at the regional level, many of our economic education specialists offer training seminars to help educators teach economic and personal finance topics in their classrooms. in general, higher education is one of the strong points of the u. s. educational system. we must work diligently to maintain the quality of our educational system where it is strong and strive to improve it where it is not. in particular, we must find ways to move more of our students, especially minorities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, into education after high school. the historically black colleges and universities have long played a vital role in this regard. they have proud record of accomplishment, dating back to 1837 with the founding of what is now cheyney university of pennsylvania. slavery and segregation cast long dark shadows on our nation's history and our society, and the historically black colleges and universities served as beacons of knowledge in the darkness. today, they are no longer the only places a young african american woman or man can obtain an education, but they are very fine choices for many students, and not just african americans – indeed, 90 four - year and 13 two - year institutions enroll more than 300, 000 students, including more than 50, 000 who are not african americans. in 2006, these institutions conferred more than 30, 000 undergraduate degrees and nearly 9, 000 advanced degrees. they have maintained their relevance by building on their tradition of educational excellence and by harnessing the loyalty and support of alumni. there are indeed many distinguished alumni of hbcus, including media personality and philanthropist oprah winfrey, professor and nobel prize - winning author toni morrison, former u. s. surgeon general david satcher, brown university president ruth j. simmons, and major general dennis via, among many others. i wish you a very successful conference. you have much to celebrate and, doubtless, much to discuss as you strive to find ways to carry the rich heritage of the historically black colleges and universities into the future.

investors, as doing so would only encourage excessive risk - taking. one must also consider adverse selection ; programs that provide credit to only the weakest eligible borrowers are likely to be more costly than those that serve a broader risk spectrum. risk - based insurance premiums or tighter screening and monitoring by lenders can mitigate adverse selection. but ultimately such mechanisms have their limits, and no government program will be able to provide meaningful help to the highest - risk borrowers without a public subsidy. whether such subsidies should be employed is a decision for the congress. the government - sponsored enterprises ( gses ) fannie mae and freddie mac are, to a limited extent, assisting in subprime refinancings and should be encouraged to provide products for subprime borrowers to the extent permitted by their charters. however, the gse charters are likely to limit the ability of the gses to serve any but the most creditworthy subprime borrowers. indeed, if gse programs remove the strongest borrowers from the pool, the risks faced by other programs – such as a modernized fha program – could be increased. some have suggested that the gses could help restore functioning in the secondary markets for non - conforming mortgages ( specifically jumbo mortgages, those with principal value greater than $ 417, 000 ) if the conforming - loan limits were raised. however, in my view, the reason that gse securitizations are well - accepted in the secondary market is because they come with gse - provided guarantees of financial performance, which market participants appear to treat as backed by the full faith and credit of the u. s. government, even though this federal guarantee does not exist. evidently, market participants believe that, in the event of the failure of a gse, the government would have no alternative but to come to the rescue. the perception, however inaccurate, that the gses are fully government - backed implies that investors have few incentives in their role as counterparties or creditors to act to constrain gse risk - taking. raising the conforming - loan limit would expand this implied guarantee to another portion of the mortgage market, reducing market discipline further. if, despite these considerations, the congress were inclined to move in this direction, it should assess whether such action could be taken in a way that is both explicitly temporary and able to be implemented sufficiently promptly to serve its intended purpose. any benefits that might conceivably accrue