From Infantile Citizens to Infantile Institutions: The Metaphoric Transformation of Political Economy in the 2008 Housing Market Crisis

Abstract

The logic of political economy depends on a domestic metaphor, using the oikos or household as a model for the polis. Historically, this metaphor has imagined citizens as the children of a paternal state. However during the 2008 housing crisis, this metaphor was turned upside down, depicting citizens as the parents of infantile state institutions. Although initially portraying citizens as juvenile “delinquents,” the rhetoric of the mortgage crisis ultimately repositioned citizens as surrogate caretakers for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant politico-economic institutions that constituted the majority of the mortgage market. In this way, the rhetoric of the housing crisis inverted both the metaphorical and material structure of political economy.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• Rhetoric of Economics
• Metaphor
• Race
• Neoliberalism

Notes

1. Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America, trans. Henry Reeve, vol. 2 (London: Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts, 1862), 381.

2. George Lakoff, Whose Freedom?: The Battle over America's Most Important Idea (New York: Picador, 2006), 66.

3. Stephanie Armour and James Healey, “Taxpayers Take On Trillions in Risk in Fannie, Freddie Takeover,” USA Today, October 20, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2008-09-07-fannie-freddie-plan_N.htm.

4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Basic Political Writings, trans. Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987), 111.

5. Aristotle, Politics, trans. H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1944), 1.1252a; Aristotle, Economics, trans. G. C. Armstrong. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1935), 1.1343a.

6. Rousseau, 111.

7. Michel Foucault, “Governmentality,” trans. Pasquale Pasquino, in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 92.

8. Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984 [1935]), 90.

9. Burke, 90.

10. Burke, 69.

11. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998 [1958]), 28.

12. Arendt, 35.

13. Lauren Berlant, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 27.

14. Nikolas Rose, “Governing ‘Advanced’ Liberal Democracies,” in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 41.

15. Graham Burchell, “Liberal Government and Techniques of the Self,” in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 29.

16. Arendt, 28–29.

17. Noelle Knox and Barbara Hansen, “Home Loan Delinquency Rate Shows Increase,” USA Today, March 17, 2006, http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/housing/2006-03-16-mortgage-delinquent_x.htm.

18. Kenneth R. Harney, “Subprime Market's Sinking Fortunes,” Washington Post, February 17, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021600813.html; Ruth Simon, “Lenders Get Tougher,” Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2007, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117919594533802889.html; Vikas Bajaj and Ron Nixon, “Subprime Loans Going from Boon to Housing Bane; Minority Buyers Especially Hurt As Interest Rates Adjust Higher,” New York Times, December 6, 2006, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EEDB1631F935A35751C1A9609C8B63&pagewanted=all; Gretchen Morgenson, “Mortgages May Be Messier Than You Think,” New York Times, March 4, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/business/yourmoney/04gret.html?pagewanted=all; Kenneth R. Harney, “Mortgage Mod Squad,” Washington Post, April 14, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041300891.html; Knox and Hansen, “Home Loan.”

19. Michelle Singletary, “'Fessing Up and Settling Up,” Washington Post, August 3, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201487.html.

20. Michelle Singletary, “Can't Pay the Loan but Won't Pick Up the Phone,” Washington Post, August 22, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042100131.html?nav=emailpage.

21. Noelle Knox, “Homeowners Late on Loans Often Don't Seek Help: More Than Half Don't Realize Lenders Can Work With Them,” USA Today, January 31, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

22. Noelle Knox, “Can't Pay? Talk to Mortgage Lender: Don't Dodge or Delay, Solution May Be Possible,” USA Today, August 24, 2006, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

23. Bob Tedeschi, “MORTGAGES; Prodding Borrowers to Get Help,” New York Times, July 1, 2007, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE4DF153EF932A35754C0A9619C8B63.

24. Dina ElBoghdady, “Alarms Sound on Dangerous Loans,” Washington Post, June 30, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/29/AR2007062900940.html; Tedeschi, “Prodding Borrowers.”

25. ElBoghdady, “Alarms Sound.”

26. ElBoghdady, “Alarms Sound;” Tedeschi, “Prodding Borrowers.”

27. See ElBoghdady, “Alarms Sound;” Tedeschi, “Prodding Borrowers.”

28. Gretchen Morgenson, “Blame the Borrowers? Not So Fast,” New York Times, November 25, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/business/25gret.html?pagewanted=all.

29. Bob Tedeschi, “A Growing Burden of Home Debt,” New York Times, November 5, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/realestate/05mort.html.

30. Singletary, “'Fessing Up.”

31. Elizabeth Razzi, “On the Phone with the Home in the Balance,” Washington Post, December 9, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR2007120800022.html.

32. Knox, “Can't Pay?”

33. Knox, “Can't Pay?”

34. Renae Merle, “FDIC Restructuring Some IndyMac Loans,” Washington Post, August 21, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/20/AR2008082003258.html

35. Gretchen Morgenson, “Everyone Out of the Security Pool,” New York Times, November 16, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

36. Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

37. Kirstin Downey, “High-Cost Mortgages Putting Many Homeowners at Risk,” Washington Post, December 14, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR2006121301990.html.

38. Vikas Bajaj, “For Some Subprime Borrowers, Few Good Choices,” New York Times, March 22, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/business/22workout.html?pagewanted=all; Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

39. Dina ElBoghdady and Nell Henderson, “$1 Billion Pledged to Help Fend Off Foreclosures,” Washington Post, April 12, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102200.html; Kenneth R. Harney, “Vultures Are Circling Over Distressed Properties,” Washington Post, October 20, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101901089.html; Christine Haughney, “Fighting Off Foreclosure,” New York Times, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com; Morgenson, “Blame the Borrowers?”

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41. David Cho and Dina ElBoghdady, “Mortgage Report Rattles Markets,” Washington Post, March 14, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031300505.html; Charles Duhigg, “Fighting Foreclosures, FDIC Chief Draws Fire,” New York Times, December 10, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/11bair.html?pagewanted=all.

42. Majia H. Nadesan, Governing Childhood into the 21^st Century: Biopolitical Technologies of Childhood Management and Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 2.

43. Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

44. Kirstin Downey, “Mortgage Payments Lag in Katrina Zone,” Washington Post, March 15, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401613.html.

45. Gretchen Morgenson, “Will Other Mortgage Dominoes Fall?” New York Times, February 18, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/business/yourmoney/18gret.html?pagewanted=all.

46. Vikas Bajaj and Ron Nixon, “For Minorities, Signs of Trouble in Foreclosures,” New York Times, February 22, 2006, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com; Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

47. Bajaj and Nixon, “For Minorities.”

48. Bajaj and Nixon, “For Minorities.”

49. Bajaj and Nixon, “For Minorities.”

50. Michael Powell, “Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks,” New York Times, June 6, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html?pagewanted=all.

51. Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

52. Kareem Fahim and Ron Nixon, “Behind Newark Foreclosure Data, Ruined Credit and Crushed Hopes,” New York Times, March 28, 2007, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02EFDB1330F93BA15750C0A9619C8B63&pagewanted=all; Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

53. Steven Pearlstein, “Help for Homeowners, Not a Bailout for Mortgage Pushers,” Washington Post, March 16, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031502122.html?nav=emailpage.

54. Kenneth R. Harney, “Finding Bright Spots Among the Dark Clouds,” Washington Post, September 15, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091401154.html.

55. Bajaj and Nixon, “Minority Buyers.”

56. Downey, “High-Cost Mortgages.”

57. David S. Hilzenrath and Dina ElBoghdady, “Quarterly Foreclosure Rate Again Sets Record,” Washington Post, September 7, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090601137.html.

58. Pearlstein, “Help for Homeowners.”

59. Jack Guttentag, “Persistence Pays Off When Loan Modification Saves House and Credit,” Washington Post, October 20, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101900042.html.

60. Noelle Knox and Sue Kirchhoff, “Criticism Rains Down on Mortgage Industry,” USA Today, October 23, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-10-23-mortgages-refinance_N.htm.

61. Harney, “Finding Bright Spots.”

62. Harney, “Subprime Market's Sinking Fortunes.”

63. Morgenson, “Will Other Mortgage Dominoes Fall?”

64. Cho and ElBoghdady, “Mortgage Report.”

65. Cho and ElBoghdady, “Mortgage Report.”

66. Cho and ElBoghdady, “Mortgage Report.”

67. Cho and ElBoghdady, “Mortgage Report.”

68. Sue Kirchhoff, “Fed Chief: Home Slump Shouldn't Hurt Economy,” USA Today, May 17, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-05-17-bernanke-mortgages_N.htm

69. USA Today, “Market Chaos Needs Taming,” August 20, 2007, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

70. Greg Farrell and Noelle Knox, “Record: 1 Million Homes in Foreclosure; Nearly 3 Million Behind on Mortgages in 4th Quarter,” USA Today, March 7, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20080307/1b_foreclosures07.art.htm.

71. Robert J. Samuelson, “Humbled by Our Ignorance,” Washington Post, December 29, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/12/28/ST2008122802202.html.

72. Nelson D. Schwartz, “Can the Mortgage Crisis Swallow a Town?” New York Times, September 2, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/business/yourmoney/02village.html?pagewanted=all; Gretchen Morgenson, “Beware of Exploding Mortgages,” New York Times, June 10, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/yourmoney/10gret.html?pagewanted=all; Edmund L. Andrews, “Accord Seen on Revising Loan Rules,” New York Times, September 21, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/business/21home.html; Knox and Hansen, “Home Loan Delinquency.”

73. Vikas Bajaj and Jenny Anderson, “Inquiry Focuses on Withholding of Data on Loans,” New York Times, January 12, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/business/12lend.html?pagewanted=all; Harney, “Subprime Market's Sinking Fortunes.”

74. Sue Kirchhoff, “Delinquent Loans Surge at Highest Rate Since 1990,” USA Today, August 22, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2007-08-22-bank-profit_N.htm.

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83. John McCain, “Remarks on Financial Markets.”

84. G. Thomas Goodnight and Sandy Green, “Rhetoric, Risk, and Markets: The Dot-Com Bubble,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 96 (2010), 117.

85. Peter S. Goodman, “Is America Too Big to Fail?” New York Times, July 20, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/business/worldbusiness/20iht-20fail.14631291.html?pagewanted=all.

86. CNN, “Major Mortgage Firms in Crisis,” The Situation Room, July 11, 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/11/sitroom.01.html.

87. For an exemplary critical and historical account of the history of the housing GSEs, see Joshua S. Hanan, “Home Is Where the Capital Is: The Culture of Real Estate in an Era of Control Societies,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 7 (2010): 179–87.

88. Vikas Bajaj, “Freddie Mac Tightens Standards,” New York Times, February 28, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/business/28mortgage.html?pagewanted=all; Stephen Labaton, “Worst Fears Ease, for Now, on Mortgage Giants’ Fate,” New York Times, July 12, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

89. Kevin R. Kosar, Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs): An Institutional Overview (Congressional Research Service Report RS21663, April 23, 2007), 5, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21663.pdf.

90. US House. Committee on Financial Services. “Representative Barney Frank Holds a Hearing on Federal Housing GSE Oversight,” September 25, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

91. James A. Leach, “Fixing Fannie and Freddie: A ‘Buy-in’ for Taxpayers Rather than a ‘Bail-out’ for Shareholders,” Harvard University Institute of Politics, July 16, 2008, http://www.iop.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/Fannie%20and%20Freddie.pdf.

92. “Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008,” P.L. 110–289, 122 Stat. 2654, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-110publ289/html/PLAW-110publ289.htm.

93. Federal Housing Finance Agency, “Statement of FHFA Director James B. Lockhart,” September 7, 2008, http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/23/FHFAStatement9708final.pdf; “Housing and Economic Recovery Act.”

94. “Housing and Economic Recovery Act.”

95. Jennifer Moye, “Guardianship and Conservatorship,” in Evaluating Competencies: Forensic Assessments and Instruments, ed. Thomas Grisso (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2003), 309–90.

96. Moye, 310.

97. Nick Timiraos and James R. Hagerty, “No Exit in Sight for US as Fannie, Freddie, Flail,” Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704362004575001042824028862.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_3; Barbara Kiviat, “The Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac Morass,” Time, August 2, 2010, http://business.time.com/2010/08/02/the-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-morass/; Gretchen Morgenson, “Ignoring the Elephant in the Bailout,” New York Times, May 9, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/business/09gret.html?_r=1&dbk.

98. Foucault, 92.

99. US House. “Statement of James B. Lockhart,” 1.

100. US House. “Statement of James B. Lockhart,” 1.

101. US House. “Statement of James B. Lockhart,” 1–2.

102. Federal Housing Finance Agency, “Statement,” 5.

103. Nadesan, Governing Childhood, 2.

104. US Department of Treasury, “Statement by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson,” September 7, 2008, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp1129.aspx

105. US Department of Treasury, “Remarks by David McCormick, Undersecretary of Treasury for International Affairs, to the Brookings Institute Future of Consumer Payments Conference,” September 7, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

106. Majia Nadesan, “The MYD Panopticon: Neo-Liberalism, Governmentality, and Education,” Radical Pedagogy 8 (2006), n.p.

107. Paul McIlvenny, “Communicating a ‘Time-out’ in Parent-Child Conflict: Embodied Interaction, Domestic Space and Discipline in a Reality TV Parenting Programme,” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (2009), 2029.

108. US Department of Treasury, “Statement by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.”

109. Peter S. Goodman, “Government as Big Lender,” New York Times, July 14, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/washington/14guarantee.html?pagewanted=all; Peter J. Wallison, “How Paulson Would Save Fannie Mae,” Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122117569863425755.html; Ken Dilanian, “How Congress Set the Stage for a Meltdown,” USA Today, October 13, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-10-12-congress-meltdown_N.htm.

110. Loren Steffy, “Fannie and Freddie Join the Bonus Backlash,” Houston Chronicle, April 6, 2009, http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2009/04/fannie-and-freddie-join-the-bonus-backlash/

111. Terry Keenan, “Fannie's Been in Arrears,” New York Post, July 13, 2008, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/item_2UMShpGFbo8exJBI04rrbO

112. James Murray, “Fannie and Freddie: Grow Up,” Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2005.

113. Fox News, “Interview with Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee,” Your World with Neil Cavuto, September 8, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

114. Allan Sloan, “Happy Tax Day, Homeowners!” Washington Post, April 15, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402662.html.

115. USA Today, “When Uncle Sam Doles Out Bailout Candy, Lines Grow,” October 31, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20081031/edit31.art.htm.

116. Fox News, “Stocks Plunge Again,” Cavuto, October 9, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

117. National Public Radio, “The Three Ps: Why Bailouts Are Problematic,” Morning Edition, September 15, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94617099; Public Broadcasting Service, “Senate Passes Economic Rescue Package,” Newshour with Jim Lehrer, October 2, 2008, LexisNexis Academic, http://www.lexisnexis.com.

118. Goodman, “Too Big?”

119. David J. Lynch, “US Bends the Rules of Free Markets,” USA Today, September 19, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-09-18-free-market-bailout_N.htm.

120. Bryan Ellis, “Why Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Are Failing,” The Brian Ellis Real Estate Letter, July 21, 2008, http://realestate.bryanellis.com/156/why-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-are-failing/#FblnlvDW1VH7,

121. Luke Mullins and Kirk Shinkle, “What Uncle Sam's Fannie and Freddie Plan Means for You,” US News & World Report, July 14, 2008, http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2008/07/14/what-uncle-sams-fannie-and-freddie-plan-means-for-you.

122. Steven Pearlstein, “Financial Rescues Show that Faith in Free Market is Shaken,” Washington Post, September 12, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103911.html

123. I am indebted to Brandon Chase Goldsmith on this point. George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 163–65.

124. Carolyn Patmon, “Bush: Where's My Corporate Bailout?” Black Star News, August 7, 2008, http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/125/ARTICLE/4755/2008-08-07.html.

125. Gary Varvel, “Please Take Care of My … Bailout,” TIME, December 8, 2008, 111, http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1855948_1855957_1862039,00.html.

126. Mark Jickling, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Conservatorship (Congressional Research Service Report RS22950, September 15, 2008), I, http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/110097.pdf.

127. Donald McCloskey, “The Rhetoric of Economics,” Journal of Economic Literature 21 (1983): 481–517.

128. McCloskey, 503–4.

129. That is, rethinking economic metaphor through a “logic of articulation” rather than a “logic of representation.” Ronald Greene, “Another Materialist Rhetoric,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 15 (1998), 21.

130. Giorgio Agamben, The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government, trans. Lorenzo Chiesa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011), 29.

131. On taxis, ordonnance, and disposition, see Nathan Stormer, “Articulation: A Working Paper on Rhetoric and Taxis,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 90 (2004), 262.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Megan Foley

Megan Foley is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Mississippi State University. She thanks Barbara Biesecker, Carole Blair, Paul Johnson, Melanie Loehwing, Ray McKerrow, Majia Nadesan, Sarah Spring, Margaret Schwartz, Kristin Swenson, Paul Turpin, the Anti-Gravity Complex writing group, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Special thanks go to Leslie Hahner and Nathan Stormer, who both gave generous and insightful feedback on several versions of this essay