Mark Zandi Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“The FHA's success provides strong evidence that government can and should play a role in the nation's mortgage finance system. It also demonstrates that although government intervention in the economy during the Great Recession was messy, things would have been a lot messier without it.”

“Too-easy credit and millions of bad loans made during the U.S. housing bubble paved the way for the financial calamity and Great Recession that followed. Today, by contrast, credit is too tight. Mortgage loans are particularly hard to get, creating a problem for the housing market and the broader economy.”

“Our economy isn't going to recover until the housing market finds its footing.”

“The Obama administration deserves credit for quickly ending the housing free fall. In particular, Obama empowered the Federal Housing Administration to ensure that households could find mortgages at low interest rates even during the worst phase of the financial panic.”

“Buying a home wouldn't make much sense if house prices were likely to decline further; no one wants to catch a falling knife.”

“Our biggest challenge is to eliminate the popular perception that economists don't have anything useful to say.”

“The biggest culprits in the housing fiasco came from the private sector, and more specifically from a mortgage industry that was out of control.”

“They called me the sexiest economist in America, and that was years ago, when I had hair and body mass and my teeth were shiny.”

“It is hard to be enthusiastic about the economy's prospects when house prices are falling: Households spend less, small business owners can't use homes as collateral for loans and local governments are forced to cut jobs and programs as property-tax revenue disappears.”

“The extension and expansion of the payroll tax holidays for workers would be number one on my list and key to avoiding recession.”