It turns out that while under federal receivership, and under the direction of the FHFA, Freddie Mac has simultaneously made it more difficult to refinance your mortgage and invested in risking and hard to sell financial instruments that profit from you not being able to refinance:

Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.

Freddie began increasing these bets dramatically in late 2010, the same time that the company was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such high-interest mortgages.

No evidence has emerged that these decisions were coordinated. The company is a key gatekeeper for home loans but says its traders are “walled off” from the officials who have restricted homeowners from taking advantage of historically low interest rates by imposing higher fees and new rules.

Yeah, there was no coordination here.

Just aggressive tightening of refinancing standards (further down in the story) that have put people, “in financial jail,”  and as it was ramping up on its risky bets, it also, “quietly announced that it was raising charges, called post-settlement delivery fees, for refinancing.”

But we aren’t going to see a recess appointment to replace the acting head of FHFA, Edward DeMarco, with someone who might reign in executive bonuses or work for home owners.