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Fannie and Freddie’s Blank Check Will Further Fuel America’s Rage

By Larry Doyle on December 30, 2009 at 1:00 PM in Bailouts, Current Affairs, Economy, Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines, Freddie Mac, Housing & Housing Crisis, Sense on Cents (Larry Doyle blog)

I remain incensed at the sheer arrogance and brazen demeanor of the Obama administration providing a blank check on Christmas Eve to cover future losses of the failed institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Given the fact that this check has been issued, America deserves to know what exactly it is covering. Over and above a full and total exposition of these government sponsored entities, America is in a position to demand certain retributions.

Let’s bang the drum and demand some answers, including:

1. The current valuations of all of Freddie’s and Fannie’s holdings so America can fully evaluate those holdings relative to market prices.

2. The current fees being paid for all services rendered.

3. An independent audit.

4. Why aren’t these stocks delisted immediately? To allow stock in these entities to continue to trade is a total mockery of a legitimate market.

5. Clawback all bonus payments rendered to Franklin Raines, James Johnson, and Leland Brendsel, the executives at Fannie and Freddie who truly plundered these institutions.

6. Immediately extinguish Freddie’s and Fannie’s contingency liabilities to Wall Street firms.

7. How are we to know and appreciate that this blank check is not merely a conduit to deliver slush funds and hush money to every favored friend of the administration?

8. Any market analyst who favorably opines on the housing market in light of this blank check is hereby rendered a total jackass.

Our pursuit of real truth, transparency, and integrity in our political and financial system took a major hit with the issuance of this blank check.

While America signs the check, we must make sure that each and every individual affiliated with this process co-signs the check.

If those in Washington and Wall Street are wondering what is fueling America’s rage, this blank check is nothing short of the Exxon Valdez.

Comments, color, constructive criticism always appreciated.

LD

  • Prime Obot

    I’d love to hear what you suggest the federal government do in place of this deal, Larry. I’m not an expert on the real estate industry (to say the least) but from what I’ve read, letting the free market take its course over the past year would have been devastating economically beyond what most people can comprehend. 

  • Total Frustrated

    There is no good solution to the economic crisis.  All that pumping unfathomable amount of money into the “economy” has done is put off the imact and increased the eventual catastrophy.

    The nation would have been much beeter off if the 700 Billion had been divided among the adults in then nation and given directly to them.  Most would have recovered from debts and caught up on mortgages and spent the rest on stuff that would have stabalized the economy. WHICH if these special people had a clue would have allowed time to figure out what the heck was done to the mortgages in the “complicated” investment materials and perhaps resolved some of the issues.

    THe Damned banks that speculated with bad loans and resold useless & worthless certificates based on portions of properties should have collapsed.  Yes it would have sucked for several years.  But it would have solved the problem.  We have solved NOTHING we have prevented NOTHING we have only deferred the crisis and made the ENTIRE nation MUCH MORE VULNERABLE.

    GM should have gone the way of the dodo.  They built shitty cars for DECADES and then wonder why we won’t buy them?  They pay leaders unimaginable fortunes for overseening the complete destruction of American Manufacturing. The writing has been on the wall for decades–I knew GM sucked before I had a drivers license.

    Why are we all acting surprised.  Are we as a nation really that oblivious? Please.

  • Markc

    Wait untill the banks offload all their bad stuff to Fred and Fran, thats what this blank check is all about.

  • b mathews

    obama just wants to make sure he pays off everybody who helped him steal the presidency before he gets kicked out. he acts like its his money to do with as he wishes.   trips, parties, flyovers, give aways etc.   he thinks taxpayers money is a tithe to the king.  maybe come next april we should all refuse to pay taxes. maybe that will get their attention. i have been around since FDR and have never seen people protesting in the streets even before the presidents first year is up. this speaks volumes.

  • sowsear

    I had a Buick LeSabre which I loved. I would have bought a new one but they stopped making that model. After much hard decision (knowing my father was rolling in his grave), I bought a Prius in ’06. I like the mileage but it’s not nearly as comfortable as my LeSabre.

    That being said, I am <b>not</b> in favor of anymore money being poured down the drain to finance corporations, financial institutions, health care schemes, whathaveyou. We are broke, broke, broke! We must get federal (and state) budgets in line with what we can afford. It doesn’t make sense to continue spending more than we have and borrowing money from our enemies.

  • sowsear

    While the “queen” wears $635 non-shoes to dinner.
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416710/posts

  • EllenD

    An investigation into Fannie and Freddie is long overdue.
    Here’s my experience:
    Twelve years ago I bought a repo house from Freddie. It was a wreck but in a good area. When it first came up for sale, before it was rehabbed, I put in a bid – asking price minus modest rehab costs, figuring I could fix it up my way. Freddie’s Real Estate Agent – Dilbeck, rejected it immediately. I was surprised – it would have been a quick turnover with a prequalified client.
    I then watched as they spent more than a month carrying and rehabbing the house – spending more than I had estimated – and I noticed the cozy relationship between the Realtor and the Contractor.
    When it was finished, I again put in a bid – again under asking price – which was just a bit more than I had before, and this time it was accepted immediately. That’s when I realized that the object of the game was not a fast turnover on their repos to realize as much as possible on the sale – the game was to contract a builder (no bid I presume) with a payoff by the Contractor to Fannie’s Realtor for getting the job, and the hell with whether Freddie Mac ended up with a loss because of the delay and rehab costs.
    The whole system is corrupt from the top down so it didn’t surprise me one bit when it fell apart.

  • Peggy Sue

    PO, did you even read the article?  Larry just delineated what he’d like to see happen, the Q&A that is long overdue.  Or are you comfortable with inflated toxic assets being transferred to Fannie and Freddie on the taxpayer’s dime? And a decision made in the dead of night.  It’s same old, same old. Btw, Kuchinich is also in the disbelieving” corner.

    Have any questions, go to Larry’s website and become enlightened.

    This is “mark to myth” theory and it’s the very thing that Treasury and the Fed has supported from the get-go.  I want to know when our Pecora Investigation is going to start to take these highway robbers to task.

    So far? Crickets.

    And the rage is indeed growing.  As it should.  Bang the drum loudly.

  • Peggy Sue

    Maybe it has something to do with replying to PO, but this is the second time I’ve gotten a double to triple post with a single click.

    Just a shout out that the board is doing something strange.

  • Seymour

    Folks, you gotta read this.

    I found this little nugget while perusing Bloomberg’s site this morning .

     
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a48c8UpUMxKQ
     
    AGAIN with another $4 trillion more of our tax dollars. What gives this administration the authorization to add another premeditative secret monstrous burden on the backs of the American taxpayer? 
     
    If I didn’t know any better which I may not, it looks to me that this administration is looking to push the American people to the final critical point in order to declare martial law and take over all domestic infrastructures. The final analysis is that the government will never achieve this end. So, what is their impetus here? It’s insane whatever it is. 
     
    I like the new site response board Larry.
     
    Seymour
      

     

     

  • PUMA

    AMERIKA has become too lazy………

  • mursky

    A picture paints a thousand words.

  • Larry Doyle

    Here is more food for thought….

    Audit Freddie and Fannie 

    …and for dessert, taste this…

    The Freddie Mac Pigsty

    These entities have been used to cover a whole host of failed programs and policies for a long time.

    America should be OUTRAGED!!! I know I am.   

  • I’m a Linda too

    And this made it in to FOX “Decade in Review” photo’s depecting the Winners and losers of he Decade.

    …in this, they also show Hillary as the #1 Winner of the decade.

    http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/politics/2009/12/23/decade-review?slide=1

  • FrenchNail

    Anybody who does not see a catastophic failure of the American economy together with the colapse of the dollar, within the coming year is blind and deaf. Pay our debts, start living below your means and you might be among the wounded yet still (financially)alive when it’s all said and done.

    And rather than not paying your taxes which can get you in a lot of trouble, cash in your IRAs. The penalties will look sweet compared to what your statement shall look like in a year, and it has the effect of starving the beast. With the money, pay off your mortgages, your car loans etc., and if there is any left over, lend it to your kids so that they can pay off their mortgages and pay you interest rather than the bank.

  • Sonic Ninja Kitty

    Gee, Paul Krugman thinks it’s all hunk dory!  http://www.businessinsider.com/relax-about-the-fannie-and-freddie-bailouts-theyre-just-in-the-same-business-as-the-fed-2009-12

    This is ideological warfare, and I’m on your side, LD.  We desperately need to audit the Fed, too, while we’re at it. 

    I’m not really sure what difference it’s going to make at this point, though, because we are at the point of no return towards a currency collapse.  Prepare yourselves, people.

  • donjo

    Heard on the radio; BO is third most admired American; Hillary is second and, gag me, Meechelle is first.   WHo the hell did they interview for this?

    Don’t particularly like what the Wall St. banks are doing and what they did? Here’s your chance to fight back; transfer your accounts to a small community bank:
     
    Here’s where:
    http://moveyourmoney.info/ :-D

  • donna

    I am so tired of anyone supporting any bailout for any homeowner losing their house because they can no longer afford it. Nearly 10 years ago, I suffered a job loss due to a company downsizing, as a result I was unable to find employment at my previous salary. Needless to say I could no longer afford my home and it foreclosed. I did not ask nor did I expect a bailout from anyone. I moved into a rental property that I could afford which was a far cry from the beautiful home I worked so hard to buy. I do not blame anyone. Sometimes life is hard and when the hard times hit you take the blows, pick yourself up and begin rebuilding. The problem with our country is too many expect entitlements and the government (ie the taxpayers) are more than willing to enslave those to the entitlemets. It’s time to return to our roots and to what made this country great. Hard work and sometimes sacrifice!!!