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| U.S. to take control of Fannie and Freddie: reports |
| 2008-09-07 |
| The U.S. government plans to put government sponsored mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal control, the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers reported late Friday, in what could be the largest financial bailout in the nation's history |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #14 This is Paulson's chance to sink or swim. Nationalization - followed by breaking these beasts up when the time is right - is the right thing to do. |
| Posted by: Omeregum Johnson4532 2008-09-07 21:00 |
| #13 Heh. Looks like Treasury and FHFA are replacing the boards and purchasing senior preferred shares on an as-needed basis. F&F are now guaranteed to have the capital they need and the taxpayer gets at least something for their money. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-09-07 19:35 |
| #12 Bush has authorized Treasury to extend an unlimited line of credit to F&F. Generally, it's politicians who must authorise spending of taxpayers money. Not any more. How much is it going to cost? Don't know, but we will find out when the Asian Markets open today. Asian central Banks are key investors in F&F. It could be a slow implosion or it could be a meltdown. |
| Posted by: tipper 2008-09-07 16:18 |
| #11 We all continued to eat at Belvidere. |
| Posted by: UAW LOCAL 1268 2008-09-07 15:26 |
| #10 Made good dough on the Chrysler bailout bonds. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-09-07 15:19 |
| #9 The government runs everything better, school systems, AMTRAK, immigration, MEDICARE insurance, and Social Security. They did okay with Conrail and Chrysler. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-09-07 14:50 |
| #8 This isn't the time to get crazy. Lotp is right: we need a soft landing for F & F so as not to upset the world economy. But when we have the time, the directors of F & F, people like Johnson and Gorelick, need to pay a price. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-09-07 12:14 |
| #7 "Why not? The government runs everything into the ground Fixed that for ya', B. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-07 11:55 |
| #6 We're in an incredibly important period right now. So far, the world economy has managed not to implode -- but we're closer to it than many realize. We can debate whether it was wise as a matter of public policy to create these two institutions. I think there's a case to be made that promoting a strong middle class with house ownership is key to a functioning democracy. But in any case, once they were created they required a lot more oversight than they got. Already on TV this AM I'm hearing lots of arguments about whose fault that is. I don't see that the feds have any choice but to try to stabilize credit and housing ownership for the core part of the market. The costs to us all will be far more than we can absorb and still retain national security of all kinds. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-09-07 11:27 |
| #5 Why not? The government runs everything better, school systems, AMTRAK, immigration, MEDICARE insurance, and Social Security. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-07 09:42 |
| #4 There are good parts to F&F, NS? Who knew? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-07 09:33 |
| #3 They should take all the good parts and sell them off in reasonably sized chunks. They should take all the dreck and use the IRS to collect it. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-07 08:26 |
| #2 Hopefully, Treasury has something better in mind that good ole fashioned nationalizing. The new whateveritsgonnabe is going to have to do an equity offering and the need investors to buy it by the truckload. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-09-07 01:49 |
| #1 Good grief. |
| Posted by: newc 2008-09-07 01:31 |