Today’s FinServ hearing was as conciliatory as the GOP response to the Obama white paper suggested. There are essentially no differences between the Administration and the GOP over the GSE wind-down plan, with the only real questioning today over when it will start and how fast it will proceed. Discussion over the reform part of the housing-finance rewrite was less conclusive, with Geithner stoutly refusing to commit himself to any of the Administration’s three options. Republicans like door #1 – as close to privatization as possible – but Geithner demurred on grounds that this would still leave a lot of government implicit support. If Republicans go down this road, as we think they will, they will likely add to the GSE provisions the anti-bailout legislation also pending in House FinServ.
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