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No inspector general giving oversight to fannie and freddie, b/c Rahm passed a law before he went in congress that had a loophole to fire the acting attorney general. Since that time the White House has refused to appoint a new attorney general.
http://firedoglake.com/2009/12/23/ja...s-resignation/
Jane Hamsher, Grover Norquist Call for Rahm Emanuel’s Resignation
It's long, they have a nice video, rep the site.
No inspector general giving oversight to fannie and freddie, b/c Rahm passed a law before he went in congress that had a loophole to fire the acting attorney general. Since that time the White House has refused to appoint a new attorney general.
Progressive voters are starting to look for scapegoats. Jane Hamsher has just taken aim at Rahm Emanuel, Obama's political fixer. Her open letter collaboration with Grover Norquist, in the first year of Obama's term, shows how short the road from hope to disillusionment has been for some of Obama's more unabashedly liberal supporters.
Related:Treasury will back losses of any amount at Fannie and Freddie for the next three years.
Don't you have to like someone at first to make him a scapegoat? Rahm has been the target of many progressive liberals since his congressional days and many blame him for all the congressional surrendering the W.H. has been doing and his past connections to freddie and fannie mac...
..that said, Jane Hamsher is sleeping with a lying dog in Grover Norquist....this is the guy who wants to dissolve the union by sinking the government in a bath-tub of debt...and he would have been successful to if McCain would have won...
....it's not money, it's a guarantee that the govt. can make 10% or more on...
So far, Treasury has provided $60 billion of capital to Fannie and $51 billion to Freddie. Mahesh Swaminathan, a senior mortgage analyst at Credit Suisse in New York, said he didn't believe Fannie and Freddie would need more than $200 billion apiece from the Treasury. But he and other analysts have said the market would find a larger commitment from the Treasury reassuring.
In exchange for the funding, the Treasury has received preferred stock in the companies paying 10% dividends. The Treasury also has warrants to acquire nearly 80% of the common shares in each firm.
Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist are trying to revive something that has already been investigated, with hearings held during the Republican-controlled 108th Congress by the House SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, TRADE, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION when guess who was chair?
FREDDIE MAC: ACCOUNTING STANDARDS ISSUES RAISED IN THE DOTY REPORT
....And it was already investigated...
Freddie Mac Misrepresented Income, Says SEC
Rahm was not named in the complaint..
This is amateur FAUX News hour material.... Jane Hamsher EXPOSED!Freddie Mac agreed to pay a $50 million penalty in 2007 to settle the SEC complaint and four top executives of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation were charged with negligent conduct and, like the company, agreed to settle the case without admitting or denying the allegations.
The government pays 100s of billions of dollars more for Fannie and Freddie, and gets preferred shares (10% OF WHAT, RIGHT?) and possibly worthless warrants in return.
Oh, and Fannie and Freddie get to hoover up even more toxic assets, knowing that the USG will back unlimited losses. What could possibly go wrong?
Last edited by Winehole23; 12-26-2009 at 03:25 AM.
Cenk Uygur's two cents: an ONGOING investigation of Fannie and Freddie was scotched by a bill introduced by Mr Emanuel, Obama refuses to reappoint the IG for agencies we're about to give 100's of billions more to. Meanwhile, the statute of limitations on Mr Emanuel for any possible wrongdoing will run out in 2010-2011.
This stinks to high heaven, Dan
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/20891She went over and got Grover Norquist, who is one of the biggest right wingers in the country — we’ve had him on the program here, he’s the President of Americans for Tax Reform– and they did a joint letter against Rahm Emanuel.
Now wait a minute. You see, this gets everybody’s attention. And everybody’s talking about it online today, and I’m sure in all the media. Oh, it’s actual bipartisan work here by the left wing and the right wing to say Rahm Emanuel’s doing something wrong.
So what’s it on? Well, it turns out he was on the board of Freddie Mac back during 2000 and 2001. They claim he did some things on that board that need to be investigated. And in fact, that an investigator was investigating it — Inspector General Ed Kelley — and he was stripped of his authority by the Obama Administration’s Justice Department.
And that the Justice Department used a bill, or a loophole in a bill, passed by: Rahm Emanuel, before he left congress. And that the statute of limitations is going to run out in 2010 and 2011 for investigating what Rahm Emanuel was doing on that board and what the rest of the board was doing at Freddie Mac.
In fact, right now they’re negotiating to double the commitments to Fannie and Freddie for a total of $800 billion by December 31 and Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist are saying we shouldn’t let them have that money, it’s another back door TARP and they’re going to funnel that money to toxic assets, and we need to know what they did on that board in the first place, and why they got rid of that inspector general.
Since they got rid of the Inspector General, no one has replaced them. And this is an enormous part of our economy, and Fannie and Freddie have six trillion dollars in mortgages without any oversight. And how much of this is Rahm Emanuel responsible for?
Now those are heavy questions. And that’s going to get everybody’s attention in Washington. So if Rahm Emanuel thought he could ignore the left, which is what he smugly told the WSJ just about a week ago, saying “heh heh, there’s nothing to be concerned about on the left,” well you just got a two-by-four across the head. Are you concerned now, Rahm? Did Jane catch your attention, about how maybe you need to be investigated and how you squelched that investigation?
My guess is, all of a sudden, you’re not so smug any more.
Okay, look. That’s what you gotta do. First of all, you have to do it because it’s true. Wait a minute, what happened in 2000-2001, I don’t give a damn if Rahm Emanuel is a Democrat or a Republican. And why did you get rid of the Inspector General? Maybe you’ve got a good reason for it. But they need to tell us.
And funneling this $800 billion, before the end of the year, to these guys who screwed up before? These things, Fannie and Freddie, are in a lot of ways area disaster. They’re funneling the toxic assets to there — what the banks can’t get rid of, the mortgages etc they’re funneling all to there.
No, I need to know exactly what’s happening there before we funnel another eight hundred billion dollars there. So on the substance, Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist are right. And that’s a second reason why this letter is so important.
Because look. On the right wing, we could potentially have allies against Wall Street corruption. And against using taxpayer money for things we did not agree to, whether that’s going after the Fed or Ben Bernanke or Tim Geithner or in this case Rahm Emanuel. On the substance, they’re right.
Now we have to look into this issue more — I’m not saying Rahm Emanuel is guilty. That’s why they were investigating it before it got shut down. All right? So you need to reopen that investigation.
The govt. pledged $200 million each back in Nov. 2008 and so far they've lent out $60 billion of capital to Fannie and $51 billion to Freddie.
ABC News Nov 2008The federal government this year was forced to take over Freddie Mac and a sister federal mortgage agency, Fannie Mae, pledging at least $200 billion in public funds
..so what's changed?
Last edited by Nbadan; 12-26-2009 at 02:12 AM.
Caps were removed:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126168307200704747.htmlThe Obama administration's decision to cover an unlimited amount of losses at the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years stirred controversy over the holiday.
The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each.
The USG backing notionally unlimited losses at Fannie and Freddie at a time when they have no inspector general frankly invites mischief, wouldn't you say?
The real shame is that Freddie and Fannie are backing loans that should be backed by private lenders, the toxic loans are a bi-product of an unregulated market turned soar, so now everyone wants to be bought out, bailed out or subsidized...banks still have trillions of dollars of bad loans on their books, this move reassures the banks, insurers, share-holders and deposit holders that there is some level of stability and security, a corporate safety-net if your will....ironic, huh?
Bingo.
The percentage of subprime mortgages in Freddie and Fannie's portfolio increased about 100% from the summer of 2007 (the beginning of the credit crunch) to the fall of 2008 (the passage of the TARP.) Clearly, using the GSE's to launder ty risk has been part of the strategy since the beginning of the downturn.
The lack of oversight by an IG combined with the government's new pledge to back unlimited losses for the next three years bodes ill for the US taxpayer. Why remove the caps, if so far we've only burned through one-quarter of the amount pledged? It makes no sense at all, unless the market believes that $290 billion more can't fix Fannie and Freddie.
Given that Fannie and Freddie hold $6 trillion in mortgages and are the main originator for new home loans, that's hardly unthinkable. Some analysts think the housing market has another 15-20% on the downside before things turn around.
Last edited by Winehole23; 12-26-2009 at 03:34 AM.
Oh, and why doesn't Obama nominate an IG for Fannie and Freddie? Don't they need one, and doesn't the US taxpayer deserve it?
I'm all in favor of Ag Holder investigating Emanuel for fraud/malfeasance before the 10 year statute of limitations runs out.
If it happens, however, I'll probably be boiling my boots to medium-rare for a crow-tastic repast.
OK, a simple question.
The Attorney General is a member of the presidents cabinet. How can any law passed be cons utionally enforced upon the executive branch?
I say serious FAIL!
It was a hair's breadth from happening to Nixon had he not resigned, so while it remains unprecedented, it is not beyond the bounds of reason -- particularly if this story grows enough to be a liability for the Potus or even more broadly, the Dems. Elections are right around the corner, and the polity s thirsty to see the sort of justice the POTUS promised in his campaign.
But to reiterate my earlier point along with your own: it is damn unlikely to happen, you're right.
As long as I don't have to nosh on Klaus Kinski's kicks, I'm good.
Kinky.As long as I don't have to nosh on Klaus Kinski's kicks, I'm good.
This story will go nowhere. You can't put it on a bumper sticker.
That's too bad. It's potentially another really big stickup of the US taxpayer by shady GSEs with the total complicity of our elected representatives.
Herzog added garlic, herbs and duck fat to his own shoes and simmered them long time before he ate them in public.As long as I don't have to nosh on Klaus Kinski's kicks, I'm good.
I would expect no less from you, snackbar.
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