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Fannie Mae Backers Unrepentant Despite Its Fraud and Colossal Bailout

by Hans Bader on January 29, 2011 · 4 comments

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Politics as Usual, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out at a cost to taxpayers of between $148 billion and $363 billion. Their recklessness and wrongdoing was so obvious that even Treasury Secretary Geithner admits that “Fannie and Freddie were a core part of what went wrong” in the financial crisis. The two government-sponsored mortgage giants engaged in massive accounting fraud, and their allies in the Obama administration have now spent $160 million in taxpayer money defending them against various charges.

Yet, their longtime defenders, like the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein, are completely unrepentant. They continue to suggest that only right-wing ideologues could want to eliminate scandal-plagued Fannie and Freddie. Pearlstein long dismissed warnings from conservatives like the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot about the dangers these mortgage giants posed to our financial system.

Incredibly, Pearlstein still believes that what’s good for Fannie and Freddie is good for America. In the January 23 Washington Post, Pearlstein showed he has learned nothing from the financial crisis.  Pearlstein called House Republicans “free-market ideologues” for wanting to rein in the two companies. He praised “low-income-housing advocates and the Obama administration” for opposing this reform effort.  He suggested that access to mortgages (and thus, homeownership) would suffer without Fannie and Freddie, ignoring the fact that homeownership rates are higher in countries like Chile and Italy that have nothing like Fannie or Freddie.

The last thing America needs is to keep Fannie and Freddie around to help spawn the next financial crisis. Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the current mortgage crisis by buying up risky mortgages and repackaging them as prime mortgages, thus creating an artificial market for junk: “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.” As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were not subject to the sort of capital requirements that apply to private entities, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Congressional Democrats last year blocked a GOP amendment that would have reformed the  government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The Obama administration lifted a $400 billion limit on bailing them out and showered their executives with $42 million in pay.

At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac ran up more than $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom had high incomes. Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.

Obama received $125,000 in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives as a senator, second only to the Senator Chris Dodd, who was forced to retire last year over financial improprieties (such as his real estate gift from a lobbyist and “sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide Financial“), yet was the chief drafter of the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” law.  (Dodd-Frank harms the economy, and violates both the Constitution’s separation of powers, and private property and equal-protection rights).

Despite the devastating financial impact of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s mistakes, their defenders are as unrepentant, and perhaps as influential, as ever.  Don’t expect their allies in the Obama administration to endorse any meaningful reforms.

Government-Sponsored Mortgage Giant Seeks $1.8 Billion More in Bailouts

by Hans Bader on August 9, 2010 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac is seeking $1.8 billion more in bailouts from the federal government.  This mortgage giant, and its sister company, Fannie Mae, are expected to ultimately receive over $400 billion in bailouts.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by buying up risky sub-prime mortgages and repackaging them as prime mortgages, thus creating an artificial market for junk.

Meanwhile, they paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud–$6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone–to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses. As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Even administration officials admit they were a “core part of what went wrong” in our financial system.

But the recent financial “reform” law signed by Obama does nothing to reform these mortgage giants.  Instead, it’s 2,315 pages of payoffs for special interests.  (Obama received $125,000 in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives.)

Civil rights commissioners and economists say it contains provisions that are racially discriminatory.  The so-called financial “reform” law “imposes race and gender employment quotas on the financial industry — at a time the job market is stalling and economic growth is slowing,” writes economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth in The Washington Examiner. Its ”Section 342 states that race and gender employment ratios must be observed by all government agencies that regulate the financial sector, as well as private financial institutions that do business with the government.”   This unconstitutional requirement is the brainchild of Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the Castro-loving, left-wing ideologue who earlier praised the Los Angeles race riots that destroyed scores of Korean-owned businesses as an “uprising” against injustice.  Waters once told a CEO in a public Congressional hearing, “This liberal will be all about socializing . . . .uh, uh . . . would be about, basically, taking over and the government running all of your companies.”   Waters is currently facing ethics charges for her role in obtaining corporate welfare and a bailout for a bank that later defaulted on dividend payments to the Treasury Department.

AIG Bailout Had “Poisonous” Effect, Bailout Oversight Panel Says

by Hans Bader on June 10, 2010 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch, Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Insurance, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

“American International Group Inc.’s bailout had a ‘poisonous’ effect on the U.S. financial system because it demonstrated the government would protect Wall Street firms from their own risk-taking, said a Congressional” bailout oversight panel.

Earlier, the Obama administration used the $170 billion AIG bailout to give billions in legally unnecessary payments to the Wall Street firm of Goldman Sachs, which is so rich that it has admitted it didn’t even need the money.  Goldman Sachs, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, is using its political connections to reap record profits.

Obama and Congressional leaders later pushed through a Trojan-horse financial “reform” bill backed by Goldman Sachs that would further enrich Goldman Sachs, which was recently accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a party-line vote, Senate Democrats earlier blocked any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-sponsored mortgage giants that even Obama administration officials admit were at the “core” of “what went wrong” in the financial crisis.

(Obama received $125,000 in contributions from these mortgage giants as a Senator, second only to the corrupt Senator Chris Dodd, who is retiring this year due to his financial scandals, yet is the chief drafter of the financial “reform” bill.)

At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac ran up more than $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)  The Obama administration showered the mortgage giants’ executives with $42 million in compensation.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by acting as loan toilets, buying up risky mortgages and thus creating an artificial market for junk.  “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud — $6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone — to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Banking expert Peter Wallison, who warned for years about the risky practices of Fannie and Freddie, said the financial “reform” bill would lead to “bailouts forever,” contrary to Obama’s claims.

Government pressure on banks to make loans in economically-depressed neighborhoods was a major cause of the mortgage crisis.  That pressure will increase under the financial “reform” legislation.  Legislators approved Obama’s proposal to create a new consumer “protection” agency.  But it may harm rather than help consumers.  Why?  “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.”  It would do so without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness, even though the Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.

Media Give Disgraced Politician Eliot Spitzer a Soapbox to Lecture the Public

by Hans Bader on June 4, 2010

in Bailout Watch, Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Employment, Labor, Legal, Mobility, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Eliot Spitzer, who was forced out as Governor of New York after paying prostitutes tens of thousands of dollars and then violating federal finance laws in trying to cover it up, is now apparently going to replace respected journalist Campbell Brown in a prime slot on CNN.  Earlier, the leading liberal website Slate hired him as one of its financial commentators.

As attorney general of New York,  Spitzer was an overbearing, hypocritical bully who used the threat of prosecution and lawsuits to force profitable companies to dump their highly-competent CEOs, resulting in declining profits and losses to shareholders at companies like AIG, which the taxpayers later bailed out at a cost of $170 billion.

Spitzer is just the latest liberal crook given a soapbox by the liberal media.  The Washington Post just gave former auto czar Steve Rattner space to boast about the supposed success of the auto bailouts, even as the SEC was moving to ban him from Wall Street for three years because of his unethical conduct.  (Rattner whined about how critics of the bailout like Senator Charles Grassley, who exposed how General Motors was using taxpayer money to make a phony “repayment” of part of what taxpayers gave GM, were “elasticizing the facts,” even though the government’s own inspector general for the TARP bailout program confirmed what Senator Grassley was saying.)

And the Washington Post earlier gave former Fannie Mae head Franklin Raines a soapbox to lecture Fannie Mae’s critics, after he was fined for massive accounting fraud at Fannie Mae, which had to be bailed out by taxpayers shortly afterwards thanks to the risky practices he promoted.

As I noted at the time in a letter to the editor, “Mr. Raines stepped down as Fannie Mae’s CEO after a ‘$6.3 billion accounting scandal’ that rivaled Enron’s; in a settlement with the government, he and other Fannie Mae executives agreed to pay fines and forgo millions in stock, pension and other benefits. . .Yet The Post gave Mr. Raines a soapbox to make the same arguments against reforming Fannie Mae that he and Fannie’s lobbyists have made for years. Mr. Raines, a liberal power broker, derided “ideologues in the Bush administration” who, he said, tried to “undermine” Fannie Mae. Those officials were in truth warning about Fannie Mae’s risky practices.”

The Obama administration earlier lifted a $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants known as the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).  “Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie,” reports The New York Times.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by buying up risky mortgages and repackaging them as prime mortgages, thus creating an artificial market for junk. ”From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.” They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud–$6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone–to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses. As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

The Obama administration refuses to reform these mortgage giants, saying it is “too hard” to do. Earlier, Senate Democrats blocked reform of the mortgage giants in a party-line vote.

(Obama received $125,000 in contributions from these mortgage giants as a Senator, second only to the corrupt Senator Chris Dodd, who is retiring this year due to his financial scandals. Dodd is the chief drafter of the financial “reform” bill.)

At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac recently ran up more than $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes. Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.

The federal government has sunk over $50 billion into General Motors itself, $17 billion more into its finance arm GMAC, $15 billion into Chrysler, and spent billions more on the wasteful cash-for-clunkers program and pension bailouts for GM spin-offs.  Even if GM manages to recover, taxpayers will never get most of this money back.   (Taxpayers may get back some of the money sunk directly into GM itself, in an IPO, if all goes according to plan; but the remaining money sunk into related entities, and indirectly used to prop up GM, will never be repaid, even if GM recovers.)

Even if GM recovers, it will not be because of its ability to fairly compete (the Obama administration used the bailout to protect excessive union wages), but rather because of good luck (Toyota’s recent safety issues have driven car-buyers away from it to GM and Ford) and special favors from the government (the Obama administration artificially reduced GM’s costs by ripping off bondholders who had loaned the company money, and dumping costly pension obligations of GM spin-offs onto taxpayers).

More Bailouts for Corrupt Mortgage Giants: “More Aid Expected for Fannie, Freddie”

by Hans Bader on May 26, 2010

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

The bailouts are getting even bigger, for the most undeserving recipients.  “More Aid Expected for Fannie, Freddie,” reports The Washington Post.

The Obama administration earlier lifted a $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants known as the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).   It was just the beginning: “Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie,” reports The New York Times.

At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac ran up more than $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by buying up risky mortgages and repackaging them as prime mortgages, thus creating an artificial market for junk.  ”From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud–$6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone–to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

The Obama administration refuses to reform these mortgage giants, saying it is “too hard” to do.  Earlier, Senate Democrats blocked reform of the mortgage giants in a party-line vote.

The financial “reform” bills recently passed by the House and Senate do nothing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  But they would wipe out jobs, increase pressure on banks to make risky loans in depressed neighborhoods, and increase credit card costs.   Fuller coverage of the financial “reform” bills can be found here.  How CEI worked to make the bill less awful than it otherwise would have been is discussed here.

Senate Passes Financial “Reform” Bill, 59-39; Will Wipe Out Jobs and Increase Credit Card Costs

by Hans Bader on May 21, 2010 · 2 comments

in Bailout Watch, Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Employment, International, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

The Senate has just passed a 1,500 page financial “reform” bill that deliberately leaves unreformed the corrupt mortgage giants that spawned the financial crisis–while wiping out jobs and potentially driving up fees for many credit cardholders.

In a party-line vote, Senate Democrats earlier blocked any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-sponsored mortgage giants that even Obama administration officials admit were at the “core” of “what went wrong” in the financial crisis.

(Obama received $125,000 in contributions from these mortgage giants as a Senator, second only to the corrupt Senator Chris Dodd, who is retiring this year due to his financial scandals, yet is the chief drafter of the financial “reform” bill.)

Business groups warn that the new rules will wipe out jobs and slow the economic recovery. “If you want to drive capital out of the United States, this is your bill,” said Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce.

The bill also increases banks’ costs by restricting the ability of banks to enter into contracts charging retailers for the convenience of using credit or debit cards to collect payment from customers.  When Australia did this credit card holders suffered, as banks passed on the increased costs to them by hiking annual fees and getting rid of cash-back, rebate, and rewards programs.  (Ironically, recent interest rate hikes are partly the product of a law recently passed by Congress, the CARD Act, which forces responsible people to bear the costs of irresponsible borrowers.)

In the Wall Street Journal, Professor Todd Zywicki notes that such provisions harm consumers: “This is exactly what happened when Australian regulators imposed price controls on interchange fees in 2003: Annual fees increased an average of 22% on standard credit cards and annual fees for rewards cards increased by 47%-77%. Card issuers also reduced the generosity of their reward programs.”

The so-called financial “reform” bill would also give government officials the ability to nationalize businesses that they claim are at risk of failing — and block meaningful judicial review of such seizures by shareholders alleging violations of their constitutional rights.  (That will increase the ability of presidents to shake down businesses for donations to their political allies, since a business in danger of being seized by the government will try to curry favor with government officials.)  The bill’s House architect, Barney Frank, boasts that it will create “death panels” for American companies (this is the same Barney Frank who for years blocked any reform of the corrupt mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is getting another $8.4 billion in federal bailout money, after the Obama administration earlier lifted a $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants known as the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).  The other GSE, Freddie Mac, is getting $10.6 billion more in bailouts.  Soon, they will be receiving much more: “Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie,” reports the New York Times.

At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac ran up more than $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)  By contrast, the Republican alternative, rejected by the Senate, aimed “to wind down, and break up” the mortgage giants and “limit taxpayer exposure” to their losses.

The Obama Administration showered the mortgage giants’ executives with $42 million in compensation.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by acting as loan toilets, buying up risky mortgages and thus creating an artificial market for junk.  “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud — $6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone — to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Banking expert Peter Wallison, who warned for years about the risky practices of Fannie and Freddie, said the financial “reform” bill would lead to “bailouts forever,” contrary to Obama’s claims.

Government pressure on banks to make loans in economically-depressed neighborhoods was a major cause of the mortgage crisis.  That pressure will increase under the financial “reform” legislation.  Legislators approved Obama’s proposal to create a new consumer “protection” agency.  But it may harm rather than help consumers.  Why?  “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.”  It would do so without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness, even though the Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.

Bailout Supporters Lose Elections in Germany and Utah; Obama Administration Presses Ahead With More Bailouts

by Hans Bader on May 13, 2010

in Bailout Watch, Economy, International, Legal, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Senator Robert Bennett lost reelection in Utah’s Republican primary amidst anger over his vote for the $700 billion bank bailout known as TARP.

German voters punished Chancellor Angela Merkel for supporting the international bailout of Greece by removing her party from office in Germany’s “most populous state” and stripping her party of control of Germany’s upper house of Parliament. European countries like Germany will pay for most of “the unpopular multi-billion dollar bailout of Greece,” but American taxpayers will also pay $6.8 billion, thanks to the Obama administration.

The Obama administration is ignoring these losses and pressing ahead with more bailouts for the corrupt mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In a party-line, 56-to-43 vote on May 11, Senate Democrats blocked any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-backed mortgage giants that even Administration officials admit were at the “core” of “what went wrong” in the financial crisis.

Obama received $125,000 in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives as a Senator, second only to the corrupt Senator Chris Dodd, who is retiring this year over financial improprieties (such as his real estate gift from a lobbyist and “sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide Financial“), yet is the chief drafter of the financial “reform” legislation expected to pass the Senate by next week.

The financial “reform” bill would devastate the venture capital markets needed to create jobs and small businesses, by imposing onerous restrictions on so-called “angel financing.”  It would also give government officials the ability to nationalize businesses that they claim are at risk of failing — and block meaningful judicial review of such seizures by shareholders alleging violations of their constitutional rights.  (That will increase the ability of Presidents to shake down businesses for donations to their political allies, since a business in danger of being seized by the government will try to curry favor with government officials.)  The bill’s House architect, Barney Frank, boasts that it will create “death panels” for American companies (this is the same Barney Frank who for years blocked any reform of Fannie and Freddie).

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is seeking another $8.4 billion in federal bailout money, after the Obama administration earlier lifted a $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants known as the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).   Last week, the other GSE, Freddie Mac, asked for $10.6 billion more in bailouts. The Obama administration is certain to approve the new bailout request: “Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie,” reports the New York Times.

Obama’s so-called financial “reform” proposal does nothing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, admits Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who concedes they were “a core part of what went wrong in our system.” (At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac is now running up $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)  By contrast, the Republican alternative “aims to wind down, and break up” Freddie Mac and “limit taxpayer exposure” to its losses.

“American taxpayers are paying for $6.8 billion of the Greek bailout” through contributions to an international bailout fund backed by the Obama administration.   Greece is being bailed out by Europe and the international community because it is running up huge budget deficits due to a bloated bureaucracy and government pensions that let many Greeks retire in their 50s. “The Obama administration wants to use U.S. tax dollars to bail out a nation that is in a financial death spiral brought on by years of amazingly irresponsible deficit spending and similar behaviors often found in socialist states.”

Rioters in Greece killed three bank employees last week in their rage over possible budget cuts.  “The protesting civil servant workers trapped the bank employees in a burning building.”

The Obama administration earlier lifted the $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so that they could continue to buy up junky mortgages at taxpayer expense, and showered their executives with $42 million in compensation.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by acting as loan toilets, buying up risky mortgages and thus creating an artificial market for junk.  “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud — $6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone — to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Banking expert Peter Wallison, who warned for years about the risky practices of Fannie and Freddie, says Obama’s proposals will lead to “bailouts forever.”  Obama claims that it will not lead to more bailouts.  But as Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) admitted, the “bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. . .The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.”

Government pressure on banks to make loans in economically-depressed neighborhoods was a major cause of the mortgage crisis.  If Obama has his way, that pressure will increase.  The House earlier approved Obama’s proposal to create a politically-correct entity called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.”  It would do so without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness, even though the Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.

Democrats Block Reform of Corrupt Mortgage Giants; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Will Receive Billions More in Bailouts for Government-Sponsored Enterprises

by Hans Bader on May 12, 2010 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Employment, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

In a party-line, 56-to-43 vote yesterday, Senate Democrats blocked any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the corrupt, government-backed mortgage giants that even administration officials admit were at the “core” of “what went wrong” in the financial crisis.

President Obama received $125,000 in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives as a senator, second only to the corrupt Senator Chris Dodd, who is retiring this year over financial improprieties (such as his real estate gift from a lobbyist and “sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide Financial“), yet is the chief drafter of the financial “reform” legislation expected to pass the Senate by next week.

The financial “reform” bill would devastate the venture capital markets needed to create jobs and small businesses, by imposing onerous restrictions on so-called “angel financing.”  It would also give government officials the ability to nationalize businesses that they claim are at risk of failing–and block meaningful judicial review of such seizures by shareholders alleging violations of their constitutional rights.  (That will increase the ability of presidents to shake down businesses for donations to their political allies, since a business in danger of being seized by the government will try to curry favor with government officials.)  The bill’s House architect, Barney Frank, boasts that it will create “death panels” for American companies (this is the same Barney Frank who for years blocked any reform of Fannie and Freddie).

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is seeking another $8.4 billion in federal bailout money, after the Obama administration earlier lifted a $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants known as the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).   Last week, the other GSE, Freddie Mac, asked for $10.6 billion more in bailouts. The Obama administration is certain to approve the new bailout request: “Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie,” reports the New York Times.

Obama’s so-called financial “reform” proposal does nothing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, admits Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who concedes they were “a core part of what went wrong in our system.” (At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac is now running up $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)  By contrast, the Republican alternative “aims to wind down, and break up” Freddie Mac and “limit taxpayer exposure” to its losses.

“American taxpayers are paying for $6.8 billion of the Greek bailout” through contributions to an international bailout fund backed by the Obama administration.   Greece is being bailed out by Europe and the international community because it is running up huge budget deficits due to a bloated bureaucracy and government pensions that let many Greeks retire in their 50s. “The Obama administration wants to use U.S. tax dollars to bail out a nation that is in a financial death spiral brought on by years of amazingly irresponsible deficit spending and similar behaviors often found in socialist states.”

Rioters in Greece killed three bank employees last week in their rage over possible budget cuts.  “The protesting civil servant workers trapped the bank employees in a burning building.”

The Obama administration earlier lifted the $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so that they could continue to buy up junky mortgages at taxpayer expense, and showered their executives with $42 million in compensation.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by acting as loan toilets, buying up risky mortgages and thus creating an artificial market for junk.  “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud — $6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone — to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Banking expert Peter Wallison, who warned for years about the risky practices of Fannie and Freddie, says Obama’s proposals will lead to “bailouts forever.”  Obama claims that it will not lead to more bailouts.  But as Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) admitted, the “bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. . .The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.”

Government pressure on banks to make loans in economically-depressed neighborhoods was a major cause of the mortgage crisis.  If Obama has his way, that pressure will increase.  The House earlier approved Obama’s proposal to create a politically-correct entity called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.”  It would do so without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness, even though the Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.

Mortgage Giant Seeks Another $8.4 Billion in Bailouts, After Obama Lifts $400 Billion Limit on Bailouts for Government-Sponsored Enterprises

by Hans Bader on May 10, 2010 · 2 comments

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is seeking another $8.4 billion in federal bailout money, after the Obama administration earlier lifted a $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored mortgage giants that officials say were at the “core” of “what went wrong” in the financial crisis. Last week, Freddie Mac asked for $10.6 billion more in bailouts. The Obama administration is certain to approve the requests: “Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie,” reports the New York Times.

Obama’s so-called financial “reform” proposal does nothing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, admits Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who concedes they were “a core part of what went wrong in our system.” (At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac is now running up $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)  By contrast, the Republican alternative “aims to wind down, and break up” Freddie Mac and “limit taxpayer exposure” to its losses.

“American taxpayers are paying for $6.8 billion of the Greek bailout” through contributions to an international bailout fund backed by the Obama administration.   Greece is being bailed out by Europe and the international community because it is running up huge budget deficits due to a bloated bureaucracy and government pensions that let many Greeks retire in their 50s. “The Obama administration wants to use U.S. tax dollars to bail out a nation that is in a financial death spiral brought on by years of amazingly irresponsible deficit spending and similar behaviors often found in socialist states.”

Rioters in Greece killed three bank employees yesterday in their rage over possible budget cuts.  “The protesting civil servant workers trapped the bank employees in a burning building.”

The Obama administration earlier lifted the $400 billion limit on bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so that they could continue to buy up junky mortgages at taxpayer expense, and showered their executives with $42 million in compensation.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by acting as loan toilets, buying up risky mortgages and thus creating an artificial market for junk.  “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud — $6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone — to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Banking expert Peter Wallison, who warned for years about the risky practices of Fannie and Freddie, says Obama’s proposals will lead to “bailouts forever.”  Obama claims that it will not lead to more bailouts.  But as Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) admitted, the “bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. . .The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.”

Government pressure on banks to make loans in economically-depressed neighborhoods was a major cause of the mortgage crisis.  If Obama has his way, that pressure will increase.  The House earlier approved Obama’s proposal to create a politically-correct entity called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.”  It would do so without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness, even though the Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.

Taxpayers to Put Up Billions More for Bailouts of Greece and Corrupt Mortgage Giant

by Hans Bader on May 6, 2010 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch, Economy, International, Labor, Legal, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Government-sponsored mortgage giant Freddie Mac is demanding another $10.6 billion in bailouts, which the Obama administration is expected to give it. Obama’s so-called financial “reform” proposal does absolutely nothing to reform Freddie Mac, admits Obama’s Treasury secretary, tax cheat Timothy Geithner, even though he admits that Freddie Mac was “a core part of what went wrong in our system.” (At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac is now running up $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes.  Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.)  By contrast, the Republican alternative “aims to wind down, and break up” Freddie Mac and “limit taxpayer exposure” to its losses.

“American taxpayers are paying for $6.8 billion of the Greek bailout” through contributions to an international bailout fund backed by the Obama administration.   Greece is being bailed out by Europe and the international community because it is running up huge budget deficits due to a bloated bureaucracy and government pensions that let many retire in their 50s. “The Obama administration wants to use U.S. tax dollars to bail out a nation that is in a financial death spiral brought on by years of amazingly irresponsible deficit spending and similar behaviors often found in socialist states.”

Rioters in Greece killed three bank employees yesterday in their rage over possible budget cuts.  “The protesting civil servant workers trapped the bank employees in a burning building.”

Government spending is out of control in America, too.  Earlier, the Obama administration lifted the $400 billion limit on bailouts for the government-sponsored mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, so that they could continue to buy up junky mortgages at taxpayer expense, and showered their executives with $42 million in compensation.  The Obama Administration is now expanding the bailouts of these mortgage giants so that they can lavish pay on their CEOs and reduce the payments of deadbeat mortgage borrowers.

Fannie and Freddie helped spawn the mortgage crisis by acting as loan toilets, buying up risky mortgages and thus creating an artificial market for junk.  “From the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime.”  They paid their CEOs millions, and engaged in massive accounting fraud — $6.3 billion at Fannie Mae alone — to increase the size of their managers’ bonuses.  As Government-Sponsored Enterprises, they were exempt from the capital requirements that apply to private banks, so they did not have enough reserves to cover their losses when their mortgages started defaulting.

Banking expert Peter J. Wallison, who prophetically warned against the risky practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for years, says that Obama’s proposals will lead to “bailouts forever” and give big, politically-connected banks that are “too big to fail” the ability to drive smaller rivals out of business at the expense of consumers and taxpayers.

Obama claims that it will not lead to more bailouts, but even congressional Democrats admit that it will.  As Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) admitted, the “bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. . .The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.”

Government pressure on banks to make loans in economically-depressed neighborhoods was another key reason for the mortgage meltdown and the financial crisis.  If Obama has his way, that pressure will increase.  The House earlier approved Obama’s proposal to create a politically-correct entity called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.”  It would do so without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness, even though the Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.

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