Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Spent $200M To Buy Influence

The Politico has an article today detailing the influence Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have bought in Washington over the past decade. The government-chartered companies had to get bailed out by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve earlier this week. To read more about the bailout go here. To read about the millions spent on Washington lobbying see an excerpt below or go here.

If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions.

But the political tentacles of the mortgage giants extend far beyond their checkbooks.

Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke just told Congress that because of the bailout the companies are "in no danger of failing."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in "no danger of failing."

The Fed chief made his remarks as he appeared before the House Financial Services Committee, in his second day on Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the problems plaguing the economy. He appears amid a backdrop of fading confidence in the U.S. financial system and in the national economy.

Comments

[VivaZapata]

the handling of the freddy mac and fanny mae situation shows how fragile these so called financial giants are. If public relations is needed to promote their behavior and words can bring down a vast investing empire (and they can and did, let's include bear sterns here), it only demonstrates how corporatism is built on an economic fault line. risk taking on the stock market is now touted as being part of American ingenuity as if it was the same as a guy with an idea who worked hard to bring that idea to fruition and was successful doing it. Stock market investment is gambling. It is not good old yankee know how. that the federal reserve had to bail bear sterns out of total collapse is an indication of how interconnected the lenders are and how fragile are their policies. If you must invest in the stock market, look towards basic commodities. If you must invest in financials, mastercard and visa get paid no matter what (as long as people purchase with those cards: i don't see that stopping; do you? also the cards are being used worldwide. natural gas utilities tend to be safer too. be careful out there. many main streets are ghost towns; the same can happen to wall street.

[hotcognition]

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=aXLIlaf_2bbhd2AIUDxZkkIA_3d_3d

[deminmo]

If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don't find liqidity, they can
fail, despite the help to bolster them. This is designed to not
be a permanent fix. If they fail to find funding, which essentially
means asking China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia to take on more
of the debt, then things get really interesting. What Bush fails to
get is how the entire world would be affected by failure of these
two mortgage holders. This could mean a depression far greater
than 1929.

[Viper]

And they are getting 45 billion in return. Money well spent. Give the CEO and is team a bonus.

Regards

[NevadaLiberal]

We are a consumer driven nation. We want money and "things". We want iphones and other non-essential toys. Family and community are secondary to our busy dollar driven and possession driven daily lives. This is what happens when we lose focus and chase the God of Consumerism. Why would we expect any of the people we elect as our representives to be any different then any of us. It wont change until something absolutely drastic and terrible make us change. Obama wont change it. I am voting for him, but I dont expect him to change it. Because we wont change...our American lives wont change...we refuse to change. So how can I expect Obama to change things? The criminal crime family known as the Republicans and the red-headed stepchild known as the Democrates have just about completed the destruction of this country.......but we elected every single one of them....so who really is to blame???

[mosh]

email me the location of your bunker - - - on second thought - forget it - - - I'd rather go down with my pets.

see you on the road.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Must say that Supply Side Economics has really paid off.

[bola47]

err, that $200 million of our tax dollars.

[rbspickles]

The best dictatorship money can buy! America is dead. North American Union is soon to be born. Unless WE THE PEOPLE stop it!

[danoj]

The bailout of these to companies is total crap. The government needs to get out of the bail out business and go back to passing laws that make no sence. This is what the terds in washington are best suited for.

[Hufferton]

Any form of government: local, state, federal, becomes institutionally corrupted when the public does not demand transparency and accountability of their public servants. As a former, now retired, federal employee, I fight this on a daily basis. Unaccountable governmental employees become "powerful" and the darker angels of human nature emerge. Cheating, fraud, embezzlement, etc., in the government are easily accomplished and the whistleblowers are the ones who are punished whilst the cheaters gain promotions.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

We gave all that up to be safe from the terrists.

[vippy]

Do as the big boss does, claim executive privilege, off limits, destroying of e-mails, etc.
They are taught by the best! We little people cannot even attempt to stop this.

[BaltimoreSteve]

Republicans are against regulation in favor of the free market system. That is until the free market system fails and clearly needs regulation, or a bailout to save their money, and then they blame the Democarats for not having been proactive, or not acting fast enough post facto.

It's ok to bailout the big money, but help out the homeowners and they call that a moral hazard.

[deminmo]

Baltimore,
It's Capitalism at work! Democrats in Washington sat on
their hands and are still doing it. There are no checks
and balances, which was proved when Bush used his
latest "Executive Privilage". And Republicans hate their
money being regulated, so now it isn"t. And lots of
other countries now own the banks it's in.

[AlisonChaynz]

The U.S. government is a kleptocracy, and the criminals aren't just the Republicans. This criminal organization must be brought down. If you think electing B.O. will change the nature of our government, you're living in a fantasyland (Prez Clinton helped advance the kleptocracy as much as any Republican.) Unless people stand up and put real fear into the hearts of the criminals in D.C., nothing will change.

[mosh]

What do you mean by stand up, precisely?? Stand up how?

[frappe]

The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac controversy is just one more in a long line of examples of why it is absolutely essential that we reform the way that business is conducted both in Washington, D.C. and in Statehouses across America.

It is truly disturbing how much corruption we allow under the guise of "free speech" . In the way of explanation, money contributions are considered by the Supreme Court to be an expression of "free speech". What utter nonsense. What utter crap. It's a bribe -- spelled B-R-I-B-E -- and it should be made illegal.

And we also ought to close the revolving door between K St. and Congress. These people are selling out our country and our futures to foreign governments, special interests, and corporate elitists to pad their own wallets. I'm sure that they rationalize their thievery and abandonment of U.S. interests by professing or entertaining some notion of "advancing free and open market initiatives on a worldwide basis". But we all know it is. It's a lie. They want the money and they'll sell you and me down the river in order to get it.

[JohnnieP]

It's a shame that the entire subprime mortgage debacle and the excalation of the prices of oil and gasoline was begun by John McCain's financial guru, ex-senator Phil Gramm's Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was authored by both Gramm and Enron, on whose board of directors,
Gramm's wife was sitting at the time,and who was a major Gramm campaign donor. Gramm's Act was slipped in as a rider on the 2000 omnibus Budget Act and allowed for the deregulation of the banking industry, and the subprime mortgage fiasco we're plagued with now. So, Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac have spent millions to buy influence. It comes as no surprise since they were both creat-
ed for fraudulent purposes, to start with. That Gramm is John McCain's right-hand man in the field of
economics speaks volumes for the horror a McCain Presidency and subsequent McCain Ad-
ministration would be for the United States.

[sven1olaf]

this is the heart of the matter.

nicely stated.

[NoMercy]

Hey, stocks are up! The world must be alright.

[HumeSkeptic]

Dow at 11220. Remember where it was when Cl!nton left office? And it tripled during his eight years.

[williamg]

National debt will be tripled by the time Bush leaves office.

[EggsBolinski]

I wish someone would tell a few around here that the call to prayer is only 5 times a day, not 24/7.

[HumeSkeptic]

Wrong web site. Find a Right Wing site for religious c r a p.

[VolvoBirkenstock]

You took the trouble to register a new screen name to post THAT?