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

There are different flavors of recession. You can get into some pretty dark scenarios pretty quickly.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the U.S. housing bubble, but not much of it belongs to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two giant housing-finance institutions made many mistakes over the decades, some of them real whoppers, but causing house prices to soar and then crater during the past decade weren't among them.

Past experience with fiscal austerity at home and overseas strongly suggests that it is best for the economy's long-run performance to restrain government spending rather than raise taxes.

My policy is I will help any policymaker who asks, whether they be a Republican or a Democrat.

Indeed, the FHA was born out of the Great Depression, which was also caused in significant part by a foreclosure crisis. Mortgages in the early 1930s were mostly three- to five-year 'bullet' loans, which did not amortize and were due in full at maturity.

I'm a registered Democrat.