgage finance system while building a broad and bipartisan base of support in Congress that greatly reduced the likelihood that political actions would weaken our business prospects or market role in the immediate future. At the same time, the removal of legal and regulatory barriers to the consolidation of financial services firms led to the rapid concentration of assets at a number of the largest banks and mortgage lenders, who had national rather than regional ambitions and increasingly viewed Fannie Mae as an obstacle to their success. Fannie ...