Posted on 07/18/2008 5:37:41 PM PDT by Kaslin
The taxpayers' predicament when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the precariously capitalized "government sponsored" mortgage investors and insurers that own or guarantee $5.4 trillion worth of mortgages, or half the nation's total, is grave enough.
Graver still is that the rest of the world of supposedly high finance is becoming more like Fannie and Freddie, with potentially disastrous consequences for the American economy and taxpayer.
Everyone has long thought that Fannie and Freddie are too big to fail. The feds would never let them fall into bankruptcy because they're crucial to the nation's mortgage markets and broader financial markets. The two have used their government coddling to wrap themselves in a web of guarantees, insurance contracts and derivatives that makes Bear Stearns' business look as straightforward as a lemonade stand.
The mortgage disaster such a bankruptcy would create would mean near-certain depression. The Bush administration's move last week to ask Congress to let the federal government step in and buy shares of the two companies as well as lend up to $300 billion to them, along with the Fed's decision to let them borrow directly from the central bank, bears out this stark reality.
How did we get into this situation? It's useful to follow the reasoning behind the New Dealers who created Fannie's predecessor, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association, to see how the best of government intentions can be perverted by voracious market appetites and vice versa when government and business grow too cozy in pursuit of a reasonable-seeming goal — ending cyclicality in the mortgage markets.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Our Commie politicians are intentionally bankrupting our country.
who would buy shares,
as announced in this morning news?
Which is perfect in the form of the military...but not so helpful anywhere else.
All youa stuff are berong to us! Get out of our houses, pay wiff gord at Warmalt. We own youa asses.
Obama thinks it will be just the top 1% of the income distribution.
... but Who’ll Bail Out Uncle Sam?
Arabs?
China?
Russia?
Europe?
Anybody?
NO ONE WILL BAIL US OUT!!!!!
Don't be silly and quit your worrying. Obama will just tax the rich for the bail out.
Of course, this will happen only after the powers that be have the opportunity to convert their assets into something not denominated in a fiat currency.
we will.
get a clue.
LOL!!
BOHICA, taxpayers.
Provide your own lube.
Charles DeGaulle could answer the question in the headline.
Anyone remember his comment when Nixon took the country off the gold standard?
You didn't receive your bucket?
A bucket? A bucket? Oh, THAT bucket.
But there’s a hole in the bucket!!!
I don’t doubt that for one minute. They know what they are doing. Can you say INFLATION??
The elites look out for each other, from politicians to the well funded and connected rich.
Are you guys getting buckets? Heck, I haven't gotten my "stimulus check" yet. Some people have all the luck.............
Stimulus check?
Damn. It will only buy you earrings.
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