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What they said about Fannie/Freddie


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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122290574391296381.html

 

Senate Banking Committee, Oct. 16, 2003:

 

Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.): And my worry is that we're using the recent safety and soundness concerns, particularly with Freddie, and with a poor regulator, as a straw man to curtail Fannie and Freddie's mission. And I don't think there is any doubt that there are some in the administration who don't believe in Fannie and Freddie altogether, say let the private sector do it. That would be sort of an ideological position.

 

Mr. Raines (then-CEO of Fannie): But more importantly, banks are in a far more risky business than we are.

 

Many more excerpts at the link.

 

I love how these Congresspeople on the House Finance Committee(!) go to the fox to ask if it needs more help guarding the henhouse--and then take it seriously when the fox says "no."

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Just who is this Mr Raines? He should be exposed for everything he did and every political candidate he worked with.

 

He was forced to retire for abetting illegal accounting practices in a 2004 scandal, and sued over outrageous bonuses he paid himself (there was a subsequent settlement).

 

But don't count on the media bringing him to the publics attention - he and the other scandal-plagued CEO's of FM were touted as Obama's financial advisors on the mortgage issues.

 

(When McCain ran an ad linking them to Obama based on Washington Post reporting, the Post 'factchecker' column famously gave it a pinnochio nose, saying that the ad was based on reporting not deemed credible!)

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Are Freddie and Fannie causes or reults of the crisis?

 

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/18/McC...65811221757313/

 

 

EDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday he'd fire the Security and Exchange Commission chairman for "betraying the public trust."

The SEC chairman, a presidential appointee, "kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino," McCain said in a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, campaign visit. "The chairman of the SEC ... betrayed the public's trust. If I were president today, I would fire him."

 

McCain didn't mention SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, who was appointed by U.S. President George Bush in June 2005, by name.

 

McCain also ripped banks and brokers, saying, "(mismanagement) and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch."

 

He called for the creation of a "mortgage and financial institutions trust," which would work with the private sector and regulators to help troubled institutions before they become insolvent.

 

"For troubled institutions this will provide an orderly process through which to identify bad loans and eventually sell them," he said.

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Next you're going to say this is a complicated problem with many causes. How are you supposed to fit that kind of BS in a campaign commercial?

 

"Wall Street is EEEEEEVIIIIIILLLLLLLL! Vote for me!" seems to work very, very well.

 

It's notable to...uh, note...that Ginnie Mae, who never got the same mandate from Congress to encourage home ownership, is in much better condition than Fannie or Freddie. It's also interesting to note that Ginnie is suffering as well, and is about to get hammered by the next likely corporate failure.

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Next you're going to say this is a complicated problem with many causes. How are you supposed to fit that kind of BS in a campaign commercial?

And it's such a simple solution: Give Paulson $700 billion. Sure, that'll do it... :worthy:

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