http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031535/posts
Posted on 07/23/2008 2:09:55 AM PDT by CutePuppy
Angelo Mozilo was in one of his Napoleonic moods. It was October 2003, and the CEO of Countrywide Financial was berating me for The Wall Street Journal's editorials raising doubts about the accounting of Fannie Mae. I had just been introduced to him by Franklin Raines, then the CEO of Fannie, whom I had run into by chance at a reception hosted by the Business Council, the CEO group that had invited me to moderate a couple of panels.
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I've thought about that episode more than once recently amid the meltdown and government rescue of Fannie and its sibling, Freddie Mac. Trying to defend the mortgage giants, Paul Krugman of the New York Times recently wrote, "What you need to know here is that the right -- the WSJ editorial page, Heritage, etc. -- hates, hates, hates Fannie and Freddie. Why? Because they don't want quasi-public entities competing with Angelo Mozilo."
That's a howler even by Mr. Krugman's standards. Fannie Mae and Mr. Mozilo weren't competitors; they were partners. Fannie helped to make Countrywide as profitable as it once was by buying its mortgages in bulk. Mr. Raines -- following predecessor Jim Johnson -- and Mr. Mozilo made each other rich. Which explains why Mr. Johnson could feel so comfortable asking Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) to discuss a sweetheart mortgage with Mr. Mozilo, and also explains the Mozilo-Raines tag team in 2003.
I recount all this now because it illustrates the perverse nature of Fannie and Freddie that has made them such a relentless and untouchable political force. Their unique clout derives from a combination of liberal ideology and private profit. Fannie has been able to purchase political immunity for decades by disguising its vast profit-making machine in the cloak of "affordable housing."
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(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Very good article by someone who closely and critically followed "Fannie Mae Enron" political shenanigans for years. Names names and kicks "fanny", particularly the role of Franklin Raines.
How about kicking Barney Frannnks.
The truly sickening part is that you not only have to “buy your house twice” (once with the mortgage payment and again with your tax dollars) you really do HAVE TO PLAY because you’re a sucker if you don’t. It is a real estate ponzi scheme.
He was soon told that not only could he hold no more hearings, but House Speaker Dennis Hastert was stripping his subcommittee of jurisdiction over Fan and Fred's accounting and giving it to Mike Oxley's Financial Services Committee. "It was because of all their lobbying work," explains Mr. Stearns today, in epic understatement. Mr. Oxley proceeded to let Barney Frank (D., Mass.), then in the minority, roll all over him and protect the companies from stronger regulatory oversight. Mr. Oxley, who has since retired, was the featured guest at no fewer than 19 Fannie-sponsored fund-raisers.
Look no farther than the above to see a piece of disgraceful RINO conduct that helped us lose in 2006.
...Any wonder why gold and commodities are going through roof.
Let the presses roll!
Franklin Raines got a 100+ million dollar payout. Are you aware of that.
Jaime Gorelick got about 15 million IIRC
To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The very liberal [Democrats] are different from you and me."
The price we all are paying for at best, an incompetence or at worst, a malice from both parties. Yet the real culprits are never held responsible. They always lay the blame on someone else - the other party or “the speculators” or some such - and, with the help of the al-Media and education system, the gullible will buy it and compound the damage.
In truly sick fashion, the guilty are protected and the innocent are punished, with the help of many who remain ignorant or prefer to stay uninvolved.
Obviously you know how Democrat socialist insiders looted Fannie Mae
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