Rep. Scott Garrett, MBS Bond Trader?

Yesterday, Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J. stunned the mortgage industry when he made a speech in Florida calling on the Obama administration to speed up the sale of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolios to capture "unrealized gains" on these assets. Okay, maybe it wasn't such a stunner. Everyone knows that Garrett wants Fannie and Freddie out from under the government trough ASAP. But should the two dump their MBS holdings right now before rates spike even more? That's an interesting call and puts Garrett in the position of being an MBS trader (of sorts). When rates rise, the MBS asset falls in value (on a mark-to-market basis). And when rates fall, just the opposite happens. If all this is true, shouldn't Rep. Garrett have made this call back in the fall when mortgage rates hit rock bottom? Maybe he needs MBS trading lessons from Lew Ranieri, Larry Fink,  Jess Lederman, or Michael Lewis.