Edward Pinto, Author at Dr. Rich Swier

About Edward Pinto

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) resident fellow Edward J. Pinto is the codirector of AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk. He is currently researching policy options for rebuilding the US housing finance sector and specializes in the effect of government housing policies on mortgages, foreclosures, and on the availability of affordable housing for working-class families. Pinto writes AEI’s monthly Housing Risk Watch, which has replaced AEI’s FHA Watch. Along with AEI resident scholar Stephen Oliner, Pinto is the creator and developer of the AEI Pinto-Oliner Mortgage Risk, Collateral Risk, and Capital Adequacy Indexes.

An executive vice president and chief credit officer for Fannie Mae until the late 1980s, Pinto has done groundbreaking research on the role of federal housing policy in the 2008 mortgage and financial crisis. Pinto’s work on the Government Mortgage Complex includes seminal research papers submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: “Government Housing Policies in the Lead-up to the Financial Crisis” and “Triggers of the Financial Crisis.” In December 2012, he completed a study of 2.4 million Federal Housing Administration (FHA)–insured loans and found that FHA policies have resulted in a high proportion of working-class families losing their homes.

Pinto has a J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Entries by Edward Pinto

FHA Watch: 87% of FHA’s October home purchase loans were High Risk

December 19, 2013/in Budget and Finance, Economy, Must Read, News/by Edward Pinto

For the fifth year in a row, the FHA has violated federal law by failing to meet its minimum capital standard of 2 percent—equal to about $22 billion on its $1.1 trillion book of insurance in force. The 2013 Actuarial Study found that the FHA had an economic net worth of −$8 billion, up from […]

FHA’s Predatory Insurance Practices

November 30, 2013/in Budget and Finance/by Edward Pinto

This Issue’s Highlight FHA’s Predatory Insurance Practices The Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA’s) mortgage insurance practices qualify as predatory under the definition set out by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC’s) inspector general. First, FHA mortgage insurance pricing grossly overcharges hundreds of thousands of lower-risk borrowers. Second, the FHA relies on a borrower’s lack of understanding […]