Bond Vigilantes Will Control Affordability Push: Jonathan Levin

Lately, it feels like President Donald Trump’s government is using every trick at his disposal to improve housing affordability — or at least make it appear as if he’s doing so.

He promised to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes. He ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to help lower mortgage rates. And even before all that, he experimented with a variety of “financial repression” gimmicks to deliver lower bond yields (and, therefore, lower rates for homebuyers).

Ultimately though, Trump is bringing a knife to a gunfight. As recent turmoil has revealed, all of ...