Proponents of the GSE model of housing finance often assert that the costs of that model are justified because it provides benefits that no other countries enjoy. In fact, before the collapse of the GSEs in 2008, their supporters often argued that “American housing finance is the envy of the world.” But the reality is that for all of the resources and subsidies that the GSEs directed (we would say “mis-directed”) towards housing finance, compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. ranks in the middle of the pack on any number of criteria.
