Listening to a radio show as we were going through New Mexico, I heard someone ask the question, "Who are the CEO's of Fanny May and Freddie Mac and Why aren't they being investigated or charged with anything?"


Here's an article from 2004 I found on Franklin Raines of Fanny Mae-

Then I guess that CEO was replaced cause here's a story from this summer...

To help me along (I thought ), I looked up just the basic bio's of George Bush's 3 Treasury secretaries:

Paul O'Neill

John W. Snow

Henry Paulson


Now I pose the question. How did three very successful men allow this to happen without giving a little nudge to GW? Aren't members of the cabinet supposed to advise the President?

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Salty

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How would you have written the post if you didn't dislike Bush?

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But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America. http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060508.php3

I do not dislike Bush. I have probably taken up for the guy more than some so called conservatives. I do rag him about stuff once in awhile because he is so easy to rag on .
But I was impressed with some of the credentials of these people at the Treasury. I just wonder what the heck has been gong on?!

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Salty

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Same thing that goes on with every other sector of the economy like auto sales, credit cards, student loans, etc. etc. Our economy has relied on spend, spend, spend to survive. In order for us to spend, we need credit. In order for us to get credit, the government needs to make it palatable for creditors to give us money. Hence, the government now belongs to corporate America. Truthfully, it's not Bush's fault, it is greater than him as an individual, and the presidents before him. It is corruption at its most basic, but "they" make it legal by not passing the legislation required to protect us. You know, the people, .

Then comes something like the housing market collapse. The same as the tech companies' collapse in 2001. A tech company had no tangible assets, but were "valued" at millions. A a house that cost 30k to build, is valued at 300k. Kinda like printing money when you don't have the gold to back it up. Eventually, the whole thing implodes,

I found this commentary which I think does a great job in explaining the problem, and how we found ourselves in this pickle. I've only kept excerpts, so click on the link for the full article:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are called government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) because they have government charters and perform a government mission: providing liquidity to the mortgage market and assisting in the financing of affordable housing.

The flaw in their business model is that they are owned by private shareholders but backed by the government. As a result, lenders do not care about the risks the companies are taking because they know that the government will eventually step in to protect them against losses on their loans.

That meant Fannie and Freddie were able to borrow funds in the capital markets at very low rates and in essentially unlimited amounts.

This allowed them to grow in both size and profitability over the last 20 years, doubling every five years. Now we see the consequences -- the Treasury has been compelled to step in with a rescue plan that has been estimated at the outset to require what Paulson estimated could be about $200 billion of taxpayer money.

Concerns about the flawed business models of Fannie and Freddie are nothing new. These warnings began in earnest near the end of the Clinton administration.

But these warnings were ignored in Congress. Although there were efforts by a number of Republicans in the House and Senate to adopt tougher regulatory legislation -- beginning in 1999 -- these efforts were resisted by Democrats, primarily Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who was also the chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the GSEs.

To their credit, when the problems of Fannie and Freddie finally became too obvious to ignore, the Democrats in the House and Senate voted for stronger regulation of the two companies and to give the Secretary of the Treasury broad authority to bail them out. But by then it was far too late to save the taxpayers.

In the current election season, the American people should want to know why it is that they as taxpayers will now be compelled to bail out these companies.

John McCain was one of the Republicans who supported GSE reform, but he and the others faced an insurmountable defensive phalanx in Congress -- the result of a strong lobbying and political support program engineered and operated over many years by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The fact that the Republicans controlled Congress during much of this period shows the validity of McCain's comment in his convention acceptance speech that "We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us."

Among other things, Fannie and Freddie orchestrated substantial contributions to the campaign funds of their congressional supporters. They hired some former congressional staff members as lobbyists and engaged lobbying firms that had strong relationships with members of Congress, including lobbyists who are active in both of this year's presidential campaigns

This is a prominent example of Washington's culture of corruption. The government put its credit behind the two companies; this enabled them to grow and dominate the housing finance market; they used their resulting financial and political power to gain and retain the support of key members of Congress; and the process continued until they collapsed -- at which time the taxpayers have to clean things up.

This could all have been prevented if Congress had acted years ago to eliminate the GSE business model. There are three possible models -- privatization, nationalization or liquidation. Congress and the president can decide which it will be, but the worst idea is to reconstitute them as GSEs.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the choice Treasury Secretary Paulson made in the plan he announced Sunday. In that plan, a conservator will be appointed for Fannie and Freddie, and they will be nursed back to financial health with injections of taxpayer funds by the Treasury. A conservator has only the power to stabilize the companies.

...

The American people sense that something is seriously wrong in Washington. The Fannie and Freddie debacle shows how right they are.

Commentary: Don't repeat Fannie, Freddie mistakes - CNN.com

So... while the move was quite necessary to get us out of the pickle they did nothing to prevent, not only will it screw the taxpayers... but everything will be brought back to the status quo, so further down the line we can be screwed again,

Paul O'Niell got out early on. And i don't think he thought very highly of the administration.

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Getting deeper and deeper. I wonder how good the internet reception is from Mexico, cause we're seriously thinking of retiring there and getting out of this mess once and for all.

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Salty

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My question would be "What politicians gained the most from contributions to their campaigns?"...

Whoops!

I still can't get over the fact that Obama came in second with 3 years in the Senate in a list that went back 20 years!...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Is there some legislative impropriety you want to point to?
Or is this just another "guilt by association" post?

neither...

It's just more proof that Obama attacks McCain for certain things (in this case, taking money from lobbyists), when, in reality, Obama does the very same thing...

It just another example...like this one...

Obama's Oil Spill

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd