Ep. 30 - John Weicher He offers his breadth of experience to discuss trending issues in the housing and real estate markets and surveys the key accomplishments from his career. As the author of 14 books and numerous scholarly articles, Weicher provides an academic's insights combined with the experience of someone who served in the halls of government.
Top Takeaways:
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- Learning to do things as they are supposed to be done without being disillusioned
- The effects of the pandemic on the economy as compared to the Spanish flu
- The importance of wealth distribution in the United States
- How an economy recovers after a severe depression
Hear the economic effects the Coronavirus pandemic could pose for the economy as compared to other crises we have had in the past.
"There are a few things I would like to do over again, but I'm generally pleased with what I've done."
John talks about his career at HUD as chief economist. He is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Housing and Financial Markets at Hudson Institute. He also is a sought-after expert in housing policy and economics. Dr. Weicher served as assistant secretary for housing and federal housing commissioner at United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with responsibility for 3,400 staff and half a trillion dollars of FHA mortgage insurance. His major initiatives included regulatory reform of the real estate settlement process, mission regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and establishing a risk-based premium structure for FHA's multifamily mortgage insurance. He previously served as assistant secretary for policy development and research at HUD and as chief economist at both HUD and OMB.
Dr. Weicher has managed research staff and projects in both government agencies and policy research institutes, including the Urban Institute, the American Enterprise Institute , and previously at the Hudson Institute. He chaired the Committee to Evaluate the Research Plan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development of the National Research Council; he has also been a member of the Millennium Housing Commission, the Census Advisory Committee on Population Statistics, and the Committee on Urban Policy of the National Research Council.
Listen in to hear a detailed description of the roles that John took on including working on the budget of the United States and the success some of his programs had.
Key Moments:
He describes his journey from college to getting involved with HUD and what he did there in the beginning [2:54]
How he replaced all programs at HUD with new ones and in the process helped create the Voucher program which later became a countrywide success [8:59]
How he learned to do things the way they were supposed to be done and not how he wanted or envisioned them to be [10:09]
Leaving HUD, going back to Ohio, and coming back as chief economist [11:03]
How he enjoyed working with 5 secretaries of government [13:41]
He talks about his job as chief economist at OMB where he worked on the budget of the United States [14:11]
He describes his biggest success story as the work he did to give life to the Voucher program [16:21]
What were the GSC regulations [17:35]
He compares the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic to those of the Spanish flu [21:51]
The global effects of the COVID-19 due to more movements of people as compared to other pandemics that have occurred before [24:36]
He talks about the Hudson Institute, how it was formed and what they do now [26:02]
His focus on wealth distribution and the data they use to track Americans' wealth [31:11]
The abrupt responses that are used to bounce back an economy after a severe recession [33:27]
Committee to Evaluate the Research Plan
Millennial Housing Commission Report
Census Advisory Committee on Population Statistics Report
Committee on National Urban Policy