Ed DeMarco is really feeling his oats, no doubt thanks to projections of profits at Fannie and Freddie paradoxically spurred by a housing shortage. (Those profits are at least partially derived from Fannie and Freddie evading local government transfer taxes, by the way, not DeMarco’s “responsible stewardship.”) He rejected principal reductions as a means to solve the foreclosure crisis. And now, he’s going after another potential solution floated by some local governments: eminent domain.

The question that many of us asked in the wake of the revelations about money laundering at Standard Chartered Bank is why the federal regulators did apparently nothing, and that this had to get revealed by New York’s Department of Financial Services.

I went through last week why I don’t think Ed DeMarco will be fired. Now Neil BArofsky, who has a passing knowledge of the individuals involved, entered this debate. Geithner has used the moral hazard/strategic default argument plenty of times over the past few years. Now it could be that Treasury has magically turned the corner and gotten the message that the economy needs widespread debt relief. But the fact that this lines up perfectly with the upcoming Presidential election is enough to make one skeptical.

Yesterday, the Minneapolis, Minnesota City Council approved an amendment to its fiscal year 2013 Federal Agenda, calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to establish a principal reduction program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned or insured rental mortgages.

When Ed DeMarco rejected participation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the HAMP principal reduction program, condemnation on the left was fast and furious. But the statute is a bit unclear, and no matter, what Ed Marco may be a convenient villain for an Administration that has done little to solve the housing problem over three years.

I was wondering whether FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco would respond to that Wall Street Journal article today pressuring him to allow participation from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an Administration principal reduction program. Well, he has. DeMarco rejected participation for Fannie and Freddie, opting to go ahead with principal forbearance and other loan modification programs and blocking principal reduction.

FHFA leader Ed DeMarco has indefinitely put on hold the question of whether he will allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offer principal reductions to delinquent underwater borrowers. He’s actually said nothing about it publicly since April. But Nick Timiraos leaks out the details of a new study that shows the benefits of principal reductions are greater than FHFA first surmised.

The Federal Reserve has decided to put their thumbs on the scales of justice, explicitly attempting to overturn state-based anti-foreclosure laws on the spurious grounds that requiring foreclosures to meet due process standards hurts the economy.

California’s efforts to create a better environment for foreclosure victims have begun to fade. $410 million from the foreclosure fraud settlement that was supposed to go into counseling and legal services was instead diverted to pay for a state budget shortfall. While this has angered the legal aid community, with the enormity of the budget problem in the state, it’s unlikely that will be reversed.

A group of over 50 House Democrats are calling out the Obama Administration for their management of the HARP 2.0 program. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Ed DeMarco, the Democrats point to data showing that the new version of HARP, designed to steer more refinancing to underwater borrowers, simply isn’t meeting those goals.