I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa brought you everything you wanted. He certainly was very good to Fannie and Freddie. Only in their case, Santa is the American taxpayer, you and me. One thing is clear, the plutocracy never sleeps, or takes a holiday. How about this for a Christmas Eve news dump?
This brought to you courtesy of the accounting firm of Change, Openness, and Transparency:
The previous cap on money poured down the Fannie and Freddie black hole was a combined $400 billion, $200 billion each, of which only(?) $111 billion has been used so far. So why change it to "unlimited?" Here's an explanation:
Santa (again, that's you and me) was also very good to Fannie and Freddie executives:
That's $6 million each for CEOs whose companies have lost a combined $200 billion. Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you happen to have the Treasury Secretary on speed dial.
This sums up the entire cluster____ about as well as I've seen it:
Government of the wealthy and powerful, by the wealthy and powerful, and for the wealthy and powerful. Some things never "change."
"The Obama administration pledged on Thursday to back beleaguered mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac no matter how big their losses may be in the next three years."
This brought to you courtesy of the accounting firm of Change, Openness, and Transparency:
"Under a law put in place before the government seized the two mortgage agencies in September 2008, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had until the end of this year to increase the limit without asking Congress for approval...The administration waited until financial markets had closed on Christmas Eve to make the announcement..."
The previous cap on money poured down the Fannie and Freddie black hole was a combined $400 billion, $200 billion each, of which only(?) $111 billion has been used so far. So why change it to "unlimited?" Here's an explanation:
"If the Treasury is removing the cap, they obviously expect the losses to skyrocket (even though they deny this publicly). This could be happening because the Treasury already knows how much Fannie and Freddie are going to declare as losses this quarter."
Santa (again, that's you and me) was also very good to Fannie and Freddie executives:
"But even as the administration was making this open-ended financial commitment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009...The compensation packages, including up to $6 million each to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's chief executives, come amid an ongoing public debate about lavish payments to executives at banks and other financial firms that have received taxpayer aid. But while many firms on Wall Street have repaid the assistance, there is no prospect that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will do so."
That's $6 million each for CEOs whose companies have lost a combined $200 billion. Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you happen to have the Treasury Secretary on speed dial.
This sums up the entire cluster____ about as well as I've seen it:
"We are getting very used to watching the federal government operate with only the sketchiest information on what it is doing. Most everything seems to be done behind doors and in secrecy. That's what makes this brief announcement about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so troublesome. When the federal government starts talking about unlimited guaranties to cover future losses, our biggest worry ought to be that whatever large number we can contemplate is included under the word "unlimited", the government has an even larger number in mind."
Government of the wealthy and powerful, by the wealthy and powerful, and for the wealthy and powerful. Some things never "change."
You?
Good for who? I fail to see the good in a system where what's best for Wall Street, giant corporations, and special interests trumps what's best for the people. I fail to see the good in the best government money can buy. I fail to see the good in a system where no matter who we vote for, we get the same result. What's good about that?
yup...but 'good' lives on...
Shorter version: Money talks, bullshit runs for office.
Carguy,
ME WRONG!!! NEVER!!!
You're correct and they are one and the same. Kings, Queens, Popes, bankers...they all want in on the action. Historically, religion was government. But money (from a conspiratorial view) has always been the controlling force.
Don't know whether we can last "round two" of the economic downturn. The signs are quite ominous with this Freddie and Fannie thing. I can see throngs of homeless, uninsured, and hungry people descending upon Washington in massive numbers...
I thought the "illuminati" was that group in the Tom Hanks film "The DaVinci Code". NOt that I'm saying you're wrong. Just curious. I'm getting all these international conspiracy theories confused. There ARE a lot of them. :-)
I was reading some material the other day that I wouldn't by necessity call "eye-opening", not by necessity anyway, but interesting nonetheless.
The author claims that the real power of government lies with the Fed and the Fed is run by the illuminati. If you're not familiar with the illuminati conspiracy let me just quickly say that they're the organization bent on world domination through a one world government and coincidentally are reputed to own most of the world's wealth. In any case, the Fed can virtually bend ANYONE to its will by merely threatening to crash the monetary system by whatever mechanism it chooses. And there are more than a few. It was an 'interesting' read.
I read this in the paper. Ruined my holiday. Now, I'm NOT gonna say that if Obama doesn't do SOMETHING to stop these bonuses that I will abandom him. BUT, he may get a "banana in his tailpipe" as well when I am up in D.C doing all the senators who fought against the healthcare bill.
THis is beyond ludicrous. Heard some very disturbing stuff on the Sunday politifcal talk shows. VERRRRY DISTURBING. The "disconnection" between the people and their elected officials is broadening NOT narrowing.
Will there BE a strong third party before 2012?
I wouldn't bet against it.
Oh good Lord! Once again, I am speechless with this Administration!
WTF???
This makes me so angry I'm just stuttering here at my desk.
What happened to the guy who's supposed to be making sure that big salaries for bailed out CEOs don't happen? Do people in Washington not know what ordinary people make? You know, the ordinary people who are bailing out the poop-for-brains CEOs?
This is so backwards.
I second Mayor Bloomberg's comment yesterday - you really have to wonder what kind of government we have.