Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday will open a debate that has stymied them for at least a decade: the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant housing finance agencies nearly felled by the credit crisis. Congress is facing the daunting task of remaking the companies after steep mortgage losses led the Treasury in September to seize control of the two financing agencies. The stakes are high, with President Barack Obama counting on the reach of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to carry out his plans to improve housing affordability for nine million Americans. Decisions made...

Government Motors? The name has the proper initials, but the connotation is imprecise. Yes, the federal government now owns a majority stake in General Motors, but the senior administration officials who explained the deal to reporters sounded almost desperate to be rid of the responsibility. (“The government really has no desire to own equity stakes in companies any longer than is absolutely necessary and will actively seek to dispose its ownership interest as soon as it is practical to do that.”) We cannot blame them. GM is a financial basketcase, saddled with uncompetitive labor costs and a mandate to make...

The gigantic moneyhole known as Fannie (FNM) continues its attempt to suck up every dollar in the known universe. The agency said today that it lost a staggering $23 billion in the first quarter, and that it was looking to the Treasury Department for another $19 billion in aid. And, says the company, it has no freakin' clue when it will be profitable again. It'll be a long time. Why the ugliness? Well, yeah, Fannie's job was to hoover up a lot of trash. But even good loans to happy prime borrowers -- like the family pictured -- are starting...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Fannie Mae, the troubled mortgage finance company, reported a first-quarter loss of $23.2 billion on Friday. The mortgage giant also reported that it submitted a request for $19 billion from the Treasury Department to cover its losses. That followed a request earlier this year for $15.2 billion to cover 2008 losses.

Could it be that their story doesn't have the normal villains?

Unbelievable I hope you are sitting down near a phone so you can call those thieves in Washington and give them a piece of your mind after you finish reading this Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that Time called the next black holes who are screwing you again to the tune of $5 TRILLION dollars is also sponsoring (with your bailout money keep that in mind) the Illegal Aliens!

This is worthy of a SNL skit if you ask me. Herbert Allison Jr., Fannie Mae's president and CEO, has been named to run the TARP program. Yes, Allison was an advisor for McCain during his presidential run and is supposedly bipartisan in his politics. None of that matters. Having the CEO of one of the biggest causes to the economic meltdown run the program that is supposed to help get us out of that meltdown is just rediculous.

The White House turned to an experienced former investment banker Friday to run the federal government's $700 billion bank rescue effort, selecting the head of mortgage giant Fannie Mae as an assistant treasury secretary. Herbert Allison Jr., Fannie Mae's president and CEO, will replace Neel Kashkari, a holdover from the Bush administration. Allison, who must be confirmed by the Senate, would bear the title of assistant treasury secretary for financial stability and counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. He would be in charge of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the fund that has injected billions of dollars into banks in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House has announced that Fannie Mae's president and chief executive, Herbert Allison Jr., has been chosen to head of the federal government's $700 billion bank rescue effort. He would replace Neel Kashkari, a holdover from the Bush administration. Allison must be confirmed by the Senate.

The number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24 percent in the first three months of this year and is poised to rise further as major lenders restart foreclosures after a temporary break, according to data released Thursday. The big unknown for the coming months, however, is President Barack Obama's plan to help up to 9 million borrowers avoid foreclosure through refinanced mortgages or modified loans. The Obama administration expects its plans to make a big dent in the foreclosure crisis. But it remains to be seen whether the lending industry will fully embrace it, despite $75...

Boy, do you remember all the meltdown over the $165 million AIG bonuses? Remember all the Democrats climbing all over each other to win the coveted title of "most outraged"? Remember how they passed that unconstitutional law to specifically target the AIG employees receiving bonuses by singling them out to punish them with a 90% tax? Remember Barney Frank claiming on the floor of the House of Representatives that Republicans who opposed this completely unconstitutional Bill of Attainder somehow suffered from a "psychological disorder"? The funny thing was that Democrats - who came so unglued over the AIG bonuses -...

Barney Frank wants credit for putting out a fire that he helped to start. President Obama has declared an era of responsibility. But to Democrats responsibility means blaming Republicans for everything that goes wrong. Aside from the President himself, perhaps no Democrat is more eager to lay blame at the doorstep of conservatives than Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. I bore witness to Frank's song and dance routine during a talk he recently gave at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. A video of the forum can be found here. (http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/articles/forum-frank-apr09) It is worth...

WASHINGTON – Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to pay more than $210 million in bonuses through next year to give workers the incentive to stay in their jobs at the government-controlled companies. The retention awards for more than 7,600 employees were disclosed in a letter from the companies' regulator released Friday by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. The companies paid out nearly $51 million last year, are scheduled to make $146 million in payments this year and $13 million in 2010. "It's hard to see any common sense...

Bill Haling: Where’s the outrage? President Obama has been in office just 60 days and we have tripled the nation’s debt. Wow! All those that voted for change certainly got it — along with the rest of the taxpayers. Everyone knows this depression is Bush’s fault. “Give the stimulus time!” is the response. The Bush depression will take time for the Democrats to rescue this country. How long will it take for our children and grandchildren to pay for the excesses? Any outrage? The news of AIG paying $165 million in executive bonuses has certainly created a lot of media...

Steve Doocy discusses with Dan Gainor.

Will Obama’s Chief of Staff Return Money From Stock Options He Got While Helping to Drive Freddie Mac Into the Ground?The Chicago Trib reports how Rahm Emanuel scored big at Freddie Mac! The collapse of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were key elements in the financial meltdown of 2008. It’s no secret that Democrats under Bill Clinton had used both organizations as personal piggybanks to reward loyal friends. Note: President Bush put a stop to such gross patronage during his Administration.We all know about the tens of millions in bonuses Fannie Mae paid to Franklin Raines, former Clinton...

WASHINGTON -- The leading candidate to run the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout program has withdrawn his name from consideration, according to people familiar with the matter. Frank Brosens, a hedge-fund manager and big Democratic donor, was considered the top contender to run the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is now considering several other candidates, including Herb Allison, who currently heads mortgage titan Fannie Mae.

SNIPPET: "Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-Georgia) is a member of the House census subcommittee and chairs a census task force created by Minority Leader John Boehner. Westmoreland says ACORN's involvement in the census is due in large part to the fact that their former attorney has taken up residence in the White House. "You have to realize that President Obama used to represent ACORN," he notes. "In fact, he represented them in an Illinois case that said certain banks in Illinois were not doing enough lending to people who could not afford a mortgage, and therefore [he] is one of the...

An Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republican report Countrywide Financial Corporation’s infamous VIP and Friends of Angelo Program offers new insight into the inner workings of Countrywide’s efforts to buy friends in critical government and industry positions affecting the company’s business interests. “This investigation finds that Countrywide embarked in a determined and calculated effort to buy influence – employees openly weighed the political influence of targeted officials when deciding what perks to offer,” said Issa. “Countrywide VIPs in positions of key responsibility didn’t innocently stumble into loans with reduced rates and waived fees – they were recruited into the program...

Fannie and Freddie are paying out those bonuses anyway – regardless of Barney Frank’s demands and the populist furor over AIG’s bonus payouts. Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, sent a letter Friday to James Lockhart, the federal regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, asking him to rescind retention bonuses of at least $1 million planned for four top executives over the next two years. But in letter obtained by POLITICO, Lockhart tells Frank there’s a “great risk” of key employees walking away if they don’t pay out the promised bonuses. These Fannie and Freddie employee retention...

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae beg not to be included in "Bonus Gate". The root causes of the problem beg that they are now the good guys.

Frank asks Freddie, Fannie to halt bonuses By Silla Brush Posted: 03/20/09 12:21 PM [ET] As Congress races to claw back bonus payments at firms taking government bailout cash, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Friday called on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cancel payments at the mortgage giants now under government control. Fannie Mae is set to pay retention bonuses, with some top executives at the mortgage giant planning to receive more than $1 million. Freddie Mac has yet to release bonus figures. Frank wrote a letter on Friday to James Lockhart, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency,...

As one who expressed righteous indignation over the retention bonuses paid to employees of bailout recipient AIG's financial products division, will Barney Frank now turn his vexation on the one institution that was perhaps most responsible for the sub prime financial crisis? The AP is reporting that Fannie Mae is planning to pay four key executive $1million in retention…

Watch the video when you have a moment.

Memory eventually fails us all, but apparently the decline strikes one party far more than the other. In recent weeks, my friends across the aisle have expended a lot of breath proclaiming that the Democrats caused the present financial crisis by failing to pass legislation to regulate financial services companies in the years 1995 through 2006. There is only small one problem with this story -- throughout this entire period the Republicans were in complete charge of the House and for the most critical years they controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. In the House of Representatives, the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fannie Mae is planning to pay retention bonuses of as much as $611,000 each to several top executives of the government-controlled mortgage finance titan. Sibling company Freddie Mac is planning similar awards.

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he hopes to introduce legislation later this year to restructure government-backed mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "The current model is broken," the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Tuesday. One possibility, he said, is to separate the companies into entities serving two functions: one that would ensure adequate funding for the home-mortgage market as a whole and another that would provide government subsidies for housing low-income people. Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Frank spoke at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Center for American Progress, a think tank headed...

LETTER: Bush raised red flags about Fannie and FreddieMarch 14, 2009 6:00 AM Bush raised red flags about Fannie and Freddie In its editorial, "Protect homeowners: It's job No. 1 for Congress" (March 8), The Standard-Times proclaimed that Rep. Barney Frank has been a victim of unfair criticism and that he was actually among the voices "warning that disaster loomed" at government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Having an entirely different recollection of the facts, I did a little digging. Here is what I found. Starting with the 2002 budget request in April 2001, the Bush administration raised...

Exclusive: Has Illegal Immigration’s Effect on Education Become the ‘Third Rail’ of Politics? Vincent Gioia Traditionally, Social Security has been the “third rail” of politics but we now have another third rail – illegal immigration and education. Politicians step all over themselves asking for more and more money to be spent on education; ignoring the fact that money alone does not make for a good public education. Another thing we are not allowed to mention in a discussion about public education quality and costs is the impact of illegal immigration; otherwise we are labeled “racists.” The United States has the...

Barney Frank is a lying sack of excrement. Oh, we beg your pardon. Did we say that? It just slipped out by accident. Here’s a Bloomberg News story from March 5, 2009: “U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said he wants to see people prosecuted for wrongdoing related to the financial crisis as lawmakers overhaul regulation of Wall Street.” “Frank will call on attorneys general, bank regulators and officials from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to outline plans for prosecuting and recovering funds from those responsible for the crisis, he said today at a news conference in...

13 Million Illegal Immigrants Living in the United States March 8, 2009 FAIRUS.org How Many Illegal Immigrants? Illegal Immigrant Problems & Statistics FAIR estimates that in 2007 the illegal immigrant population is above 13 million persons. Government and academic estimates indicate that as of 2006 there were 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated the illegal immigrant population at 10 million as of November 2004. It is difficult to have an exact figure because the illegal nature of their presence prevents any enumeration, but the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 8.7...

Dori writes... In these brutal economic times, a lot of people are upside down in their mortgages and are losing their homes. But there's one group of people who don't have to worry about that - the residents of 1811 Eastlake. The housing project for chronic alcoholics in Downtown Seattle. While I support many shelters and job training programs for the homeless, this project has always struck me as misguided - public funds are spent on housing that allows alcoholics to drink in their publicly subsidized apartments. That's why I found these pictures so disturbing. A Downtown Emergency Service Center...

Sen. Chris Dodd (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Connecticut voters in 2010 could finally answer a question I've always wanted to know the answer to: Just how corrupt and incompetent does a New England Democrat senator need to be to lose to a Republican? We already know Ted Kennedy couldn't meet the threshold. Perhaps Chris Dodd, the man known for teaming up with Kennedy to form a "waitress sandwich," can. Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who oversaw and encouraged the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as Chairman of the Senate Bamking Committee, polls below all Republican comers in his home state...

An accounting rule that requires banks and insurance companies to write down assets to reflect market values is worsening the financial crisis and should be suspended, said Steve Forbes, chief executive officer of Forbes Inc. "Market-to-market accounting is destroying capital of insurance companies and banks," Forbes said Monday in a Bloomberg Radio interview. "They have to suspend it completely and start over again. It is the equivalent of saying, 'Put your house on the market and sell it by 2 p.m.' You are not going to get a very good price for it."

Barney Frank accused of cooking books for gay lover Herb MosesBy Angie Anthony on September 26th, 2008 Barney Frank, who is openly gay, had a past romantic relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for Fannie Mae. Barney Frank’s involvement was alleged to have persuaded him to cook the books (finance accounts) for Fannie Mae. The Washington Post reported this story in its Reliable Source column in July 3, 1998. By the time the story broke in The Washington Post, the newspaper admitted that Barney Frank and Herb Moses had broken up. However, this was conflicting as Barney Frank was heard...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac In September 2003, Frank, then the ranking Democrat on the Republican-led Financial Services Committee, opposed a Bush administration proposal for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Frank stated, "These two entities...are not facing any kind of financial crisis.... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the...

Congressional Democrats Bankrupted the Nation *snip* The End In April 2001, before the events of 9/11 and just after entering the White House, President Bush began signaling warnings to members of congress that both Fannie and Freddie were headed into deep treacherous waters which could cause “strong repercussions in financial markets.” In early 2003, the Bush White House upgraded its warnings to “a systemic risk that could extend well beyond just the housing markets.” On September 10, 2003, Bush Treasury Secretary John Snow testified in congress that something had to be done to confront the growing storm at Fannie and...

Franklin D. Raines, the former chief executive of Fannie Mae, used a special program at mortgage lender Countrywide Financial to receive a below-market rate on a home loan, contrary to sworn testimony he made to Congress in December, according to the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government. Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) released documents yesterday that he said show Raines received discounts and waivers of fees on a June 2003 home loan through the "Friends of Angelo" program, named after Countrywide's then-chief executive, Angelo R. Mozilo.

The Role of Congress in the Recession of 2008 If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. Their finances are now under such a course of application as nothing could derange but war or federalism. The gripe of the latter has shown itself as deadly as the jaws of the former. Thomas Jefferson, 29 November 1802 In 2008, the United States would enter a recession that was 32 years in the making. Actions taken by congress starting in 1977 would begin the...

Despite assurances that the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be temporary, the giant mortgage companies will most likely never fully return to private hands, lawmakers and company executives are beginning to quietly acknowledge.

Obama is already showing mental and emotional fatigue - won't last another term with this weak display of performance. There is no doubt he wouldn't last another term of the presidential spotlight. The democrats will have pay a high price for his lack of 'savvy skills' thus the demise of the party.

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending The New York Times STEVEN A. HOLMES Published: September 30, 1999 In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, Fannie Mae is easing credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people ''Fannie Mae has expanded...

President Obama on Saturday struck back aggressively at critics of his $3.6 trillion budget proposal, casting himself as a populist crusader whose "sweeping change" has angered Washington's entrenched special interests, and promised to fight them. "I realize that passing this budget won't be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington," Mr. Obama said in his weekly video and radio address. Mr. Obama's language was combative and confrontational, as he promised to fight for "American families." "I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists...

Red ink is starting to gush in even larger quantities at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as the government wrestles with deciding what role should be played by the two biggest providers of funding for U.S. home mortgages. Fannie late Thursday reported a $25.2 billion loss for the fourth quarter, and Freddie is expected to report a huge loss for the latest quarter when it posts earnings, probably in early March. Homeowner defaults have continued to increase even as the government has redirected the two companies to focus their attention on preventing foreclosures and propping up the housing market. Gone...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Troubled US mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said Thursday it lost almost 60 billion dollars last year and expected to suffer more losses in 2009, and asked for a further 15.2 billion dollars in government aid. The US government-controlled Fannie Mae reported a loss of 25.2 billion dollars in the fourth quarter driven mainly by the effects of a prolonged housing slump and a global financial crisis. It had a third-quarter loss of 29.0 billion dollars. For the full year of 2008, the company posted a loss of 58.7 billion dollars, almost 27 times higher than the...

President Barack Obama's first budget includes $15 billion a year for renewable energy programs and an ambitious plan to raise $646 billion from a carbon reduction proposal. "Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that's controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," Mr. Obama said Thursday morning. "That's why we'll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy." The plan uses money from a cap-and-trade program — which would allow companies to...

Must see video from 2004: 'Democrats Defend Fannie/Freddie from Regulation'. Watch it 'til the end. You will not believe it. "We've been through nearly a dozen hearings where frankly we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. Mr. Chairman we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and in particular at Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines."-Rep. Maxine Waters, 2004http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

President Obama will pledge Tuesday night that the nation "will rebuild, we will recover," as he delivers an address to a joint session of Congress and with a nervous nation watching at home. "While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," Mr. Obama will say, according to excerpts of his remarks. In lofty language, Mr. Obama is expected to promise a new path forward...

Former GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee in an exclusive Newsmax interview says President Obama’s early job performance is “cause for alarm,” and warns his penchant for talking down the economy is “the worst possible direction he could take.” Obama’s dark portrayal of the U.S. economy -- apparently intended to lower the high expectations stoked by his rhetoric during the campaign -- is on the verge of becoming a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” Huckabee adds. The former Arkansas governor’s criticism followed a week that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a six-year low. The S & P 500, the index that...

As our new political leadership leads us into the fiscal twilight zone, is it too much to ask for a little honesty as they do it? The day after President Obama unveiled his plan to bail out distressed mortgage holders, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Housing Secretary Donovan wrote an op-ed in USA Today explaining it. "Ordinarily, American homeowners don't need government help ... But these are no ordinary times," they say. But practically every American homeowner does get government help by being able to deduct mortgage interest from their taxes. And, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the taxpayer backed quasi-government...