Freddie and Fannie Comments 1-50

1.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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So now we get to pay for Bush's privatization scheme not only with our homes but with our tax dollars into and beyond the foreseeable future. This is Reagan's S&L crisis on steroids. GAD!
— southvalley, New Mexico
Recommend Recommended by 58 Readers
2.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Guess whose friends ended up with the money after this game of musical chairs?GOP government is a license to steal.
— KS, Brooklyn
Recommend Recommended by 71 Readers
3.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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It seems we need strong Government regulation of our economic system in order to make it work and be fair to all.
— PBT, Omaha
Recommend Recommended by 25 Readers
4.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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From start to finish it's all a scam. Washington and Jefferson knew that temptation to power could bring down the Republic. And guess what? Their worst fears are being realized.So the experiment didn't work. Back to the drawing board.
— Len Howard, Las Vegas
Recommend Recommended by 24 Readers
5.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Does it surprise anyone that the Bush White House waists no time at all to come to Fannie Mae's rescue? This bloated quasi-govt monopoly openly supported and donated to the Republicans and Bush in the elections in order to keep their gilded fiefdom humming along while they abuse, manipulate, profit, and contort economic reality on the backs of the average American. It makes me so happy then to see Fannie Mae go down the toilet and know that the GOP is going staight down the same hole with them.
— Barry, South
Recommend Recommended by 38 Readers
6.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Here we go again bailing out the rich.
— hadit, Washington State
Recommend Recommended by 46 Readers
7.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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This President and his cronies will do anything till the very end of their term, to bankrupt this country. There has never been a greater disrespect for the citizens of the United States and for its Constitution. This choreographed undermining of any control on the criminal behavior of Companies, Corporations and their CEO's and CFO's is unparalleled in America's history. Even more unparalleled is the complete lack of action by both sides of Congress. And again the criminals, The White House, Congress and their Corporate friends, will walk free and the American Citizens have to come to the rescue.
— Johan B., Los Angeles
Recommend Recommended by 69 Readers
8.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Too little, too late.The seeds of this debacle were planted nearly 30 years ago when Ronald Reagen unleashed his reign of voodoo trickle-down economics. The neo-conservative battle-cry that "no government is good government" and the financial mantra of laissez-faire markets, in which the markets were supposed to operated "unfettered", without any reasonable regulation or restraint, are the root cause of this devastating mess. "The free markets will regulate themselves", they crowed! "The forces of free market capitalism will cure all excesses", they proclaimed! Government is not needed and they should keep their regulatory hands off of our free market system. Uh, no. Not quite.As always, the largest financial players (hedge funds, brokerage houses, etc.) gamed the system, exploited all loopholes and the absence of a common sense Federal regulatory framework, and sought to maximize their profits by taking outlandish, irresponsible risks --- knowing full well that the Federal government would bail them out of any havoc they created, as we are now seeing in 2008 with Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie. 40:1 leverage ??!! No problem. Trillions of dollars worth of packaged sub-prime loans, derivatives, etc.?? But of course, monsieur. The results we are seeing today were entirely predictable and the lessons that should have been learned a decade earlier by watching the geniuses at Long Term Capital hedge fund nearly precipitate an international financial crisis were ignored so that the markets could remain "free" and "pure capitalism" could reign supreme.The price for this Fannie/Freddie bailout, as was pointed out by Gretchen Morgenstern in Sunday's NY Times column, will be passed on to the usual chumps --- the U.S. taxpayers. Our national debt will balloon to a level that will require generations of taxpayers to bear the brunt of this and each succeeding generation will fail to live as well as their parents for generations to come.But it's all right. At least we have "free" markets and "pure" capitalism.
— DlphcOracl, Chicago, Illinois
Recommend Recommended by 116 Readers
9.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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So a bankrupt government is going to save bankrupt lenders. Having wasted 2-3 trillion dollars on wars fought entirely for Neocon interests we are going to face the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression!
— qualquan, Illinois
Recommend Recommended by 101 Readers
10.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Well, the miracle of Republican "Free Markets" and Non-regulation is finally paying off.Kiss your jobs and your life goodbye.Oh, and if you think this is good, Vote for McCain as well !
— William Donelson, Memphis TN
Recommend Recommended by 48 Readers
11.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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This is horrible.Prepare for 10% inflationLet the stockholders have nothing, but guarantee the bonds (whose collateral somethiing like 50% of the housing of the USA). Then wind down the entities and get out of the business of guaranteeing mortgages.
— grb, New York
Recommend Recommended by 25 Readers
12.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Jim Lockhart just announced that OFHEO, the Government Agency with direct oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, says" The Enterprises' $95 billion, in total capital, their substantial cash and liquidity portfolios, and their experienced management serve as strong supports for the Enterprises continued operation." After the greatest accounting debacle in this Nation's history and now the eminent collapse of these Quaasi-government institutions, Mr. Lockhart together with the senior management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to be shown the door before the next sunrise. If Wachovia can do it to their leadership, can we expect anything less from our government?
— fredt, columbia
Recommend Recommended by 14 Readers
13.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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More than anything else, I'm reminded of Richard Whitney who, acting on behalf of several banks, very publicly placed quite large bids on several distressed securities in the hope of forestalling a slide of the market; and also of wealthy legends like the Rockefeller family and William Durant who followed suit, putting their money where their mouths were, so to speak.Does anyone happen to remember how that ended up?I'm not saying that's where we are today, but it bears mentioning.
— Xavier, Houston
Recommend Recommended by 11 Readers
14.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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In a nutshell, this is how the new system will work. Get used to our “new” economy. Print paper. Loan paper to paper loaners. Paper loaners loan $6mil worth of paper to Raoul, my illegal alien 7-Eleven clerk who makes $6 of paper/hr. at 7-11, but has a 12 bedroom/4 bathroom house and a Hemi. Raoul goes belly up when the interests rate resets due to the paper being worthless. Raoul goes to “Just walk away.com”, and just walks away. Raouls neighbor gets Raouls weeds and blight from abandoned bigfoot. “Bank of Nonsense” that loaned Raoul 6mil goes under because Raoul walked away. Government prints more paper to bail out “Bank of Nonsense”. My taxes go up to bail out government. Everything costs more, because paper is more worthless than the day before. Beautiful.That’s all we need to know. We are without a doubt, the largest debtor nation on the face of the earth. Bread and soup lines won’t be far behind.
— goldstandard, NY
Recommend Recommended by 47 Readers
15.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Remember that, as at Enron, these are the smartest guys and gals in the room. I truly believe that the only reason for the peril these folks have put the USofA and the World's financial system in peril, is Greed. Not the credo of "free markets", i.e. no government regulations. You know, Sen. Phil Gramm style. The Wolves Watching Our Henhouse.Who lets the Bankers non-regulate these so called Titans of all Street. The Bankers and the Politicos and everyone else cashing in Now knowing that this whole Fiasco has been a House of Cards that Would Collapse...eventually. These people have cashed in and Will Not Be substantially affected. Those like myself and those worse off than me and the Next Geneartion will bear the Brunt of this Folly and pay the tab.Anyone who tells you different, which will be 99% of what will be reported, are lying and have a vested interest in their lying.Hang on...the Worse is Yet to Come!
— Casey Jonesed, Charlotte, NC
Recommend Recommended by 35 Readers
16.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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More hypocrisy from conservatives. Hoard the profits, socialize the losses. It isn't capitalism if businesses are not allowed to fail
— Ed, Bronx
Recommend Recommended by 124 Readers
17.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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It's taken 7 years and a lot of hard work but it looks like the Bush administration will successfully leave our country in international and domestic ruin by the time they slink from office in in January 2009. Quite an accomplishment.
— Scott, Des Moines
Recommend Recommended by 113 Readers
18.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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So they took a government lender meant to facilitate home lending... turned it into a quasi-private agency so people could profit $$$$$... and now that they have done a terrible job and gone bankrupt... WE the taxpayers are going to bail them out for billions upon billions of dollars????
— PLG, New York
Recommend Recommended by 25 Readers
19.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Its here, we are an official 3rd world power. And another sign, the amount of corruption in the real estate market. Its called, take the money and run, and the money?, of course, the banks money. Get those money printing presses running at double time.
— fly, Phoenix
Recommend Recommended by 18 Readers
20.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Firstly, it won't work - this plan is a vain attempt to merely mask the symptom (a declining stock price). Secondly it's terrible policy - they got it right with Bear Sterns, ie guarantee the debt, no money for stockholders. Bailing out stockholders now by propping up the stock price is a Govt "put" - and will just make the next crisis worse.
— Kevin, New York
Recommend Recommended by 23 Readers
21.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Can McCain supply the American people a List of Private Corporations and Companies which in his opinion are "Too Big to Allow to fail".When did America become a communist country?Capitalism demands that failures Die and new companies arise from the Ashes.Is McCain a Communist?.Let them Fail and let the Market decide...No more Bail outs this is not the U.S.S.R.No more Communism and Bail outs for corporations in a CAPITALIST system.NONE.If you cannot stand the heat get out of the Kitchen.....Sickening Abuse of Power...No bail Outs , It criminal and a form of Communism......
— dunnyart, Woomera Prohibited Area South Australia
Recommend Recommended by 35 Readers
22.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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It's not incidental that this story came out on Sunday - they've got to get things propped up before the markets open on Monday. As events unfold, I'm betting this story will be front and center all week. My question is, what if even the government's billions don't restore confidence? Then we've made a bad investment and where do we go?
— Marsha, California
Recommend Recommended by 15 Readers
23.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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"Their regulator has made clear that they are adequately capitalized"Henry on thursday ?
— silverbay, Upstate New York
Recommend Recommended by 10 Readers
24.
July 13th, 2008 7:36 pm
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Well, that bails out the investors. What about the underlying problem -- housing values and foreclosures?
— Allan, Reston, VA
Recommend Recommended by 12 Readers
25.
July 13th, 2008 7:38 pm
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It will be interesting to see what position Barack Obama takes on this issue. Will he insist that the equivalent of bankruptcy be instituted for the GSEs, or will he fold and let the Republicans protect the GSE bondholders?
— SteveNC, North Carolina