Free Republic

Recently a Senator, whom many refer to by his nickname Dirty Durbin, said that President Trump referred to certain countries with a less-than-rosy word while objecting to the Temporary Protected Status of immigrants from those countries. President Trump reportedly also noted that increasing immigration from countries of European heritage, like Norway, which has been a source of productive immigrants to North America for over 1100 years, would be good. While President Trump was referring to the way that TPS countries are managed, and not impugning rank-and-file citizens of good character in those countries, the matter does raise two questions. The...

Keeping track of the ever mutating bailout debate is becoming increasingly difficult. With the Federal money spigots now thrown wide open, and with no one of influence advising restraint, the only debate is where to direct the torrent. During the past week, the talk began with Detroit and Citigroup, but by Friday had shifted to a massive "stimulus package" to bail out consumers. The early buzz includes some very large figures. But first, a bit of a recap: On Monday, the $300 billion Citigroup bailout took center stage. Once again Henry Paulson decided to throw taxpayer funds into a bottomless...

WASHINGTON — Senators Barack Obama and John McCain each cite the mess at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a consequence of the corrosive coziness of lobbyists and politicians that they promise to end. But each man and his party also have ties to the fallen giants that will complicate the next president’s job of reshaping the mortgage finance companies that have been essential to the economy. The Republican nominee, Mr. McCain of Arizona, has numerous close relationships with and contributions from current and former company lobbyists. Mr. Obama, his Democratic rival from Illinois, is second among members of Congress...

The government has formulated a plan to put troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal control, dismiss their top executives, and use government funds to prop them up, government officials told the two companies yesterday, according to sources familiar with the conversations. Under the plan, the federal government would place the firms in a legal state known as conservatorship, the sources said. The value of the company's common stock would be diluted but not wiped out while the holdings of other securities, including company debt and preferred shares, would be protected by the government. As the pace...

The government has formulated a plan to put troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal control, dismiss their top executives and prop them up financially, federal officials told the two companies yesterday, according to three sources familiar with the conversations. Under the plan, which could prompt one of the most sweeping government interventions in the workings of financial markets in U.S. history, federal officials would place the firms under a conservatorship, a legal status giving the government the option and time to restructure and revive the companies, the sources said. The value of the companies' common stock...

A freedom-focused grassroots organization has issued a nationwide alert about a plan in Congress that would require credit card companies, eBay, Amazon, Google and other companies to report what you buy to the federal government. FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey said the privacy implications are "breathtaking." "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week," he said. "Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon and Google Checkout," he said....

Americans should be outraged at the latest sweetheart deal in Washington. Congress will put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for potentially hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's a tribute to what these two institutions — which most Americans have never heard of — have bought with more than $170-million worth of lobbyists in the past decade. With combined obligations of roughly $5-trillion, the rapid failure of Fannie and Freddie would be a threat to mortgage markets and financial markets as a whole. Because of that threat, I support taking the unfortunate but...

Ok folks, its time for a long sit-down type of Ticker - the sort that I usually don't write. Let's start with Fannie and Freddie. As anyone who has been reading The Ticker knows, I have been saying for quite some time that Fannie and Freddie are in fact "short to zero" candidates for the common stock. This is simply due to the mathematics of their financial situation - they are levered up anywhere from 60 to more than 200:1, depending on what you include and exclude from "capital" and "credit book." I use the worst-case set of numbers, because...

Reuters) - Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM - News) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News) are "insolvent" and may need a U.S. government bailout, former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole was quoted as saying in an interview with Bloomberg. "Congress ought to recognize that these firms are insolvent, that it is allowing these firms to continue to exist as bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer," Poole was quoted as saying in an interview held on Wednesday. Chances are increasing that the government may need to bail out the two mortgage companies, Poole was quoted as saying. Shares...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a speech this morning in Orlando, FL on "Reducing Preventable Mortgage Foreclosures," reportedly urged lenders to forgive portions of mortgages held by homeowners at risk of defaulting, according to mainstream media reports. That's one way to look at it, but it actually misses the entire point of his speech. In the speech Bernanke outlines the grim path ahead for individuals besieged by declining home values and rising mortgage payment resets. This year about 1.5 million loans, representing more than 40 percent of the outstanding stock of subprime Adjustable Rate Mortgages, are scheduled to reset....

The Bush administration will unveil its methadone plan for the mortgage crisis today. Instead of going cold turkey and letting the free market take its course, the administration reportedly has reached an agreement with lenders and mortgage investors to freeze interest rates for a select group of subprime borrowers who made bad, greedy or uninformed decisions. "You're just giving the junkie more dope," says Christopher Whalen, managing partner with Institutional Risk Analytics, a consulting firm. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also has urged Congress to pass a law that would let cities and states sell tax-exempt bonds to refinance mortgages for...

Fortune) -- Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can only make it through a prolonged credit crisis if they raise billions of dollars of new capital. That, in a nutshell, is what the plunging stock prices of both mortgage buyers are saying Tuesday. Freddie accounted for a sharply higher batch of bad loans in its third quarter earnings, a little more than a week after Fannie did the same thing. But Freddie said that it would move quickly to raise more capital through a large issue of preferred shares. It added that it was seriously considering cutting its dividend - another...

On May 2, a national election will be held in the Bahamas. The stakes are very high in this Island Nation. The Progresive Liberal Party (PLP) led by Prime Minister Perry Christie is up for re-election. Former PM Hubert Ingraham of the conservative FNM wants his old job back. Ingraham is still a member of Parlimnent, but chose not to run for PM in 2002, after 2 terms as Prime Minister. The PLP main slogan is NO Turning Back. A race baiting slogan that's purpose is to remind voters of the white minority rule. The whites last ruled in 1967...

Wall Street has a soft spot for the "soft landing" thesis, but to me it's crystal clear that a serious economic slowdown is under way. What has been surprising: not that the economy is weakening but that so many people seem to expect a soft landing, and therefore remain in denial about the seriousness of the slowdown. I guess the predilection toward a soft landing is a function of the following: So many folks in the investment business -- and in the country at large-- haven't experienced a consumer-led recession in so long that they think this outcome is just...

If the housing market sputters, it's not just individual homeowners who will feel the jolt. The legion of financial institutions that own mortgages will also get rattled. Banks, thrifts and credit union lenders now hold only one-third of the $8.5 trillion in single-family mortgage debt outstanding. That's down from 44% in 1989 * * * In the place of traditional lenders, government-chartered mortgage financers such as Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) have added volume to their loan books. They've pooled and sold off many of these mortgages to investors in the U.S. and abroad. * * *And banks'...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has used its regional partnership offices over the years primarily to lobby Congress instead of promoting affordable housing, the Department of Housing and Urban Development concluded after a yearlong review. HUD opened a formal inquiry into the political activities of Fannie Mae's regional offices in July 2004 following a Wall Street Journal story that said the company used its partnership offices to funnel money into key congressional districts. HUD, which refused to release its report to the public, said in a statement Monday that Fannie's congressional charter allows it to set up regional...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Embattled mortgage giant Fannie Mae said Thursday that it has hired the chief financial officer of MCI Inc. to help it "rebuild and renew," as it disclosed new accounting errors and confirmed it will have to restate earnings by some $11 billion. Its shares fell more than 2 percent. The government-sponsored company, which finances one of every five home mortgage loans in the United States, also named a new chief operating officer as it again missed a regulatory deadline for filing a financial report -- this time for the third quarter. In a filing with the Securities...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Fannie Mae said Thursday it's uncovered new accounting problems in the course of an ongoing review, with the mortgage giant identifying more than $10 billion in issues related to derivatives, insurance accounting and other matters.In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Washington-based company (FNM:Fannie Mae), which has previously said it will restate several past periods of financial results, now expects that its 2005 annual financial report won't be completed before the second half of 2006.Fannie also said the New York Stock Exchange is reviewing the company's listing since it's been unable to file...

Privatize Fannie and Freddie Government reformers need to look toward the markets. By Mallory Factor Two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson argued that private property was the touchstone of American democracy. If he were alive today I am sure he would still be making that argument, because the idea is just as valuable now as it was then. And so I don’t hesitate to argue, in the spirit of Jefferson, that Congress today is jeopardizing the American Dream. What are they doing to contravene the wishes of our third president? Confronted by a real problem related to the semi-governmental status of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - As director of the U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Armando Falcon took on the once untouchable mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. His efforts ultimately led to higher standards for risk management and the dismissals or retirements--depending on whom you ask--of top suits at both companies. On Falcon's watch, Fannie and Freddie's fancy accounting footwork was exposed, encouraging some in Congress to try to limit the powers of these government-sponsored enterprises. But Falcon, who resigned in April and now helps institutional investors understand the policy world of Washington from his perch atop Canonbury...