Free Republic

A national fair housing organization has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, charging that Fannie Mae is not properly caring for and marketing foreclosed homes it owns in nonwhite communities. The National Fair Housing Alliance alleges Fannie Mae violated the federal Fair Housing Act in nonwhite, working-class communities in the Chicago area as well as in 33 other metropolitan areas. Nineteen fair housing groups in various cities, including three in the Chicago area, joined the alliance in the complaint against Fannie Mae. "Fannie has more foreclosures in the United States than anybody else," said...

Let's collaboratively build a timeline of this disaster, starting with when these agencies were formed, tracking the legislation that was not only passed, but proposed, and quotes from who supported and opposed it. PLEASE INCLUDE URLs so we can link to sources. Here's a start. 1938 Fannie Mae, or the Federal National Mortgage Association, was founded in 1938. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode12/usc_sup_01_12_10_13_20_III.html 1954 1954 Charter Act 1968 1968 Charter Act 1970 Freddie Mac, or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, was established in 1970 1989 Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 1990, James A. Johnson went to work for Fannie...

n 1986, I was as ready to leave the closet as I would ever be—but how would I do so? Though I was a third term Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, I had lived too long with the burden of “the gay thing” to treat coming out as a political matter alone. For many years, I was ashamed of myself for hiding my membership in a universally despised group. I’d been afraid of exposure, and angry at myself for my self-denial. I’d felt shame as I watched younger gay men and lesbians confront the bigots openly with a courage that I...

Extortion: After 16 banks caved in to White House demands to refund billions in losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one outlier remains unrepentant. Nomura Holdings refuses to succumb to the political shakedown. The Japanese bank's U.S. unit won't give in to extortionist regulators protecting Fannie/Freddie who claim it hoodwinked the toxic twins into buying pools of subprime mortgages, like it claimed Bank of America, JPMorgan and other U.S. banks did in the run-up to the mortgage crisis. The government demands $1 billion in damages. Nomura says it won't give a dime toward the $18 billion ransom the feds...

At a breakout session during the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, one of us posed a question to the audience: What do members of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have in common?Hint: it has something to do with the 2008 bailout of private banks by American taxpayers. The insidious stink from that sorry episode lingers to this day—on both parties. Now the reasons for outrage over the bailouts were different for each group. For the Tea Partiers it was an unwarranted intrusion into the free market; for the Occupiers a taxpayer-financed gift to wealthy executives they believe caused...

WASHINGTON — Mortgages with low down payments can be just as safe if other underwriting conditions are met, a federal housing regulator said Tuesday. Mel Watt, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee, after Fannie Mae FNMA, +0.47% and Freddie Mac FMCC, +0.47% both started making mortgages available to those who make down payments of just 3%. That has raised the ire of Republicans, who say the move risks a repeat of the housing bubble. “All things being equal, is a 3% down loan riskier to the taxpayer than...

France, Israel and Saudi Arabia confront an administration conducting a make-believe foreign policy. When the history of the Obama administration's foreign policy is written 20 or so years from now, the career of Wendy Sherman, our chief nuclear negotiator with Iran, will be instructive. In 1988, the former social worker ran the Washington office of the Dukakis campaign and worked at the Democratic National Committee. That was the year the Massachusetts governor carried 111 electoral votes to George H.W. Bush's 426. In the mid-1990s, Ms. Sherman was briefly the CEO of something called the Fannie Mae Foundation, supposedly a charity...

The chants cut through the warm, humid air like an approaching cold front, prompting drivers to crane their necks and pedestrians to stop in their tracks on the sidewalk outside the U.S. Post Office on Liberty Street. "No justice, no peace, no more people in the streets." "What do we do when banks attack? Stand up, fight back." The protesters' numbers were few – less than 20 – but the collective voice of Springfield No One Leaves was mighty as the group took aim at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered government-sponsored mortgage enterprises bailed out by taxpayers, and...

The Chinese “received a message from the Russians” back in 2008 suggesting a pact to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities on the market, which would have nudged down the price of the debt of Fannie and Freddie and also maximized the chaos on Wall Street, a former U.S. official told BBC. It confirms a report that TheBlaze TV’s For the Record first aired back in September 2013.

It could be the end for bailed-out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as we know them, if recent bipartisan support for their elimination means anything. U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, unveiled a proposed agreement with ranking member Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) on Tuesday that would wind down the government-sponsored enterprises over the course of 5 years. The legislation builds on an earlier bill by Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA) which would replace the two companies — long a linchpin of the U.S. mortgage-finance system and locus of voter anger...

full title...LETTER: Ralph Nader questions Obama administration’s ‘legal authority’ to shut out Fannie and Freddie shareholders from future profits....Political activist and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader is questioning the “legal authority” of the Obama administration’s secret decision to prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders from obtaining any future earnings in the government sponsored enterprises (GSE). Nader slammed the administration’s actions in a letter he sent to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, which was obtained by The Daily Caller. The administration’s decision to shut out shareholders means that the mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which received a $189.5...

Five years have passed since the onset of what is sometimes called the Great Recession. While the economy has slowly improved, there are still millions of Americans leading lives of quiet desperation: without jobs, without resources, without hope. Who was to blame? Was it simply a result of negligence, of the kind of inordinate risk-taking commonly called a “bubble,” of an imprudent but innocent failure to maintain adequate reserves for a rainy day? Or was it the result, at least in part, of fraudulent practices, of dubious mortgages portrayed as sound risks and packaged into ever more esoteric financial instruments,...

Mel Watt was sworn into a top housing finance post Monday afternoon while simultaneously bringing to an end a career in Congress spanning more than two decades. The now-former representative from North Carolina was given the oath to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency by former Charlotte mayor and current Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Watt’s path to his new position was cleared last month after a drawn-out debate that included a controversial rule change allowing him to be confirmed with a 57-41 Senate vote. …

There are two pieces of mortgage application index news today. First, Mel Watt (D-NC) was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new FHFA Director by a vote of 57-41. Only two Vichy Republicans, Bob Portman (VR-OH) and Richard Burr (VR-NC) voted for the confirmation of Mel Watt, a person with no regulatory experience and an affordable housing hawk. Watt will now be the “regulator” for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants in conservatorship with the FHFA. Why would President Obama nominate someone (and the Democrats confirm) with NO regulatory experience for perhaps the most important regulatory job...

Today, FHFA directed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to raise guarantee fees in three components: • The base g-fee (or ongoing g-fee) for all mortgages will increase by 10 basis points; • The up-front g-fee grid will be updated to better align pricing with the credit risk characteristics of the borrower; and • The up-front 25 basis point adverse market fee that has been assessed on all mortgages purchased by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae since 2008 is being eliminated except in the four states whose foreclosure carrying costs are more than two standard deviations greater than the national average....

There was a tremendous panel discussion today in the U.S. Senate hosted by the Federalist Society. The discussion concerned the proposed Corker-Warner bill to “reform” the housing finance system. The moderator was Troy Paredes and the speakers included Ronald Case, Bernard Weinstein and myself. Going forward, what should happen to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Weinstein argued that they should be kept in place, but regulated to avoid Congress from forcing them to take on too much risk. Case gave an eloquent discussion of the necessity for the rule of law in whatever happens going forward. What...

The Senate will likely take up the confirmation of Mel Watt (D-NC) as Director of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Now that Harry Reid (D-NV) triggered the nuclear option allowing Democrats to use simple majority voting on most appointments, it is likely that Watt, who has no regulatory experience, will be confirmed as FHFA Director. What has Ed DeMarco accomplished as a regulator? Many things including, • Significant progress has been made on the development and initial testing of the Common Securitization Platform (CSP); however challenges, including necessary changes to Fannie Mae’s...

There are a plethora of housing finance bills being written or circulating. These include the deeply flawed Corker-Warner bill, the Crapo-Johnson bill (that I have not seen), the PATH Act from the House. Now we have another House GSE reform bill, The New Fair Deal Banking And Housing Stability Act of 2013, from Representatives Justin Amash (sponsor), Jeff Duncan, Jim Jordan, Doug Lamborn, Tom McClintock, Mark Meadows, Tom Price and Matt Salmon. The New Fair Deal Banking and Housing Stability Act of 2013 takes decisive action to end the cycle of booms and busts, of bad behavior and bailouts: -...

As many are painfully aware, the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed in price from Q4 2007 to Q4 2008. Fannie Mae stock was trading at $60.81 on September 28, 2007 and fell to $1.71 by September 30, 2008. That is quite a drop. But Fannie Mae’s equity is now at $2.73 while Freddie Mac’s is at $2.52 per share. Both started showing signs of life in March 2013, spiked on May 28th, fell again, but has regained upward momentum since September. Who is in the running to purchase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provide private market...

Today, the US Senate held a hearing on “Housing Finance Reform: Powers and Structure of a Strong Regulator.” If I had been testifying, I would have thrown in a Medal of Freddom for Edward DeMarco, the acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But alas, the panel that spoke today were largely regulators and/or attorneys. But the most interesting aspect of the hearing was what happened AFTER the hearing. Tim Pagliara, the CEO of CapWealth Advisors and longtime fundraiser/donor for US Sen. Bob Corker (of the infamous Corker-Warner housing reform...