http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/fanniemae/ en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:00:15 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2417436/posts There is only one better time for a politician to release bad news than Friday afternoon, and that is Christmas Eve, when Christians are with their families maybe even going to Midnight Mass and the rest of us are at the movies going to restaurants etc. This past Christmas Eve the Treasury Department announced that it was removing the $400 billion cap from what the administration believes will be necessary to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac solvent. As Fannie and Freddie were the primary feeders of the housing bubble that led to the economic collapse, is it strange that... Washington Examiner/The Lid http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2417436/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:00:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417298/posts Fiscal Follies: While Americans are distracted by the holidays and a failed terror attack, Washington is giving another blank check to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Say, isn't this how we got into trouble before? When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two bankrupt, government-sponsored mortgage companies, were first bailed out in 2008, Americans were stunned that they'd have to pony up $200 billion. But Congress and the White House assured us it was necessary. But lo, this year, as Fannie and Freddie continued to deteriorate and their loan portfolios imploded, Treasury handed over another $200 billion. Now, in a... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417298/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:28:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417122/posts While much of the national media was focused on a Christmas Eve Senate vote to pass health care reform legislation, the Obama administration's Treasury Department was tending to other business that will have serious implications for the U.S. economy. But did anyone notice? As Zachary Goldfarb reported for The Washington Post on Christmas Day, the Obama Treasury said it would lift the limits on what the federal government could provide in "emergency aid" to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - without seeking permission from Congress. That led CNBC CME Group floor reporter Rick Santelli to ask if anyone noticed and/or... NewsBusters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417122/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:47:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417010/posts Speculators poured into shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Monday, the first day of trading after the Obama administration in effect gave the companies blank checks of federal support. But exactly how the government's move makes a payoff for Fannie and Freddie shareholders more likely in the long run, rather than less likely, ought to puzzle most investors. The stock market's reaction mystifies veteran banking analyst Bert Ely at Ely & Co. in Alexandria, Va. "They're not going to get anything back," he says of any investors who have long-term faith in the mortgage giants' shares. Of course,... Los Angeles Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417010/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:51:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416973/posts Both these programs are the ground zeros of the financial disaster of the last few years. A Christmas Eve White House decision that nobody will notice. President Obama and his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, have elected to increase loss coverage for the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from $200 billion to unlimited for the next three years. So much for transparency, but there is more! The GSEs are having a pretty good week as politicians and lobbyists are provided cover with snow storms in the nation’s capital, a huge health care debate and only the... http://www.radioviceonline.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416973/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:48:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2416719/posts While most of us on Christmas Eve were enjoying time with our families, buying last minute Christmas gifts or going to church, our federal government was busy trying to wrap up three shenanigans (Think: "The Grinch" before his conversion to generosity.) just in time for the big day. Hoping that no one was noticing, our government gave us these three lumps of coal... THE FREEDOM POST http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2416719/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:19:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415554/posts The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each. Wall St. Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415554/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:30:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415295/posts The Obama administration's decision to cover an unlimited amount of losses at the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years stirred controversy over the holiday. The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each. Unlimited access to bailout funds through 2012 was "necessary for preserving the continued strength and stability of the mortgage market," the Treasury said. Fannie and Freddie purchase or guarantee most U.S. home mortgages and have run up huge losses stemming from the worst wave of defaults since... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415295/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:48:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415309/posts The Treasury snuck in another big bailout on Christmas Eve: It removed the cap on the amount of money it will provide to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cover their ongoing mortgage losses. There is now no limit on how much we taxpayers will shovel down these black holes. The move is designed to reassure Fannie and Freddie bondholders, who provide a lot of the money the companies use to support the housing market. These bondholders have now apparently been given an explicit government guarantee, in perpetuity. The move is also obviously designed to continue to prop up house... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415309/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:31:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415313/posts The Obama administration's decision to cover an unlimited amount of losses at the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years stirred controversy over the holiday. The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each. Unlimited access to bailout funds through 2012 was "necessary for preserving the continued strength and stability of the mortgage market," the Treasury said. Fannie and Freddie purchase or guarantee most U.S. home mortgages and have run up huge losses stemming from the worst wave of defaults since... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415313/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:36:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415100/posts WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury said it would provide capital as needed to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years, effectively opening its checkbook to the government-controlled companies in a bid to reassure investors in their debt. Treasury also will end its purchases of the companies' mortgage-backed securities and terminate a never-used short-term liquidity facility set up for the firms and the Federal Home Loan Banks. And it moved to allow the companies to shrink their giant portfolios of mortgage securities more slowly, though it said it was still "committed to the principle" of reducing the portfolios.... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415100/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:37:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414971/posts The government has handed its ATM card to beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Treasury Department said Thursday it removed the $400 billion financial cap on the money it will provide to keep the companies afloat. Already, taxpayers have shelled out $111 billion to the pair, and a senior Treasury official said losses are not expected to exceed the government's estimate this summer of $170 billion over 10 years. Treasury Department officials said it will now use a flexible formula to ensure the two agencies can stand behind the billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities they sell... Associated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414971/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:55:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414822/posts The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress. The Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department means that it can continue to run the companies, which were seized last year, as arms of the government for the rest of President Obama's current term. But even as the administration was making this open-ended financial commitment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414822/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:10:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414657/posts NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Top executives at mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which have been under government control since last year, received millions of dollars in pay in 2009, according to documents filed by the companies Thursday. The chief executive officers of each company got annual pay packages worth $6 million apiece, while other top execs pulled in at least $2 million. Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) CEO Michael Williams, who was promoted to CEO on April 21, will receive about $4.2 million in base salary and deferred cash payments for his time in the... CNN Money http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414657/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:42:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414644/posts NEW YORK (AP) - The two chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could get paid as much as $6 million for 2009, despite the companies' dismal performances this year which cost taxpayers more than $100 billion. Fannie's CEO, Michael Williams, and Freddie CEO Charles "Ed" Haldeman Jr. each will receive $900,000 in salary, $3.1 million in deferred payments next year and another $2 million if they meet certain performance goals, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The pay packages were approved by the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates... Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414644/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:10:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414261/posts Today, Grover Norquist and I are calling for an investigation into Rahm Emanuel’s activities at Freddie Mac, and the White House’s blocking of an Inspector General who would look into it. The letter follows: December 23, 2009 Attorney General of the United States of America U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Dear Attorney General Holder: We write to demand an immediate investigation into the activities of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. We believe there is an abundant public record which establishes that the actions of the White House have blocked any investigation into... firedoglake http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414261/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:03:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411007/posts US Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) proposed reinstating the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that split commercial and investment banking to rein in Wall Street firms in response to the financial crisis. McCain and Cantwell join other lawmakers in Congress proposing to reinstate the 1933 law, repealed a decade ago by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that led to a rise in conglomerates including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America active in retail banking, insurance and proprietary trading. Legislation to reinstate the ban was introduced yesterday in the House. Under the Senate legislation, financial firms operating commercial banks and investment... NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411007/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:04:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405836/posts Thomas SowellIBD Exclusive Series: Thomas Sowell on The Politics of the Housing Boom (Fifth and final installment of serieesCongressional support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went far beyond words. When the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight — the agency overseeing these government-sponsored enterprises — turned up irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting and in 2004 issued what Barron's magazine called "a blistering 211-page report," Republican Sen. Kit Bond called for an investigation of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, tried to have their budget slashed and sought to have the leadership of the regulatory agency removed. Democratic Congressman... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405836/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:51:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405978/posts Even if the Federal Reserve gets around to strengthening the dollar--which would do wonders to get the economy really moving again--we still face a mammoth and growing problem: the government's increasing domination and distortion of the capital markets. It's not only the need to finance Uncle Sam's deficits that crowds out other credit seekers in the marketplace. It's also the proliferation of government entities (think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), government loan guarantees, tax credits and the government's growing sway over the banking sector. Even if Washington's red ink were back to the levels of a couple of years ago,... Forbes.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405978/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:01:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404917/posts It’s official: no one learned anything from Fannie/Freddie collapse posted at 11:36 am on December 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey Here’s what should have been a familiar scenario. The federal government wants to pressure lenders into offering mortgages to marginally-qualified borrowers. They offer a method to make the loans risk-free by bundling them into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) with the imprimatur of the US Treasury as a guarantee. When the money began rolling into the lenders, the lenders started amplifying the process by issuing loans to anyone breathing on a fairly regular basis, falsifying documents in order to rake in the... HotAir http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404917/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:26:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386223/posts Over at the Wall Street Journal, there's a very interesting article that connects the dots between ACORN, the mortgage-lending-standard-destroying Community Reinvestment Act legislation, Fannie Mae and the eventual inflation and collapse of the housing bubble in last decade: As Allen Fishbein, currently an adviser for consumer policy at the Federal Reserve, has noted, Acorn and other community groups were informally deputized by then House Banking Chairman Henry Gonzalez to draft statutory language setting the law's affordable-housing mandates. Interim goals were set at 30% of the single-family mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development... Washington Examiner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386223/posts#comment Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:05:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384197/posts "I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing." —Representative Barney Frank, September 25, 2003 It was six years ago that Mr. Frank announced his famous dice roll on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the name of affordable housing. Mr. Frank got his wish, and the losses keep rolling in, with no end in sight as Washington finds... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384197/posts#comment Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:30:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382074/posts Fannie Mae has announced that it is going to become a landlord. To avoid foreclosing, Fannie will allow some homeowners to rent. It’s another gamble with our money. Just 6 years ago, Barney Frank said this about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: We see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disastrous scenarios. And even if there were a problem, the Federal Government doesn't bail them out. Oops, this year Congress bailed them out with 100 billion of your tax dollars. And congress has promised Fannie and Freddie ... another $300 billion in guarantees. Will the... fbn http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382074/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:41:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380974/posts Treasury Blocks the Sale of Tax Credits by Fannie By NICK TIMIRAOS The U.S. Treasury blocked Fannie Mae's proposed sale of nearly $3 billion in low-income housing tax credits to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Friday after concluding that the deal was too costly for taxpayers. The extraordinary move was the latest sign of tensions within the Obama administration over how to balance political and financial pressures resulting from the housing crisis. Fannie Mae had agreed to sell roughly half of its $5.2 billion tax-credit portfolio and had received approval to proceed with the sale from... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380974/posts#comment Sat, 7 Nov 2009 17:37:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380879/posts Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are burning a huge hole in the Treasury's pocket. But the Obama administration is getting something very valuable in return: the ability to provide immense support to the housing market with only limited interference from Congress. The credit crunch has displayed yawning democratic deficits, like the inability of Congress to get a proper handle on the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs. But with Fannie and Freddie, it is the Treasury that gets to freely commit massive amounts of money. Both companies have bought most of the mortgages written in America this year and are modifying... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380879/posts#comment Sat, 7 Nov 2009 15:31:57 GMT