| bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer
The quote doesn't sound like something that a former Fed bank president would say. It sounds more like what a doofus reporter would tell us he said. |
Posted on 07/10/2008 7:07:50 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Reuters) - Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM - News) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News) are "insolvent" and may need a U.S. government bailout, former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole was quoted as saying in an interview with Bloomberg.
"Congress ought to recognize that these firms are insolvent, that it is allowing these firms to continue to exist as bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer," Poole was quoted as saying in an interview held on Wednesday.
Chances are increasing that the government may need to bail out the two mortgage companies, Poole was quoted as saying.
Shares of the two companies have taken a beating recently on worries about whether they can withstand more losses and support housing as well as concerns that they may need to raise massive amounts of new capital.
Freddie Mac shares tumbled 23.8 percent to $10.26 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, while Fannie Mae shares sank 13.1 percent to $15.31.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
Freddie is sitting at 7.50 at the moment.Down over 26%.
Why isn’t Harold Raines in prison?
| bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer
The quote doesn't sound like something that a former Fed bank president would say. It sounds more like what a doofus reporter would tell us he said. |
Odd co-inky dink - just last night we were have the bar argument about Why is Harold Baines in the Hall of Fame
Whats wrong with making banks stand by the home loans they make? Allowing them to immediately dump them on somebody else obviously doesn’t work.
The warning has been given.
Congress is wrong. These people in trouble would have never under normal circumstances been approved for a loan in the first place.
These two institutions have been “rewarding” ex-government officials / politicians with very cushy jobs and rich perks (stock options, bonuses, etc), mostly Democrats by the way.
| These two institutions have been “rewarding” ex-government officials / politicians with very cushy jobs and rich perks
Class envy speeches don't cut it for me. "These guys make more money than we do! We must bring them down!" How did America ever come to that? |
Fannie and Freddie are not mortgage lenders. They buy (invest) mortgages from other lenders so technically Rooters gets it wrong from the get go.
It’s Franklin Raines. And don’t forget Jamie Gorelick, she of Clinton’s DOJ who constructed ‘the wall’ between FBI and CIA pre-9/11 costing us a chance to prevent the entire disaster. Gorelick who was ‘somehow’ on the 9/11 Commission investigating the cause of our failure (investigating herself) made ten’s of millions of dollars just sitting on Raines’ Board at Fannie Mae while all along they were cooking the books.
Franklin. Right, thanks.
Over the years, FNMA and FHLMC have contributed a ton of money to Democrats in Congress. Now, the last thing Congress wants is for that piggy bank to go away. Congress will do whatever they can to keep FNMA and FHLMC afloat, hoping that Obama will be elected and then Congress can pump money back into them.
Essentially, FNMA and FHLMC are enormously leveraged hedge funds that are financed at rates slightly higher than US Treasuries. They got in trouble for the same reason that banks, dealers, and hedge funds did...they chased higher yields in the wonderful world of subprime mortgages. If they would have stuck with their mission of guaranteeing prime conforming mortgages, they would not insolvent.
OK, open up your check book and pay for the bailout, because as a taxpayer, you will be bailing them out. Since you seem to be OK with the corruption and the decisions they made...
| The supposedly private enterprises have a virtual monopoly along with special government credit and the implicit backing of the fed. gov.
|
No one is going to touch the country’s favorite couple, Freddie and Fannie or crimp their style. Just ain’t gonna happen.
| No one is going to touch the country’s favorite couple, Freddie and Fannie or crimp their style. Just ain’t gonna happen.
|
Agreed, ultimately a lower dollar. It could lead to stagflation. Lower dollar and recession at the same time. Last time Volker’s medicine didn’t taste so good, now it will be more like Chemotherapy.
ping
Um, lets try again. A very large quasi private entity has been spectacularly mismanaged by political apointees with little or no background that would allow them to successfully manage said entity.
Now, it is in very bad shape, and politicians are suggesting that the taxpayers take over the firms. This would add 5 Trillion dollars to our debt, according to another article linked on drudge this AM. If only 10% of their debt is bad, we, the taxpayers would get stuck with a $150 billion check to cover.
The cost of the Iraq war. But of course it could be 15% or 20%, we just don’t know.
I would say that among all the idiotic things that politicians have done this is probably the most expensive, and so one of the worst.
It’s not class envy that makes me mad, its favoritism, nepotism and they resulting massive costs to taxpayers.
Stupid big government programs are bad, even if they might help the GOP. I'm a conservative first and GOP partisan second.
Section 8 housing is about $10 billion a year. If we the taxpayers only get stuck with a 10% write down that's $150 billion. NOT HARDLY CHUMP CHANGE. 15 TIMES bigger than a flagship social welfare program (that I hate).
Big Government Conservatisms at it's most wasteful.
| spectacularly mismanaged by political apointees with little or no background that would allow them to successfully manage said entity
Rant away, but please don't lie to us. |
Yes, after the house cleaning. Jamie Gorelick on there? Is she your idea of an "accomplished experienced executive". Her last "executive" job got us a firewall that helped prevent CIA and FBI from communicating with each other in the Clinton Justice department. A contributing factor in 9/11. Then, showing that her real executive expertise was damage control she was a donk appointment to the 9/11 commission itself, an tribunal she should have been a witness for. Stunning abuse of power. Awesome track record as Clintonista sock puppet. Experience as a finance exec. ZERO.
I’m just curious, who came up with these names anyway? Sounds like a stereotypical black couple from the South.
Apparently, the two names are acronyms - for Federal Realty Mortgage Exchange ... all words like that.
In the Australian media, they have to constantly explain the two names of these important institutions, and also say that they ARE institutions, and not two individuals. To foreigners, the names seem quite funny. But once the implications of a Federal bailout, and a collapse of the dollar, are explained, then suddenly everyone stops laughing.
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Somebody needs to explain to me how an organization that buys and guarantees home mortgages is a "bastion of privilege." Between the two of them, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are involved in half of the mortgages in the country. Is this guy saying that owning a home in America is a privileged state that needs to be abolished?