Fannie, Freddie May Require Billions More In Assistance

Washington Post:

The first of the Bush administration's major financial takeovers is poised to get more expensive as mounting troubles in the credit and housing markets have further undermined the health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the government seized them.

The Treasury will likely be required to pump billions of dollars into the mortgage giants and the tab, some analysts say, could exceed the government's worst-case scenario, requiring more than the $200 billion that the government set aside for capital infusions into the two companies.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[PT6]

We must end the BUSH GANGS RULE NOW or we will NEVER be able to Recover!

Even NOW they are FEEDING the Corrupt BANKS so they can BUILD FINANCIAL EMPIRES with NOT just SUPER BANKS buy MEGA BANKS!

We must insist the BUSH GANG STEP ASIDE and let a new Team Take Control to save America and the World!

65 Days is too long to let us all be DRIVEN INTO A DEEPER HOLE!

[courageunderfire]

let me get out my violin.....

[fireW]

What else does Microsoft do? They wait to see which competitors products are extremely successful, then spend a few years copying them. Voila! Then they declare how innovative they are. Stealing and reverse engineering is then called "creativity" by a handful of industry hacks. The moronic consumer market then accepts this typically bugridden and underperforming crap as wonderful. What else is new?

[GrainOSand]

The free market you say?

Does that mean that the participants of the marketplace, providers and consumers alike are free to manufacture or produce whatever they like and on the consumption side to consume whatever they like? Does that mean that in such a system, it is the aggregate marketplace that insures integrity throughout the marketplace? Does that mean that in the free market, products that are not safe, or of the highest quality are never manufactured or sold due to the self-correcting, self-healing, and self-regulating nature of the free marketplace? Is the free market free, when the market through self-delusion thinks that it is self-regulating, self-correcting, and self-healing to the extent that it bankrupts an entire world economy? Fiduciary duty and caveat emptor are some terms for the ages. One says I have a legal responsibility to one or both principals in a legal transaction to disclose all things that might put one or both principals at risk (roughly). The other says, we intend to steal, and if you are robbed, that is your problem.

The native is reported to have said that a handshake is good enough to seal a deal. The native said do not own the land but take of the land as you need and treat the land as a benefactor of life. An interloper came and said not only can you own the land, but you also can rent it out via the words on a document.

[bluguy8]

NOPE--no more money . its time for these co's to go out of business--shut them down now !

[ColoradoDan]

Again, we taxpayers have been duped. I like Obama BUT even he is in on this insanity. The banks will use the billions to buy OTHER banks and have a monopoly. What is happeneing is called fascism. Get ready for the Amero after we go belly up.

I see a Depression coming on right after Christmas. It was very dumb to allow the government to give a trillion to all these huge corporations period. We are now 14 trillion in debt, have no products and especially no buyers. Ghost malls, vacant neighborhoods and so on.

Our elected officials have PROVEN to us ... GOP or DEM ... that corporations, not citizens, come first. hang on folks ... it will be very different very soon.

[jmndodge]

Thank you for using the proper term - fascism. We have kicked around the term socialism, but what a is happening is very different than socialism. Indeed we are also kicking around the terms government bailouts, and blaming government for our problems, but in name anyway we are the government. Bush, Paulson, Bernake and congress work for us and represent us. It appears that we have given up accountability, are working hard to address the problem of the corporations and international investors, and placed this burden on all of our citizens. We all are carrying a huge additional government debt, our assets reduced greatly in value, our retirement funds cut in half, and the major effect of these policies yet to kick in. Things appear heading for a much worse situation than is being reported, even when they tell us GM may have a target valuation of zero within the next year to year and a half. When the people lose their jobs as well as their equity, this will expand exponentially. I wish I had a good solution, but the fact is things are going to become untenable for business as usual, and something resembling the WPA and new deal will be required to get us through this situation. Someone will have to profiet, but this massive transfer of wealth to elite corporations, and the consolidation of the banking industry is a crime against our citizens.

[peeweeH]

Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Mae’s main defenders in the House – Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 – was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.

Barney "Rubble" Frank does like male fannies.

[Lilly06]

Pee wee, one of the causes lies with the fact that a Democratic congress supported the ongoing lack of governance over Freddie and Fannie Mac, we know that but the blame doesn't lie solely with them.

It lies also with the banks that didn't conduct appropriate credit risk analysis (I say it lies heavily with them).

It lies with the Republican party who identified this problem years ago and gave up at the first resistance from Congress. They didn't do that when congress didn't want to give them money for Iraq.

Now all these banks are in trouble, the Republicans have decided that in light of the fact that America's balance of payments looks worse than ever due to expensive wars, it wants to squander more money recklessly on the private sector. Its a joke.

[nomoreofthesame]

Welcome to the Bush legacy. Your best retirement option is to sell your house, buy your burial plot, erect a tent over it and camp out until the end comes.

[vietveter]

We keep buying new teak decks for the
USS ECONOMY; stemware for the galley.

Would the ship of state not be better served by
patching the hull and fixing the rudder?

Where did China put their 'bailout money'?

[blood1]

What have these mortgage makers done with the money they already received...what improvements have been made to demonstrate that they are worthy of receiving additional money. Why not Chapter 11 reorganization?

Or is this just a "trial ballon" to see how much crap the American people are willing to take? As the economy has not improved with all the dollars that have been given out, unemployment is increasing, no one is buying houses or anything else...maybe it is time to scrap all the failing companies and start again.

[concernvoter]

They can merge together. We really don't need all these, FREDDIE'S, FANNIE'S and SALLIE'S. Stop using the taxpayers’ money and make these dumbbells come up with their own solution..

[Lilly06]

The fact is this bailout is a huge liability and it obviously ill thought and poorly executed. The only victim of course is the American people. There must be a way to get out of this bill before more money is wasted. Obama's administration must find that way no matter how wishy washy it looks.

Fannie and Freddie Mac must be a thing of the past and we should allow them to go into solvency. There will be devastation in the short run however there are bigger implications when the Treasury continues to pour money it doesn't have to literally underwrite worthless mortgages.

As far as I'm concerned, the private sector should look after itself and in the process some companies will indeed disappear and people will lose their jobs. At least the government can spend its debt on those people. With this plan, people will lose their jobs anyway but the government will be so far into debt, there will be very little resource to help.

[lissak]

ENOUGH!

[Kerris]

You know, forget Fannie and Freddie -- can't someone see if Sallie Mae is about to go bankrupt and we all get to forego paying the rest of our student loans?

Now that would be better than a tax cut for the vast majority of Americans of working, middle and upper middle class backgrounds!

[PT6]

PAULSON TRIES TRICKLE DOWN BAILOUTS! - It is ALSO NOT WORKING!

He switched Bush’s TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS to PAULSON TRICKLE DOWN BAILOUTS (TDBO)!

His first TDBO Theory is GIVING $250 BILLION to BANKS would help BAILOUT Homeowners. Instead they used it FOR THEIR MERGERS to FORM SUPER BANKS!

Almost NO Homeowners were HELPED!

His NEW TDBO Theory is GIVING $250 BILLION MORE to BANKS to BAILOUT BAD CREDIT CARD DEBT will help PEOPLE FREE UP CREDIT CARD DEBTS! It will again be used to MAKE SUPER BANKS into MONSTER BANKS!

No help to People in 18% to 25% Credit Card DEBT!

In Short TRICKLE DOWN of any type WILL NOT WORK!

PAULSON has not met the intent of the Bailout and MUST BE REMOVED ALONG WITH HIS STAFF and a new team installed!

Congress needs to put "BOTH FEET" on the ACCELERATOR to catch up with this CRISIS!

Apply the last $400 Billion to Homeowner REFI's Using Fannie and Freddie for automated Loans, for AUTO Bailouts, and to Refi Credit Card Debits at lower rates! All this WILL FLOW DIRECTLY (NOT TRICKLE) UP to the benefits of the BANKS!

For a Auto Company to get help require:

1. Reduce all White Collar Salaries by 30%
2. Reduce Union Worker pay by 15%
3. Replace Management with those having Detailed Knowledge of Hybrid Technology!