Free Republic

Police spokesman Lucy Caldwell told AHN that other people were present at the home at the time of Kellermann's death, in Reston, Va., and that there was a gun and a gunshot wound.

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....

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...

Freddie Mac restatement of results Friday November 21, 9:48 am ET NEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News) on Friday provided the following table of restated results: . Net Income . (in millions)* . As . Previously As Year Ended Reported Restated Change December 31, 2000 $2,547 $3,666 $1,119 December 31, 2001 $4,147 $3,158 ($989) December 31, 2002 $5,764 $10,090 $4,326 . Diluted Earnings Per Share . (in dollars) . As . Previously As Year Ended Reported Restated Change December 31, 2000 $3.40 $5.01 $1.61 December 31, 2001 $5.64 $4.23 ($1.41) December 31, 2002 $7.95 $14.18...

UPDATE - US broadens Freddie Mac probe to Wall Street role Tuesday November 18, 10:33 am ET (Adds details, background) WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. financial regulator is investigating the role of companies that were counterparties to questionable deals at the core of accounting irregularities at mortgage finance company Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News), an official said on Tuesday. "We are in the process of reviewing the counterparties' roles in transactions relevant to our investigation," a spokeswoman for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Corinne Russell, said. Russell said the agency has a wide range of actions...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department are now investigating Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News) and issues surrounding its retirement plan and certain derivatives transactions, which could result in an additional tax bill of up to $750 million, plus interest. The company quietly posted the information on its Web site in a Sept. 25 information supplement, which was first reported by Federal Financial Analytics in its GSE Activity Report Tuesday. Spokesmen for the IRS and U.S. Labor Department declined to comment about the matter. The company, in its monthly disclosure that supplement its annual financial statements, said the...

Freddie director confident restatement out in Nov Reuters, 10.16.03, 2:08 PM ET WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - A director of embattled mortgage finance company Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people) said on Thursday an earnings restatement, which was delayed from the end of last month, is likely to be complete in November. "I am quite confident that it will be November," Freddie Mac board of directors member George Gould said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. An accounting scandal at Freddie Mac rattled investors in June. The company said it underreported earnings between 2000-2002 by $4.5 billion or...

<p>July 28 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank is eliminating its holdings of debt issued by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two biggest U.S. providers of mortgage financing, and recommended that its national central banks do the same, according to a person who has seen the ECB's recommendation.</p>

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Agency debt securities seem to be quickly losing their overseas appeal, with Asian interest in the bonds dropping substantially in recent weeks and the European Central Bank reported to be unloading its holdings. The ECB is said to be selling all (!!!) the bonds it owns by housing finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and is advising its member central banks to do same, according to a report on Bloomberg News. "If the news is true, it is obviously a negative for agencies, but I don't think it's as bad as people might think because...

DJ Freddie Report: 'Steady Freddie' Tone Came From Brendsel . WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The report by the law firm of Baker Botts to the board of Freddie Mac said "it was understood throughout the organization that the tone of 'steady Freddie' came from its chief executive officer," Leland Brendsel. The report said employees in business units "were expected to take actions that would help achieve the goal of steady, nonvolatile earnings growth." It said the board was aware of this strategy but that the flow of information was controlled by Brendsel, whose resignation was accepted by the board last month, and...

DJ Freddie Regulator: Detected Acctg Problems In '01 >FRE . By Dawn Kopecki Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Freddie Mac's (FRE) federal regulator told lawmakers Thursday that the company's accounting problems have been brewing for several years, and it questioned Freddie's competence in that area when it tried to implement complicated derivatives rules in early 2001. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight flagged problems with Freddie's 2000 and 2001 consolidated financial statements which were also noted by Freddie's auditor Arthur Andersen in an internal letter to senior managers. Outgoing OFHEO Director Armando Falcon told the Senate Banking Committee...

BEFORE THE BELL-2: Freddie Mac Fires Op Chief; CFO Leaves Freddie Mac (FRE) shares were down after announcing management departures and bad news about earnings restatements early Monday. The mortgage-finance company's chief financial officer, Vaughn Clarke, will resign, and the company's chief operating officer and president, David Glenn, has been fired due to questions about his honesty to the company's audit committee counsel. Freddie Mac also said earlier restatements for fiscal 2000, 2001 and 2002 results will likely be completed by late in the third quarter. Shares fell to $50.60, down 15%, or $9.27, from their Friday close of $59.87....