posted September 06, 2008 08:39 AM            

WASHINGTON (AP) -
The government may soon step in to provide a financial boost to mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday.
The paper said an announcement "could come as soon as this weekend" but said exact details of the plan couldn't be learned. It said the plan would include executive changes at both companies.

Representatives of Fannie and Freddie declined to comment. Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said officials "have been in regular communications" with Fannie and Freddie, but refused to comment on the story saying, "We are not going to comment on rumors."

Treasury recently signed a contract with Morgan Stanley to investigate the financial position of Fannie and Freddie, with help from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new regulatory body created by Congress to oversee the mortgage giants.

Asked if an announcement could come soon, McLaughlin said, "We are making progress in the work with Morgan Stanley and FHFA." A spokeswoman for the FHFA also declined to comment.

This summer, Congress passed a plan to provide unlimited government loans to Fannie and Freddie and to purchase stock in the two companies if needed.

Critics say the open-ended nature of the rescue package could expose taxpayers to billions of dollars of potential losses.

Supporters, however, argue the Bush administration had little choice but to support Fannie and Freddie, which together hold or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages — almost half the nation's total.

Many in Washington and on Wall Street hadn't expected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to intervene unless the companies had trouble issuing debt to fund their operations.

The report of possible government action came after stock markets closed. In after-hours trading, Fannie Mae's shares fell 17 cents to $6.87. Freddie Mac's shares were unchanged at $5.10

posted September 06, 2008 09:28 AM            

quote:

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You just can't ignore Karl Marx even if you want to I suppose? (why do I see Jwhop shrugging his shoulders )

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posted September 16, 2008 01:42 PM            

It's not over yet, in fact, the end of the beginning isn't even in sight. Lots of details about how Freddie and Fannie got into such a mess in the first place are coming out and despite democrat finger pointing, it's clear Republicans were warning about disaster at both Freddie and Fannie for about 10 years.

Here's what an ardent O'Bomber supporter...columnist had to say:

"Congressional Democrats were and remain the leading defenders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, promising to resist efforts to shrink the companies, now under government control, and sell off their assets. Democrats had plenty of help from Republicans, to be sure, but it was mainly conservatives who have been warning for more than a decade that their public risk/private profit model was a disaster waiting to happen."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=30261

But the extent of democrat misfeasance hasn't hit the streets just yet. Fannie and Freddie were systematically looted by their CEOs and managers...democrats. These top level managers paid themselves huge salaries and dispensed money to political campaigns like money was water. Some of the recipients of Freddie and Fannie largess were...Chris Dodd and...wait for it...Barack Hussein O'Bomber.

So, after looting and mismanaging these very large quasi governmental corporations..by democrats, where are they now?

Well one who took about $100,000,000 out of Fannie Mae, one Franklin Raines is an economic adviser for the Barack Hussein O'Bomber campaign and I've heard reports that another, one Jim Johnson is an economic adviser...among other duties for the O'Bomber campaign too.

No wonder that when O'Bomber opens his mouth and starts talking about economic policy, it comes out as gobbledygook.

Another Clinton appointee, Jamie Goerlick, the builder of the wall between intelligence agencies and law enforcement which permitted the 9/11 terrorists to go unnoticed by law enforcement..FBI, was also part of the looting crew.

Now, one would think O'Bomber would be calling for a federal investigation of the fraud and mismanagement at Freddie and Fannie. Isn't that what demoscats always do?

Not going to happen though because the fingers of blame point directly at 2 of his economic advisers and a crew of democrat elitists who looted and mismanaged Freddie and Fannie...not to mention, the campaign contributions to demoscats including himself and contributions to ACORN to which O'Bomber is joined at the hip.

Stay tuned. If McCain or anyone on his campaign staff have a single brain cell, you're going to see campaign ads laying it all out chapter and verse and tying the Freddie and Fannie mess to demoscats and O'Bomber himself.

posted September 17, 2008 11:19 AM            

This part is a little off topic but it serves to show just how stupid O'Bomber really is.

O'Bomber has sought to show that Palin isn't qualified to be President...and that invited an examination of his own qualifications...which are zip, zero, nada, zilch. O'Bomber has no executive experience whatsoever and neither does O'Biden while Palin handles a 12 billion dollar budget and oversees about 20,000 state employees and everything which pertains to the activities of those state employees...including their pension funds. Palin has a job approval rating approaching 90% with citizens of Alaska.

Now, to the rest of the story. O'Bomber is up in arms over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is out making statements about Republican mismanagment.

But, it's not Republicans who have been in charge of Fannie and Freddie, it's demoscats. And what have those demoscats done at Freddie and Fannie? Well, for starters, they looted both corporations taking about $200,000,000 or more out in salaries for demoscat corporate executives. They gave campaign cash...out of the business proceeds to demoscats and O'Bomber is about #3 on the list as having received the 3rd most from Freddie and Fannie. In addition, they used Freddie and Fannie to fund..give grants and gifts to leftist organizations...like ACORN, which is involved in voter fraud and tied to O'Bomber himself. In other words, they used Freddie and Fannie as a demoscat piggy bank.

And now, the O'Bomber campaign has 2 of the looters on staff as economic advisers. One, Johnson was also involved in finding O'Bombers VP...and there were some real problems with that search process. The other is Franklin Raines who took about $100,000,000 out of Fannie Mae in salary and other compensation. As we look at what these corporate executives were saying about Fannie and Freddie, they were delivering the message that all is well there, that problems had been overcome...solved and the corporations were on sound footing.

So what happened to Fannie and Freddie shares owned by pension funds, mutual funds and individual investors? Last time I looked, Fannie shares were selling for 61 cents a share and investors have lost their as$es. Just about 1 year ago, in late August, Fannie Mae (FNM) was selling for $70 per share. Today Fannie is selling for 41 cents a share.

In June 2007, Freddie Mac (FRE) was selling for $67 per share. Today...at this moment, Freddie is selling for 25 cents a share.

How's that for loss of investor money through gross mismanagement and malfeasance?

I said McCain should blow the whistle on O'Bomber and his so called.."economic advisers".

Someone was listening or were already on it. This is what McCain had to say about O'Bomber...and if it's as I suspect it is, this is only the opening shot.

"Speaking at a campaign event in the working-class Democratic stronghold of Youngstown, Ohio, the Republican presidential nominee said Obama “talks a tough game on the financial crisis, but the facts tell a different story.

“…He put Fannie Mae’s [former] CEO, who helped create this problem in charge, of finding his vice president. That’s not change — that’s what’s broken in Washington,” said McCain."

Now, that's Johnson but Franklin Raines is waiting in the wings to be the next example of O'Bomber stupidity and ignorance.

McCain needs to demand federal criminal investigations of both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae..and I don't mean an investigation run by the demoscat congress but an investigation run by the Justice Department and he needs to lay it all out in campaign speeches...the reasons why and what the record already shows happened. That's what happened to World Com, Enron and other fat cat CEOs who ran their corporations into the ground and lost their investors billions and perhaps trillions of dollars. The consolidations of banks, investment banks and brokerage houses that is now going on was directly caused by the collapse of Fannie and Freddie because they bought bundles of mortgages and or derivities...futures based on those mortgage loan bundles.

posted September 17, 2008 12:25 PM            

What is this supposed to mean..in the context of what's been said here....

"*shivers* I think I'm officially scared now."

posted September 17, 2008 01:45 PM              

And, yes, thank you, that's a good start. I'm not in love with McCain, but I feel he's the lesser of two evils. Obama makes my stomach turn ..... somewhat similiar to the way Bush does, come to think of it.

It's the economy, jwhop.
I never did have a head for numbers and a good portion of this financial gobblydegook goes over my head, but too much government interference tends to scare me. Surprisingly, I do have a few conservative leanings.

posted September 17, 2008 01:48 PM              

Anyhow...

Before I go any further, I have to point out how much I dislike what Barack Obama stands for--in all respects! I can't say that I hate him, because I don't know him as a person, but from what I am seeing in him, I wouldn't trust Barack Obama with a pair of scissors (as Russell Brand, so eloquently stated, in regards to Bush at the liberal-ridden MTV VMAs). I will go so far as saying that this man should have NEVER EVER run for president to begin with. Why he did...baffles me even to this day!

I 100% agree with Geraldine Ferraro's take on Barack Obama: "Could I have said ... his experience is what puts him there? No. Could I say because his stand on issues have distinguished him? No ... If Obama were a white man, he would not be in this position. ... He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." I firmly believe this is the real reason why Obama has come so far to begin with.

At first, I thought white guilt and affirmative action would have stopped with Hillary Clinton, but it did not, and the rightful candidate lost. Now this country has an extremely liberal, ignorant, in-experienced candidate, who keeps hanging out with the wrong crowd (celebrities included), who is throwing out the same old democratic talking points now running for the highest office in the land.

So now these Democrats are asking themselves, "Wait a second. Why isn't he up in the polls?" For the love of the gods, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know why the man isn't doing better than he should, and it's NOT because he is black! Why are they still using the John Kerry playbook? Did they not learn that people of America DO NOT WANT an extremely liberal candidate in office?

posted September 17, 2008 11:52 PM            

I think the lid is going to blow off and reveal the democrat stench coming off the bank failures, investment bank failures, bailouts and seizure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. I think they aren't going to be able to avoid a non congressional criminal investigation.

Here's another O'Bomber insider involved in dilution of bank assets frittered away.

BREAKING THE BANK

The woman whom Barack Obama is crediting for organizing the Barbra Streisand fundraiser it held last night in Hollywood is also partially responsible for one of the greater banking collapses in American history.

Penny Pritzker, Obama's national finance chair was, with her family, the half owner of Superior Bank, which was shut down in 2001 by the FDIC after it had lost nearly all of its more than $2 billion of assets on bad loans to high-risk borrowers, federal regulators said.

Pritzker has avoided media attention over the past week as reporters covering the Obama campaign sought comment on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle.

Pritzker also served as finance chair for Obama's Senate run, and supported him during his time in the Illinois state legislature.

One reason Pritzker may have been enamored with Obama was his willingness to press legislation that loosened state regulatory policies for land developers and multi-family property owners.

Pritzker is also known to be close to Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, a former political operative for Mayor Richard M. Daley, and the CEO of a housing and development company based in Chicago with ties to Obama going back to his Illinois legislature days.

Jarrett, by the way, is now considered to be the top candidate to fill Obama's Senate seat should he be elected President.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13897

posted September 18, 2008 07:59 AM            

Fannie Mae headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made to Barack Obama may backfire if the Democratic presidential hopeful wages an aggressive campaign to cast blame on rival John McCain and the Republicans in Congress for the mortgage-related losses that forced the U.S. Treasury to take over the quasi-governmental mortgage giants.

A review of Federal Election Commission records back to 1989 reveals Obama in his three complete years in the Senate is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions, behind only Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee. Dodd was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including contributions from PACs and individuals, followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.

In contrast, McCain warned of the coming mortgage crisis as he pressed in 2005 for regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – known as government-sponsored entities or GSEs – and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market," McCain said on the floor of the Senate in 2005, speaking in favor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005.

McCain pointed out Fannie Mae's regulator had stated the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The bill passed the House but was never brought up for a vote in the Senate, largely because of Democratic opposition to change in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulatory structure that remained in place until the Treasury takeover two weeks ago.

As evidenced by the failure to pass the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, the Democrats in Congress have repeatedly fought back Republican Party efforts to reform the two mortgage banking giants.

Instead, Democrats in Congress have sought to preserve the quasi-governmental status of the mortgage giants, seeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as places to locate former top Democratic Party operatives, where they have earned millions in compensation, despite a continuing series of financial scandals. Enron-like accounting manipulation, for example, boosted earnings to a level at which massive executive bonuses could be paid.

In the aftermath of the U.S. government takeover, attention has focused on three Democrats with close ties to Obama who served as Fannie Mae executives: Franklin Raines, former Clinton administration budget director; James Johnson, former aide to Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale; and Jamie Gorelick, former Clinton administration deputy attorney general.

All three Obama-related executives earned millions in compensation from Fannie Mae.

Johnson earned $21 million in just his last year serving as Fannie Mae CEO from 1991 to 1998; Raines earned $90 million in his five years as Fannie Mae CEO, from 1999 to 2004; and Gorelick earned an estimated $26 million serving as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003, according to author David Frum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

All three have been involved in mortgage-related financial scandals.

In 1998, according to the Washington Post, Gorelick, as Fannie Mae vice chairman, received a bonus of $779,625, despite a scandal in which employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions to manipulate books to meet 1998 earning targets. The moves, in turn, triggered multi-million-dollar bonuses for top executives.

Gorelick was embroiled in another controversy over an alleged conflict of interest when a 1995 memo she authored as deputy attorney general surfaced while she was a member of the 9/11 commission.

The memo, which became known as the "Gorelick Wall," appeared to establish barriers that barred federal anti-terrorist criminal investigators from accessing various federal records and databases that may have assisted them in their criminal investigations.

According to the Associated Press, Raines and several other Fannie Mae top executives were ordered in a civil lawsuit to pay nearly $31.4 million for manipulating Fannie Mae earnings over a period of six years to trigger their massive bonuses.

Raines was also forced in the settlement to give up Fannie Mae stock options valued at $15.6 million.

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Freddie Mac had engaged in accounting fraud from 2000 to 2002, imposing a $50 million fine on the company and on four executives fines for amounts ranging from $65,000 to $250,000.

Raines currently advises Obama on housing policy.

Johnson was appointed to head Obama's vice presidential selection committee, until a controversy concerning an alleged $7 millions in questionable real estate loans he received on favorable terms from failed sub-prime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial surfaced and forced him to step down.

WND previously reported a panel chaired by Elena Kagan, dean and professor of law at Harvard Law School, speculated at the June two-day meeting of the American Constitution Society that Gorelick was a possible attorney general cabinet appointment if Obama should be elected president.

The decision by the U.S. Treasury to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could end up costing the U.S. taxpayer as much as $100 billion, although the extent of losses at the two giant mortgage companies remains to be determined.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Freddie and Fannie own or guarantee about $5.2 trillion worth of mortgages.

The riskiest loans held by Freddie and Fannie are known as "Alt-A" and sub-prime mortgages, worth about $780 billion, or about 15 percent of the total portfolio.

The federal government takeover of Freddie and Fannie passes to U.S. taxpayers the contingent liability for failures in the entire $5.2 trillion loan portfolio held by the two mortgage giants.

Over the past four quarters, Freddie and Fannie have suffered losses of about $14 billion, as the mortgage market has been hit by a wave of defaults and foreclosures not seen in the U.S. since the 1930s.

posted September 18, 2008 08:07 AM            

What TINK? You mean we may witness politicans, bankers and tycoons jumping from high buildings?

Or

We may be listening to depression era music again?

posted September 18, 2008 12:12 PM              

quote:

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What TINK? You mean we may witness politicans, bankers and tycoons jumping from high buildings?

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Jumping is too good for most of them. My brother in law spent several years making a small fortune selling bad sub-prime loans. Lost everything. It's sometimes hard to have sympathy for him.

Once I built a tower ...

What a sad song

posted September 18, 2008 01:22 PM            

You're not going to believe this but the demoscat congress is gettin out of town. In the middle of a financial crisis, they're buggin out.

Harry Reid...."No one knows what to do".

Well, a damned good start would be a congressional call to the Justice Dept to open a criminal investigation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae but that's exactly what the demoscat congress is not going to do. Demoscat fingerprints are all over the collapse of Fanny and Freddie...and demoscats looted the organizations of hundreds of millions of dollars...and campaign contributions to mostly demoscats...and leftist demoscat groups like ACORN.

So, what the hell is McCain doing. Has he lost his mind? He's now bashing Wall Street...instead of demanding a criminal probe of Fannie and Freddie which would get to the real culprits who looted and ran those quasi governmental corporations into the ground. Those who are now advisers to the O'Bomber campaign...and he's hardly mentioned that. These are the people O'Bomber brought on board to advise on the economy..Franklin Raines, Tim Johnson and Jamie Goerlich..who is mentioned as a possible appointment for Attorney General in an O'Bomber administration. In the meantime, O'Bomber is running all over America accusing McCain of being the problem in the Congress which permitted Fannie and Freddie to get out of control.

McCain must have a death wish or he's insane to not use a legitimate issue which fell out of the sky like manna from heaven and landed in his lap.

Democratic Congress May Adjourn, Leave Crisis to Fed, Treasury

posted September 18, 2008 04:25 PM            

quote:

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So, what the hell is McCain doing. Has he lost his mind? He's now bashing Wall Street...instead of demanding a criminal probe of Fannie and Freddie which would get to the real culprits who looted and ran those quasi governmental corporations into the ground.

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Talk about politically-retarded reactions!

I thought that's where McCain was headed because one of the first articles I read about his initial reaction to this economic downturn was a call for setting up a commission to investigate the source of this corruption. I posted my reactions to the article in Mannu's thread:
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/004438.html

I don't know why he tends to backtrack sometimes. I don't know if he just feels guilty because he knows he's hot-headed or if he's got some idiots working for him, but I find that he often starts off on the right note and then takes his words back. Like when he said that "the fundamentals of our economy are still strong". He should've stuck with that and not try to backtrack and explain what he meant by it when certain media channels were questioning his thoughts and suggesting that he was "out of touch". The fundamentals of our economy are still strong and that's a pretty obvious statement. Those coming down on him for saying that were just being plain ridiculous.

I agreed with McCain's initial instincts on this matter as it seemed an appropriate reaction. But what in the world is he doing? He keeps backtracking as if he's unsure or something. Obama denounces his call for a commission as "the oldest Washington stunt in the book" when an investigation is clearly the direction we should be headed towards. Hello?!?! This downturn didn't just fall from the sky!

So why isn't McCain and his campaign using this turn of events as he should? It's mind-boggling...

posted September 18, 2008 05:41 PM              

Seriously, how many seemingly irrational inconsistincies and contradictions do we need? Repubs jump all over Obama's lipstick comment, but no comments on his inner circle of slimey basstard "advisors"??
Oh wait ... McCain is surrounded by various members of that "generation of vipers" too. Funny how the serpents do that. If you can manage to tear your eye away from whatever media circus is on today's menu, pull back the Wizard's curtain and get a peek at whoever's pulling the levers, you sure can learn a lot. A pack of jackal bodyguards.

Listen, jwhop, here's what we'll be embracing - the Amero. And we'll be embracing it within 5 years. Easily.

Personally, that's one of the reasons I'll be voting for McCain. I could talk Obama into the Amero and a NAU, for Christ's sake. I think, possibly, McCain will prove a tougher sell. 'Course now that they've saddled him with that nut from Alaska, who knows. Leverage is sooo important.

posted September 18, 2008 06:12 PM            

Hmmm, the Amero. I'd prefer old fashioned greenbacks backed by gold and silver...and federal reserve bankers in prison.

Indeed, what is McCain doing? I did hear him rip Obama for having former CEOs of Fannie Mae on his staff this afternoon. Seems he's moving in the right direction. Perhaps he intends to dribble the information out by dribs and drabs with a new revelation...to most voters...every few days.

NosiS, a committee report on the failure of Fannie and Freddie would be ready in about 2 years..or more, would be a bipartisan report which would be worthless and be a cover up of what really happened and of no use.

McCain needs to keep plugging away at O'Bomber's staff appointments who were involved and early next week announce he's investigated further, found that a committee to study the causes isn't appropriate, that upon examination it appears both Fannie and Freddie were making funny with their accounting to pump up their earnings to qualify CEOs and other top level managers for huge bonuses and stock options...and that he's sent a letter to the Justice Department with a strongly worded request that they open a criminal investigation into the management and accounting practices of both corporations. He could cite the fact the government put executives of Enron and others who committed accounting fraud, filed false reports with the SEC and flim flammed investors with false statements that all was well...and Fannie and Freddie should be treated no differently. At about that point, there would be a lot of people wetting themselves, both former executives and members of Congress who fed off both institutions. This is something which could blow O'Bomber out of his socks in November...along with a lot of down ticket democrats. O'Bomber has been in the Senate less than 4 years, yet O'Bomber is # 2 on the list as having received the most in campaign contributions. Chris Dodd is numero uno.

posted September 23, 2008 11:58 PM            

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.

Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), and insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG) Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) also is under investigation.

The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official said.

The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing and are in the very early stages.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080924/D93CP7MG0.html