Posted on 10/31/2011 7:23:12 AM PDT by Bigtigermike
From a hefty lobbying budget to the use of free baseball tickets, Freddie Mac fended off any meaningful regulation in the years before the housing mortgage giant crashed, records obtained by The Associated Press show.
Efforts to tighten government regulation were gaining support on Capitol Hill, and Freddie Mac was fighting back.
[.....]
The records obtained by the AP reflect growing concern within Freddie Mac over a chorus of criticism from Republicans worried that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had grown too big. The two companies owned or guaranteed over $5 trillion in mortgages.
The Bush administration and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were sounding the alarm about the potential threat to the nation's financial health if the fortunes of the two mammoth companies turned sour. They did eventually, when they took on $1 trillion worth of subprime mortgages and when their traditional guarantee business deteriorated. Commercial banks regarded Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as competitors and were anxious to pick up business that would result from scaling back the two companies.
Pushing back, Freddie Mac enlisted prominent conservatives, including Gingrich and former Justice Department official Viet Dinh, paying each $300,000 in 2006, according to internal records.
Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
He continues to lack judgement and is willing to sell out to Freddie to prevent reform of the agency right before the economic collapse. But now Newt is a friend of the Tea Party? Newt is a fraud. He's always pandering to everyone from lib's to Republican Establishment to the Tea Party.
AMEN....Never forget the photo of Newt and Nasty Nan.
He’s one of THEM.
That’s the problem with Newt. He may have a lot of knowledge and ideas; but he is a con man which negates anything good.
Newty talks the talk..but continues to walk the walk of the corrupt in DC.
He should be reluctant to come out in front of his fellow Americans!!
We the People have been to considerate.
Read the whole article before throwing too many bricks around.
Typical of these media turds, they name exactly ONE, count ‘em ONE guy with a “D” behind his name, then everybody else in the article (including a bunch only by inference) is either a Pubby or “Bush Administration Official”.
This is just another lib hit piece, and you seem to have ate up the whole deal right up to the bobber.
Newt is a runaway train.
Um...I’m assuming this is a historical article but because you have it posted as Dec 8, 2011 it is hard to tell....
:-D
True Cost of Fannie, Freddie Bailouts: $317 Billion, CBO Says
.."Freddie Mac enlisted prominent conservatives, including Gingrich $300,000...” these tag words are all over the Left wing media verbatum in Google, which prompted me look a little further changing their "slogan". The "slogan" also goes on the include "Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:- cnbc
*oops*
So call Conservatives suppose to know better, you can’t deny that these republicans sold out including Newt! Did Dems prevent reform? Of course but the point is that Newt is a fraud as usual. I don’t like it when Dems or Republicans do it, it’s still wrong
Wow never thought I would see an article claiming that Bush and Greenspan tried to put the brakes on the Runaway Fannie and Freddie Mac Train!
Newt wrote a glowing defense of Freddie business model, that’s a fact. Yes Obama and the Dems had a hand in it but it’s both parties or to be more specific, a good number of Republicans going along with the Dems. That makes Newt a sellout as usual
Can anyone find that video of obama at a campaign rally where he says, “Freddie mae, fannie mac” then pauses repeats it and says out loud, “that’s what I said.” Clearly he had an ear piece with someone coaching him on his mistake.
It used to be available on YouTube but has been scrubbed...or at least I can’t find it.
Thanks!
Newt also took 100s of thousands of dollars from the ethanol lobby to try and increase the % of ethanol in gas.
For all his good ideas, he is a crony capitalist.
Did you notice Barney Frank's name was nowhere in the article?
This is just a smear job and a hit piece. Conservatives and Republicans should have been more aggressive in opposing Fannie and Freddie. But the people who actively caused the problem were ALL Democrats.
You and I both know that.
Only words going out in the article, however, are BUSH’s FAULT.
Again.
I’m past getting just a tad sick of masochism dressed up as doing right, aren’t you yet?
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