Letter to the Editor: Put Them In, Coach

To the Editor:

Steven Sloan's excellent article, "Agreeing on the Ball, But Not the Court", captures the disturbing policy divide between Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd over the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could play to help resolve credit market problems.

For someone sitting in the bleachers, it is indeed bizarre that Secretary Paulson totally dismisses an expanded role for these key housing players to help infuse liquidity into the troubled subprime market, when the Federal Reserve's top point guards are aggressively urging banks to borrow from the Fed's discount window using unimpaired subprime paper as collateral.

Achieving market stability is a crucial game. All available talent must be used. Benching Freddie and Fannie and their potential three-point role in the subprime market isn't an effective game plan. Chairman Dodd should continue his full-court press to lift Fannie and Freddie's portfolio limits.

Coach Paulson, let them play.

Kenneth A. Guenther
Chevy Chase, Md.

Editor's Note: The author is the former head of the Independent Community Bankers of America.