Now seems as good a time as any to experiment with novel ways of looking at bubblesque data from around the economy. While toying around with Google charts and the animated data methodologies therein is fun, I can't quite get what I want out of the end product. Instead, I have been laboriously constructing what I want by hand. It is a time consuming process, (particularly for an animation novice) but allows for a lot more customization. On the theory that finem respice is as good a place to experiment with these things as anywhere else one of the first betas (a comparison of FRE and FNM assets and agency MBS issuance) is attached below. Obviously, there are still some gaps in data (I have earlier data for MBS issuance than balance sheets for the agencies at the moment) but the overall picture seems clear.

I suppose the agency issuance area is best thought of as the annualized rate of MBS underwriting at any given time where the asset areas for the agencies are, clearly, extrapolated between balance sheet snapshots. It is particularly interesting to watch the results when FRE and FNM start hitting their regulatory capital ceilings.

Bubble Inflation (795kb Quicktime .mov)

Sources: FNM and FRE Annual Reports, SIFMA.