Posted on 09/08/2008 10:29:35 PM PDT by Chet 99
The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is another outrageous, but sadly necessary, step for these two institutions. Given the long-term mismanagement and flawed structure of these two companies, this was the only short-term alternative for ensuring that hard-working Americans have access to affordable mortgages during this difficult economic period.
We are strong advocates for the permanent reform of Fannie and Freddie. For years, Congress failed to act and it is deeply troubling that what we are now seeing is an exercise in crisis management rather than sound planning, and at great cost to taxpayers.
We promise the American people that our administration will be different. We have long records of standing up to special interests and providing the leadership to change government and make it more accountable to the American taxpayer. In our administration, every agency and department will undergo rigorous oversight and review. We will require the highest standards of accounting, reporting and transparency ever demanded in government.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
How about every American gets free gasoline for a year? About the same price tag.
Good column — sounds like about the right kind of reform plan.
Demagogues bear heavy responsibility for this fiasco, although it is certainly a bi-partisan mess. But the corrupt Clintonista such as Raines, Johnson, Gorelick, et al, plus all the lobbying of Congress to block reforms, plus the insane politically correct pressure to remove protections and press for millions of “sub-prime” mortgages (favorite project of leftists like Obama) led to this mess.
Wonder if leftists still want to quibble over Gov. Palin’s statement today that this morass costs taxpayers too much money?
“during this difficult economic period”
Brought about by overspending, over taxation, over printing of federal reserve “dollars” IOW the federal government.
“it is deeply troubling”
Not troubling enough to cut federal spending, though.
“We promise the American people that our administration will be different”
Bwahahaha!
“We will require the highest standards of accounting, reporting and transparency ever demanded in government”
AKA, the most ethical adminstration in history (also see Clinton, WJ and Boosh, GW)
“It puts taxpayers first in line for any repayments”
...which will unfortunately need to be repaid to foreign creditors by our children and grandchildren.
“We will make sure the marketplace understands its obligations”
Translated: the free market did it, and don’t pay any attention to the man behind the curtain!
“A house has traditionally been the wealth-building course to retirement.”
What a crock.
“In the first 100 days of our administration, we will look at every agency and department and expenditure of the federal government and ask this simple question: Is it serving the needs of the taxpayer?”
But not “Is it constitutional?”
Same old, same old.
If you noticed, it was no bailout! The treasury moved in and seized the assets, published a new 10% much more preferred stock (to redeem favored holders of debt), and rendered mostly worthless, common stock, and previously “preferred” stock. A violent, unfriendly takeover.
TANSTAAFL
“Good column — sounds like about the right kind of reform plan.”
You must be on the campaign payroll.
There are some out there who would crush the markets to make a buck, George Soros, are you listening? It could have been Putin and his crowd trying to get back by not letting them get away with re-annexing the former Baltic states. Also, I noticed Jim Rogers bitching allot about the bail out - he must have been short big time.
We are now paying for the Harvard, Princeton, Yale crowd's financial demolition Derby antics in the housing market. We need to regulate these turkeys big time since it is obvious they will not behave themselves; this is the second boom bust in 5 or 6 years.
The fed was in a corner. Allowing them to collapse would have been catastrophic for everyone but the greed naked shorting SOBs.
I'm just waiting for John McCain to walk out in the middle of some football game and pull Osama’s head out of a paper bag; that will literally destroy anyone short in this market, which includes grandma who is trading on her home computer. It also may be a good way to get rid of Putin and his confiscated billions.
No, thank you, I'm not, but if you actually have anything intelligent to contribute and not just insults, let's hear your brilliance pour forth...... We're all waiting......
They really had no choice but to bail these two out. There has been an implicit guarantee in place forever, and the politicians have used mortgage lending and home ownership as part of their social engineering/wealth redistribution schemes...
Going forward, we need to be clear that mortgages are a private sector activity and banks should lend accordingly. If this means that people need to get down payments again, and have stable employment and good credit histories to get loans then so be it...
I believe it is TINSTAAFL
We can now expect that McCain will stand up to special interests like LaRaza and MEChA.
Right, John?
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch — Heinlein
This bailout was engineered to save the foreign debt holders.
Are you sure?
Bob Brinker has always been a consistent advocate of index investing. He has also advised those who do invest in individual stocks NEVER to have more than 4% of their money in one issue.
He has recommended the GNMA funds for years. Could you be thinking of that?
Alexis de Tocqueville
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Walt Kelly
SecAmndmt was right and you were not. Simply put the government has no legitimate constitutional power to be in this business. What should happen is Freddie and Fannie should be seized, broken up, sold at a discount, and those who committed fraud should be put behind bars, including the politicians who took contributions. What Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin propose to do is to continue the farce, with different faces at the top of the org chart. Oh I’ll likely end up voting for them alright, but only as the lesser of two evils.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.