A federal agency you may never have heard of...

From the Department of Inevitability: Team O is taking credit for some of the encouraging signs in the housing market, crediting the two time tax cheat for his brilliance in manning the helm at Treasury…

At an economic round table this morning, President Obama touted strides made by his housing recovery plan, calling the effort "good news" for American families in the midst of a dire economy and problems in the financial markets.

Surrounded at the White House by a handful of families who he said have already lowered their bills, Obama pointed to the "extraordinary actions by the Federal Reserve" to reduce mortgage interest rates to historic lows -- currently the 30-year fixed mortgage rate stands at around 4.78%, an all-time low -- and to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner's housing plan as the reason for the surge.

…encouraging signs that we have been reporting on as having started back in January. For those of you scoring at home, the President took office January 20, so his sheer awesomeness with respect to the housing market can be accurately described as “somewhat retroactive”.

More from the Department of Inevitability:

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. officials on Monday trumpeted a new multi-agency effort to combat a wave mortgage fraud and foreclosure rescue scams.

The announcement comes as the Obama administration is ramping up its plan to help as many as nine million homeowners obtain more affordable mortgages.

Officials are concerned the plan could create an opening for scam artists who prey upon borrowers trying to get out from under heavy mortgages.

"American homeowners desperately need the relief the program offers, but the very last thing they need is to be taken advantage of as they try to hold on to their homes," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday in a joint appearance with federal agency heads.

So we go from over-reporting income in order to get our share of the American Dream to under-reporting our income in order to hold on to our share of the American Dream. Home values stay artificially inflated, people who have no business owning a home continue to do so… via your tax dollars and we get more government entanglement beget by more government entanglement to top it all off.

What’s not to like about all that?