Gov't may soon back troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
(AP) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to be taken over by the government as soon as this weekend in a bold move designed to protect the mortgage market from the risk the companies could fail, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.
Some of the details of the intervention, which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, the companies' chief regulator, met Friday afternoon with the top executives from the mortgage companies and informed them of the government's plan to take over the troubled companies in a process known as conservatorship.
3 comments:
For an interesting read on this gummint takeover:
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
This is going to cost taxpayers at least $20B/month, for over $500B... This might be the beginning of a very long depression. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the markets reacted positively from this madness, at least short-term.
Just a few short weeks ago the CEO of both of these fraud companies said that they were FINE. Their capital was sufficient. LIARS!
Just a short month ago Paulson said that these companies were good to go, KEEP investing in them! LIAR!
I wish I could get bailed out every time I LIED and made horrible BETS in Vegas!!!
We all better ask our grandchildren to start saving their pennies cause their going to have to pay China back for this.
How can government and high paid executives get away w/ this? This is worse then a street robbery.
I'm not a big fan of this takeover but I can see the need for it. They simply cannot allow the financial system to collapse.
On a positive note the takeover is having an effect on mortgage rates. They dropped about 1/2 a point today.
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