GOVERNMENT: End of HOLC

The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation went out of business last week. Started in 1933, when mortgages on U.S. homes were being foreclosed at the rate of 1,000 a day, HOLC refinanced 1,017,821 mortgages, managed to save 80% of the homes for the original owners. The corporation has not made a loan since 1936, has spent 15 years tending its mortgages, made money in the process. Last week, HOLC made a farewell gift to the U.S. Treasury: its $13,800,000 cash surplus.