Free Republic

The taxpayer cost of bailing out mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, already at $148 billion, will likely rise to $280 billion and could balloon to $685 billion, according to Standard & Poor’s: With a growing portfolio of unsold homes, a sluggish economy, stubbornly high unemployment, the prospect of rising foreclosures, and billions in legacy losses, it appears unlikely in our view that housing and mortgage markets will be able to operate normally without continuing and substantial government involvement. The ratings agency says the cost could hit $685 billion if the U.S. government sets up and capitalizes a...

Cost of Seizing Fannie and Freddie Surges for Taxpayers By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM June 19, 2010 CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took over a foreclosed home roughly every 90 seconds during the first three months of the year. They owned 163,828 houses at the end of March, a virtual city with more houses than Seattle. The mortgage finance companies, created by Congress to help Americans buy homes, have become two of the nation’s largest landlords. A foreclosed home in Casa Grande, Ariz., has been refurbished, inside and out. It is listed by Mr. Bridwell’s agency. Bill Bridwell,...

Democrats in Congress don’t like middlemen; at least they don’t like middlemen in the private sector. The Obama administration and Democrats – exclusively – banned private banks and financial institutions from the student loan business, and 2,500 employees at Sallie Mae will loose their jobs. Read the full story to learn more about Sallie Mae and how it went from a government sponsored entity (GSE) like Freddie and Fannie, to a private corporation, to a target of the Obama administration.

Facing the first real rough patch of his presidency, President Obama and his supporters are once again resorting to a tried-and-true tactic: attacking George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In his White House press conference last week, Mr. Obama referred to the Bush era at least nine times, three times lamenting that he "inherited" a $1.3 trillion debt that has set back his administration's efforts to fix the economy. With the former president lying low in Dallas, largely focused on crafting his memoirs, Mr. Obama has increasingly attempted to exploit Mr. Bush when discussing the weak economy, the wars in...

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest...

Blame Rests With Dodd Sen. Christopher Dodd's tiresome tactic of affecting outrage when his integrity is questioned is getting stale. Typical is his questioning the oversight of the Bush administration in relation to the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac debacle [Commentary, Sept. 14, "Rein In Fannie, Freddie? Not Dodd"]. Despite numerous warnings, over a number of years, about the weakness in Fannie and Freddie's capital structure, our senator, chairman of the Senate banking committee, did nothing. He, of course, did have the time to collect more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from Freddie and Fannie and managed to get himself a sweetheart...

The People Responsible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac By Bill Mann, Seth Jayson, Tim Hanson, Nate Weisshaar and Keith Beverly September 10, 2008 Comment (33) Recommend (91) It was a wise man who noted that the only corporate structure more insidious than a government-sponsored monopoly is a government-sponsored and investor-owned monopoly. In the end, as Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) have now so painfully proved, trying to serve the master of public policy while generating returns for investors will lead to disaster. Fannie and Freddie collapsed because they were part and parcel of the widespread...

June 26, 1975: A date not easily forgotten by FBI Agents. On that horrible day, Special Agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler were gunned down in an open meadow on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Following the initial hail of fire from the assailants, three gunmen approached the injured Agents and finished them off at close range. Ron Williams and Jack Coler are known as Service Martyrs, a special designation reserved for Federal Agents who gave their lives while engaged in direct adversarial action. Their sacrifice is also remembered as the only two Agents in Bureau history to...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's largest student loan provider will stop offering perks like trips to exotic locations to college employees as part of a settlement announced Wednesday in a widening probe of the student loan industry. SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, also agreed to pay $2 million into a fund to educate students and parents about the financial aid industry, and it will adopt a code of conduct created by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is heading the probe.Cuomo said the expanding investigation of the $85 billion student loan industry has found numerous arrangements...

It appears there will be a happy ending to the story of Ora Mae Magouirk, the 81-year-old Georgia widow whose family has been at loggerheads over her medical care, visitation privileges and whether she should be "allowed to die" but now is reaching agreements on key issues. Today, attorneys on both sides agreed Magouirk's brother and sister, A.B. McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ala., and Lonnie Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham, will be allowed to visit their sister during regular visiting hours at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center in Birmingham, where she is receiving treatment for an aortic dissection. Moreover,...

Another aspect I find disturbing is that in the court filing A.B. McLeod claimed that Mae Magouirk told him, “Buddy, I have discovered that Beth is writing unauthorized checks on my account. I just can't trust her anymore at all. Would you please get with me and tell me what I need to do to have her removed from doing this. Also, I want to replace Beth and appoint you to have my power of attorney and to act on my behalf if I get sick.” Mae's sister Lonnie Mullinax claimed that Mae told her, “Lonnie, I'm scared Beth is...

For Immediate release! To: All media, and supporters of life. From: The Family of Mae Magouirk Date: April 6, 2005 Contact: Kenneth Mullinax - Mockingbird@compuhelp.net Shiavo case revisited in Georgia Mae Magouirk…not comatose …not vegetative …not terminal Why is Hospice LaGrange, Ga. withholding nourishment? (LaGrange, Georgia) Mae Magouirk is being withheld nourishment and fluids and the provisions of her Living Will are not being honored at the Hospice-LaGrange, (1510 Vernon Street, LaGrange “Troup County” Georgia, 706-845-3905) a subsidiary of the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Georgia. Her family is desperately seeking to save her life before she dies of malnourishment and...

recognize as much as $2.8 billion in additional losses on its derivatives portfolio because of new accounting concerns recently raised by its chief regulator, according to people familiar with the matter. Those losses would come on top of the estimated $9.18 billion in losses related to derivatives that the mortgage giant already has said it will have to recognize as part of its still-unfinished financial restatement. If Fannie has to recognize the full $2.8 billion in additional losses, that would bring the potential size of its restatement to nearly $12 billion, further chipping into the company's regulatory capital. Fannie's regulator,...

Thurmond's biracial daughter earned her spot on monument. With little fanfare, Essie Mae Washington Williams, accompanied by her daughter, returned three months ago to her roots in Edgefield County. According to a front-page article in the weekly Edgefield Advertiser ... she visited the grave of her late father, U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, and paid calls on relatives and friends of both her parents. Last week, her name was added to that of the four other Thurmond children on the senator's monument on the State House grounds in Columbia. What also should be recorded for posterity is what a remarkable woman...