Morris Kleiner: We Don't Need a Mortgage Guild
Professor Morris Kleiner co-authored this editorial in response to news about licensing standards for mortgage brokers.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. has announced plans to establish stringent national licensing standards for mortgage brokers. This is not a good idea.
The relationship between licensure in various professions and the quality of service is ambiguous at best. In the specific case of mortgage brokers, a comparison of states that license mortgage brokers and those that don't suggests that national licensure could lead to more foreclosures, not less.
Wall Street Journal
March 24, 2008
