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Law enforcement sources said they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston, Va., home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. Virginia police say they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. (ABC News)The death was "an active investigation" and there were "no signs of foul play," Fairfax County police officer Sabrina Ruck said. Local police said they were called to Kellermann's home at 4:48am. Kellermann,...

The acting head of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, has apparently committed suicide, Fairfax County Police tell WTOP. Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings says Kellermann, 41, was found at his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning. Jennings says police responded to the home after family members called police around 5 a.m. "We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," Jennings says. Because of legal ramifications, Jennings says she can't describe the nature of the suicide. "We're not to give you details of the condition of the body, except to say it was an apparent...

$400 bn more losses at US banks: JP Morgan 21 Apr 2009, 0010 hrs IST, REUTERS NEW YORK: JP Morgan Securities said it estimates US banks to incur $400 billion more in losses from the credit crisis and expects there will be need for more capital for certain institutions. "We expect that total losses could reach $1.3 trillion. Banks so far have taken writedowns and losses of $920 billion, so they are roughly 70 percent through with total losses," the brokerage wrote in a note to clients. The bulk of the bank losses will come from loan books and less...

Monday afternoon, Goldman Sachs reported much larger than expected first quarter profits, and this comes on the heels of Wells Fargo’s strong earnings reported last week. No one should be surprised. The Federal Reserve has provided the banks with lots of cheap funds through its various emergency lending facilities and quantitative easing. The Federal Reserve has permitted the banks and financial houses to park vast sums of unmarketable paper on its books—securities made nearly worthless by the misjudgment and avarice of bankers. In return, the Fed has provided these scions of finance with fresh funds, cheaply, that they may lend...

It all started with a question: "How much responsibility, if any, do you have for the financial crisis?" Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and a conservative Harvard law student debated over how Frank should have handled his role as the House Chairman of the Financial Services Committee. Frank was at Harvard University for a speech at the Kennedy School of Government. Frank said the student wasn't backing up his claims, invoking some laughter from the crowd, and the student told Frank he wasn't answering his question. This student was absolutely incredible! "You're a public representative, I'm a student... it does allow...

The "dirty little secret" that Geithner is going to great degrees to obscure from the public is very simple. There are only at most perhaps five US banks that are the source of the toxic poison causing such dislocation in the world financial system. The heart of the present problem, and the reason ordinary loan losses are not the problem as in prior bank crises, is a variety of exotic financial derivatives, most especially credit default swaps. What Geithner does not want the public to understand, his "dirty little secret", is that the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the passage of...

A Fox News timeline of documented facts and proof that the Mortgage Meltdown, precipitating this current economic crisis, all could have been prevented. This video clearly shows that George Bush and his administration warned Congress starting in 2001, that this economic crisis was coming, if something was not done to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Congress refused to listen, lead by the arrogant Congressman Barney Frank. This video says it all. The media reportedly did not want this video on You Tube. It was taken off. This link is of the same video, but is routed through...

video 8:37 ... for future reference.

The Obama administration on Monday launched its much-awaited assault on the worst U.S. banking crisis in 70 years, billions of federal dollars to thaw the nation's frozen credit markets and ease the economy out of recession. So far, the markets like the plan. I'm still skeptical of the long term success. Another $1 Trillion? Where is this going to leave us in the long run? Bankrupt?

Many financial gurus believe the requirement for banks to "mark-to-market" their assets, particularly the mortgage backed securities has put our financial system in the mess it is in today. Mark to market is accounting act of recording the price or value of a security, portfolio to reflect its current market value rather than its book value. Lets say you were a bank and bought $10 Billion Dollars worth of mortgage backed securities (MBS). The market crashes, and if you were to sell them today they would be worth $1 Billion and you have a paper loss of $9 Billion Dollars....

President Obama's new Economic Recovery Advisory Board includes a subprime-mortgage pioneer who drove her Chicago-area bank into bankruptcy; a national union boss who took the Fifth Amendment on three occasions when asked by federal investigators what he knew about a money-laundering scheme involving the Teamsters union and the Democratic Party while Sen. Christopher J. Dodd was its general chairman; the president and CEO of a Swiss bank under investigation for helping rich Americans dodge income taxes; and assorted deep-pocketed Obama campaign donors with conflicts of interest, the Washington Times reports. No wonder investors have such little faith in the president's...

Here's an example: What Obama means to Bob Dog Illinois, USA - 27 Feb 2009 What Obama means to me is that even an amoral congenital liar can get elected to the presidency. Oh wait, we learned that back in 1992.

For all the media's irresponsible coverage of the 2008 elections, they were the most blatantly dishonest and biased in their allowing Democrats to use the airwaves to present a blatantly false narrative that Republicans were to blame for the tanking economy due to their "failure to regulate." We could go back to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who demonized "the Bush administration's failed economic policies -- policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality with no regulation, no supervision and no discipline in the system." The airwaves have been filled with Democrats and liberals presenting their talking points of Republican...

The recent debate over the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan and revelations of tax problems by three Obama administration appointees have voters angrily jamming phone lines on Capitol Hill to air their frustrations to their elected representatives. Voters are calling several congressional offices, complaining about stimulus negotations. Their reactions are putting pressure on Congress and benefiting watchdog groups on both sides of the political aisle. Capitol operators tell CNN Radio that phone lines have been jammed for the past two weeks, sometimes prompting busy signals. A spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, said calls on the sweeping stimulus plan...

Next Catastrophe Think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were a politicized financial disaster? Just wait until pension funds implode. Funds worth trillions of dollars start to plummet in value. Political pressure to be “socially responsible” distorts the market decisions of government-related enterprises, leading to risky investments. Investors who once considered their retirements safely protectedwake up to a sinking feeling of uncertainty and gloom. Sound like the great mortgage-fueled financial crisis of 2008? Sure. But it also describes a calamity likely to hit as soon as 2009. State, local, and private pension plans covering millions of government employees and union workers...

I can't believe that Barney Frank and I actually agree on something, although for probably very different reasons. The dangerously malfeasant congressman who helped to exacerbate the banking crisis with his ineptitude as Chairman of the House banking oversight committee wants to drag the heads of banks who took bailout money in front of Congress and give them the third degree...

It was six moths ago when Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd admitted to America that he had the IQ of a slug (either that or he thinks that his constituents were stupid). It had been disclosed that the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Received TWO VIP Loans from Sub-Prime Lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE, Chris Dodd, said he didn't realize that VIP treatment meant favorable rates. COME Freaking ON. He is CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE, we were really to believe that he has no Idea of...

The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part.In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump,Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with...

By Sammy BenoitBarney Frank is the "Teflon Congressman. He was a leading OPPONENT of regulating of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac (see video below) and was able to transfer the entire blame on President Bush. He never had to answer why he fought so hard to squash regulation, was it the tons of campaign cash Frank got from Freddie and Fannie OR the fact that Frank's former lover was the former director of housing initiatives for Fannie Mae. The July 3, 1998, Reliable Source column in The Washington Post reported Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with...

( worth a re-read) September 28, 2008 Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis By James Simpson America waits with bated breath while Washington struggles to bring the U.S. economy back from the brink of disaster. But many of those same politicians caused the crisis, and if left to their own devices will do so again. Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors -- Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others....