Sept. 11, 2003Now we're all poorer.
NYT: New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
By STEPHEN LABATON
"Fannie Mae, which was previously known as the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie Mac, which was the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, have been criticized by rivals for exerting too much influence over their regulators.
'The regulator has not only been outmanned, it has been outlobbied,' said Representative Richard H. Baker, the Louisiana Republican who has proposed legislation similar to the administration proposal and who leads a subcommittee that oversees the companies. 'Being underfunded does not explain how a glowing report of Freddie's operations was released only hours before the managerial upheaval that followed. This is not world-class regulatory work.'
Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.
'These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. 'The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.
'I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,' Mr. Watt said".
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
In Hindsight
Posted by Harriet at 8:22 PM
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7 comments:
"a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry."
So much for layoffs in this area. Govt answer to everything - add another layer of oversight, and another few hundred jobs to the local economy - and yet make the whole thing more inefficient in the process.
I'm sure they'll just outsource the jobs to some consulting company - flying in employees and paying outrageous rates and for all their expenses.
Not only that but the oversight committee will get sickening bribes from Fannie and Freddie - maybe even sexual favors thrown in. They will end up with the same conclusions, that Fannie and Freddie are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I think you all are spot on. Perhaps the only 'oversight' that would have worked is letting them simply reap the consequences and fail like everyone else . . . except in light of current circumstances even that's not working anymore.
As they say, if you're not part of the problem, there's good money to be made in prolonging a solution.
I'll be calling my reps today and asking them to persue criminal cases against the recently-dismissed heads of Fannie and Freddie.
I hope others will too.
(202) 224-3121 Congress Switchboard.
I'll ask the staffer if they think that the prev. CEOs did anything wrong.
If they say yes I'll ask them to persue charges.
If they say no, I'll ask them, so they did their jobs and that resulted in them being taken over by the treasury, and costing the taxpayers millions while they keep their bonuses and stupidly high salary?
(202) 224-3121 - lets strip these two bastards of all their money and put them in jail.
Fannie - daniel Mudd
Freddie - Richard Syron
Freddie and Fannie will ultimately go the way of the Dodo bird.
They're done.
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