During the Trump administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appeared to studiously avoid weighing in on the potential effects of climate change on the value of their more than $7 trillion of securitized mortgages. 

After all, the former president was a well known climate skeptic and the GSEs perhaps wanted to avoid his ire, especially as expressed on his favorite social media weapon, Twitter.

But it’s a new day, a new dawn and a new administration in Washington.

So, early in 2021, the GSEs wasted no time in putting out an all points climate SOS, asking all and sundry to pass along any information and analysis they might have on climate and the mortgage market in general. But most importantly, climate as it relates to Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage portfolios specifically.

One response stands out, and not just because of its stark climate warning, but also because of the report’s author and the outsized and famous role he and colleagues played in the mortgage finance crisis of 2008, a crisis in which the GSEs, of course, also had an outsize role.