Barry Habib wasn’t asked to join the Fannie Mae board of directors because he was meek or too shy to share his thoughts on the industry.

So it was no surprise that when he spoke with Scotsman Guide on Monday, he had plenty to say about Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and whom he thinks could replace Powell as the next chair. He also discussed the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) chief Erika McEntarfer, and “easy fixes” to improve data reporting at the Labor Department division.

Habib, the founder and CEO of MBS Highway, is an entrepreneur and regular industry presence in the media. He also talked about joining the board of directors at Fannie Mae just five months after it was overhauled by its new chair, Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Eight Fannie Mae board members were removed from their roles in March, and Pulte appointed himself chairman of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that are overseen by the FHFA.

“I think all of us, we really want what’s good for homeowners, what’s good for the industry and what’s good for the company,” Habib said, adding that he is still very new to the role, but has great confidence in Pulte and the other board members. “Because I’ve been so close to the mortgage industry, perhaps I may be able to add some thoughts on how to help homeownership, help Fannie Mae and help the mortgage industry in general.”

Habib said he’s not concerned about his role or about speaking his mind freely.

“I do have some ideas that I’d like to present to the board as to some of the things that can be done, that I think might be worth considering,” he added.

“I look at the Fed. They acted where they all kind of fell in line without open discussion, debate. I think if you have respectful, open and honest discussions, you wind up getting some really good ideas in that process,” Habib said. “I love when people think that there’s other ways or opportunities or poke holes in the way I’m thinking. I think that’s a good thing. So I welcome that. I’m not worried about that. I think if I have an idea that’s good or bad, maybe it’s worth discussion.”

‘Easy fixes’ for Bureau of Labor Statistics

Habib had many thoughts “on the firing of McEntarfer [and] on what we’ve seen at the Fed. And they’re very closely tied. Because the Fed’s made some really incorrect decisions that affect the marketplace. And a lot of it has to do with the dependency on the BLS.”

Powell, the current chair of the Federal Reserve, is a lawyer by trade, not an economist, Habib said, pointing out that Powell has claimed “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times, he’s data-dependent.”

“Well, if he’s dependent on bad data, that’s going to give you bad results,” Habib said. “But also, he is blinded, and he’s not looking forward and through the data.”

As an example to illustrate Powell’s misjudging of the data, Habib pointed to tariffs, calling them a one-time price adjustment. ”He knows that, you go over like a speed bump, but yet he holds rates too high. We’ve also heard him say hundreds and hundreds of times that the job market is solid, right? So let’s talk first about the BLS, because it ties into the Fed.”

After Friday’s jobs report, Trump fired the labor statistics head, claiming the jobs numbers were “rigged,” and “manipulated for political purposes.”

“I don’t have knowledge if it is or if it isn’t malfeasance. What I will say is there have been a lot of things that have been put out there as conspiracy theories, and as nonsense, that have been proven to be true,” Habib said. “I can’t speak for President Trump, but if I were someone who was victimized by these things, my antenna would be up that potentially there is something.”

Habib said “it’s really difficult to support her when you have the year and a half that she’s been there, and have so many errors. And it’s not the errors themselves, it’s just that nothing’s been done to fix them.”

He proposes two “easy fixes” to improve BLS job data accuracy. One is mandating responses to get as much data as possible, as the current survey response rate has fallen from about 60% to about 40%.

“Look, you can mandate it. If somebody sends you a note saying you got to go to jury duty, you just go right?” Habib said.

The other is to put less weight on the birth-death model that attempts to capture the change in employment among small businesses. “Some giant company, sure I can get good data. They’ve got good data, can respond. But try and get it from the dry cleaner or the pizzeria, you know you’re not going to do that,” Habib said, further explaining. “So they use these models. What they say is ‘Hey look, we’ll take registrations of businesses opening (births) versus those that are closing (deaths) and we will apply a number of employees that typically are in that line of work to those business.’”

He calls these methods a noble effort, but says they are outdated and very difficult to get good data. “The birth-death model has accounted for much of the troubles that we have.”

Predicting the Fed’s future

Habib turned his attention to the changes at the Federal Reserve, and predicted potential scenarios.

“We know Powell’s term expires in May. Now, he has like another year if he wanted to stay on. It’s highly unlikely. They usually ride off into the sunset,” Habib said. “But he does have the option to stay on if he wants to be a thorn in Trump’s side. I’m just saying, it would not be a good look for him, so I don’t think he’ll do that. But he could.”

With Friday’s announcement of Fed Governor Adriana Kugler’s resignation, Trump has the opportunity to make an appointment to the board earlier than expected. Kugler’s term was to end Jan. 31, 2026.

The top three picks for the role, Habib said, would be former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and then current Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman.

“I think Kevin Warsh would be the best choice. He’s got the chops, he’s got the experience, he’s got deep economic knowledge. He would be the right person for the job and I think the markets would respond very favorably to him,” Habib said. “I think you’d see the bond market and stock market respond very, very favorably.”

Fannie Mae’s declining profits, growth slowdown

With Fannie Mae reporting quarterly and annual declines in net income for the second quarter of 2025, Habib pointed to his short time on the board and said he hasn’t seen any updated numbers and needs to get up to speed.

“But if I were to say in general, volume levels are down, it’s just to the nature of the current marketplace. So just in general, I think that we see the mortgage market having slowed a bit,” Habib said. “Now, it’s very rate sensitive and over the past week we’ve seen some improvement in rates. So hopefully there will be a pickup in activity.”

Fannie and Freddie privatization

Having just started on the board, Habib also didn’t wade into the waters on the question of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac potentially being released from conservatorship.

“I don’t have any clue as to what the status of privatization would be,” Habib said. ”But I do know that the president did put out a Truth Social post. The president did say that there would be an implicit guarantee. So that’s as much as I know. Which, by the way, I think that’s a good thing.”