Comments on: US insolvency or depression: take your pick for fixing Fannie/Freddie http://centerblue.org/363/us-insolvency-or-depression-take-your-pick-for-fixing-fanniefreddie/ Center-left commentary for a world in trouble Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:19:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Centerblue.org » Blog Archive » One Trillion Dollars http://centerblue.org/363/us-insolvency-or-depression-take-your-pick-for-fixing-fanniefreddie/comment-page-1/#comment-14208 Centerblue.org » Blog Archive » One Trillion Dollars Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:07:55 +0000 http://centerblue.org/?p=363#comment-14208 [...] large sum of money very roughly equivalent to the real cost of the Iraq war. One that is not news, as I said recently. I’m glad the government is being up front about the cost, but it doesn’t have a [...] [...] large sum of money very roughly equivalent to the real cost of the Iraq war. One that is not news, as I said recently. I’m glad the government is being up front about the cost, but it doesn’t have a [...]

]]> By: copp3rr3d http://centerblue.org/363/us-insolvency-or-depression-take-your-pick-for-fixing-fanniefreddie/comment-page-1/#comment-14168 copp3rr3d Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:09:52 +0000 http://centerblue.org/?p=363#comment-14168 OFHEO was supposed to get greater powers to regulate them both but its proposals have been gutted time and time again. It's hard to do much anyway when OFHEO has a staff of I think 30 people and Fannie & Freddie are huge corporations with thousands of employees and more politicians at their beck and call than OFHEO has staff. As GSEs the government is not obliged to step in, nor is it really backing the securities issued, but of course now their involvement makes it impossible not to. How you can have a GSE that the government then has no say in running, i.e. via regulation or as a shareholder, is mindboggling. I don't think they should be allowed to issue shares, since that was what led them to all those accounting "errors" before, trying to inflate their stocks' prices. As you've said, this will not end well. OFHEO was supposed to get greater powers to regulate them both but its proposals have been gutted time and time again. It’s hard to do much anyway when OFHEO has a staff of I think 30 people and Fannie & Freddie are huge corporations with thousands of employees and more politicians at their beck and call than OFHEO has staff.

As GSEs the government is not obliged to step in, nor is it really backing the securities issued, but of course now their involvement makes it impossible not to.

How you can have a GSE that the government then has no say in running, i.e. via regulation or as a shareholder, is mindboggling. I don’t think they should be allowed to issue shares, since that was what led them to all those accounting “errors” before, trying to inflate their stocks’ prices.

As you’ve said, this will not end well.

]]> By: US Insolvency or Depression : The DC Feed http://centerblue.org/363/us-insolvency-or-depression-take-your-pick-for-fixing-fanniefreddie/comment-page-1/#comment-14167 US Insolvency or Depression : The DC Feed Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:13:03 +0000 http://centerblue.org/?p=363#comment-14167 [...] The Centerblue.Org blog writes: I honestly believe that if the average US voter understood the danger that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to our credit-hobbled economy there would be some serious blood on the streets in light of what’s going on with these two companies right now. [...] [...] The Centerblue.Org blog writes: I honestly believe that if the average US voter understood the danger that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to our credit-hobbled economy there would be some serious blood on the streets in light of what’s going on with these two companies right now. [...]

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