U.S. Assistant Treasury Secretary Emil Henry Thursday cited "new and troubling revelations that Freddie Mac's accounting and internal controls continue to be in disarray."In a speech in which he first centered on Fannie Mae's recent $400 million settlement to resolve accounting and other problems, Henry said of Freddie Mac that "they have recently reported that they can 'begin' the registration process" with the Securities and Exchange Commission only after releasing full year 2006 results.
Is it reasonable for Freddie Mac to begin this process over five years after announcing that they would register with the SEC?" the Treasury official asked.Just as troubling, he said, is Freddie Mac's recent announcement that it needs to limit the number of internal controls initiatives and defer "lower priority" internal control efforts.
What a mess. :-(
Posts
They couldn't understand Dr. Seuss if their lives depended on it.
ReplyDeletehow is that a Freddie Mac cant keep their books straight? according to the defintion- arent they governed by Congress? why isnt anyone stepping in to stop this madness?
ReplyDeleteBill ... stop posting in my name!
ReplyDeleteWe should just forgive all existing paper and start over again fresh. Just right it all off the books.
ReplyDeleteWhere's the media been up to this point? I find the reporting on this poor - especially from our hometown Washington Post. They actively report on real estate, so where have they been on Freddie Mac?
ReplyDeleteI avoid local TV news - have they been on this?
Why do renters care about an overpriced housing market? Because they'd rather buy than rent.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, they'd pay no attention to the RE market.
If renting were all about "freedom" and copious "excess cash" to spend or invest; you'd think it would be a no-brainer. But it isn't a no-brainer, as all the complaining and emotional insults coming from renters continually demonstrate.
It isn't a no-brainer, because renting sucks, renters know it sucks, they want to buy, they can't afford it, and they complain loudly and attack people who own homes.
Calm down and think about it. It is true.
Renting sucks.
Pronunciation: 'rent
ReplyDeleteFunction: noun
Etymology: Middle English rente, from Old French, income from a property, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin rendita, from feminine of renditus, past participle of rendere to yield -- more at RENDER
1 : property (as a house) rented or for rent
2 a : a usually fixed periodical return made by a tenant or occupant of property to the owner for the possession and use thereof; especially : an agreed sum paid at fixed intervals by a tenant to the landlord b : the amount paid by a hirer of personal property to the owner for the use thereof
3 a : the portion of the income of an economy (as of a nation) attributable to land as a factor of production in addition to capital and labor b : ECONOMIC RENT
- for rent : available for use or service in return for payment
Main Entry: 1suck
ReplyDeletePronunciation: 's&k
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English suken, from Old English sucan; akin to Old High German sugan to suck, Latin sugere
transitive senses
1 a : to draw (as liquid) into the mouth through a suction force produced by movements of the lips and tongue [sucked milk from his mother's breast] b : to draw something from or consume by such movements [suck an orange] [suck a lollipop] c : to apply the mouth to in order to or as if to suck out a liquid [sucked his burned finger]
2 a : to draw by or as if by suction [when a receding wave sucks the sand from under your feet -- Kenneth Brower] [inadvertently sucked into the... intrigue -- Martin Levin] b : to take in and consume by or as if by suction [a vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt][suck up a few beers] [opponents say that malls suck the life out of downtown areas -- Michael Knight]
intransitive senses
1 : to draw something in by or as if by exerting a suction force; especially : to draw milk from a breast or udder with the mouth
2 : to make a sound or motion associated with or caused by suction [his pipe sucked wetly] [flanks sucked in and out, the long nose resting on his paws -- Virginia Woolf]
3 : to act in an obsequious manner [when they want votes... the candidates come sucking around -- W. G. Hardy] [sucked up to the boss]
4 slang : to be objectionable or inadequate [our lifestyle sucks -- Playboy] [people who rent say it sucks -- H. S. Thompson]
Anonymous-
ReplyDeleteSorry your self-esteem is attached to this idea of renting "sucking." (Intersting choice of verbs on your part.)
It's a nice real estate industry ploy - peddle the American 'dream' of home owning at any cost; create insecurity about renting and voracious landlords; and then beat the drum of "sharecropper indentured servitude" to help housing sales.
Works on the 'suckers,' I suppose.
Did it work on you, 'sucker'?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/06/02/DI2006060200931.html
ReplyDeleteLatest Wash Post real estate chat. URL above is a bit long. Interesting read, as usual.
This is for the guy who constantly says the RE market is analogous to the stock market:
ReplyDelete"I periodically bring up the graph of the
performance of the U.S. stock market over the past 75 years. It looks like the
upward slope of Everest.market averages (Dow Jones, S&P
500, Wilshire 5000) of at least 20%
over a short period of time (at least
"
Tom Gardner, co-founder, The Motley Fool
Now we're going to hear all about how renters invest vast volumes of cash into the stock market. But you can bet those words are being conveyed from an old PC on top of an old Ikea dining room table with wobbly legs, in a rented room in a building full of renters who buy disposable furniture while they are "waiting" to buy "furniture they like" when they finally "buy a nice house". Like the houses they saw in a Norman Rockwell painting at some point.
ReplyDeletehttp://ziprealty.typepad.com/marketconditions/2006/06/ziprealty_price.html
ReplyDeleteDC proper and NOVA not on this list yet - but MD is.
These "zipheads" must've not heard about the new housing paradigm playing out here - when prices never drop, land is eternally scarce, landlords are jacking up rents like crazy, and secretaries starting out in DC earn $60K+ a year...
"Now we're going to hear all about how renters invest vast volumes of cash into the stock market. But you can bet those words are being conveyed from an old PC on top of an old Ikea dining room table with wobbly legs, in a rented room in a building full of renters who buy disposable furniture while they are."
ReplyDeleteMacho, muscular comments! Wow, what a man. Bet you own a house, stud.
In fact, I invest my savings in lots of places - like commercial REITs - and I use a new Mac powerbook on a nice mahoganey desk passed down through my family. Oh, and I have good view of DC from Arlington in my 9th floor apartment near Courthouse ($1700/month rent - or $3000+ if I had bought a similar place).
I agree with Bill. It would be nice to have been able to buy a couple of years ago, but now is not the time to buy. Renting now is the smart move.
ReplyDeleteThen the renters will say, ok, maybe the stock market is not like the RE market after all. Stock markets are global, RE markets are local, RE is "real property" in the legal sense of the term, while stocks are intangible assignations of the issuer's future revenue stream. OK, renters will say. "Got it" they'll say.
ReplyDeleteAnd then they'll point to pets.com for an example of Newton's law, which they think states "what goes up, must come down"
Am I exaggerating? No, this has all been played out on this site multiple times.
Then we're right back to having a renter try so very very hard to convince strangers via the internet that he's wealthy and smart, which is why he rents a souless shoebox in a souless highrise in a state with personal property tax on cars and a chronic traffic congestion problem, a state that reannexed land from the District in the 1800s to make a statement about how it wanted slavery to continue as an economic and cultural institution in the United States. Courthouse. Why don't you just move into a large shopping mall and be done with it?
Bill, I admire your wit, wisdom, and patience for teaching me many things I was not aware of.
ReplyDeleteBill, I want to have your baby.
ReplyDeleteWhy do renters care about an overpriced housing market? Because they'd rather buy than rent.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, they'd pay no attention to the RE market.
If renting were all about "freedom" and copious "excess cash" to spend or invest; you'd think it would be a no-brainer. But it isn't a no-brainer, as all the complaining and emotional insults coming from renters continually demonstrate.
I thought this thread was about the crooks at freddie. BUT
ReplyDeleteIf you want to talk rent vs. buy...
I would LOVE TO "OWN" A HOME, I RENT because buying in 2006 is a bad investment. I rent for about 15% less than buying. I will buy when rent vs. buy is to my advantage. In the meantime I will LAUGH MY ASS OFF as people who bought in 2004-2006 lose evrything.
NOT Sorry about being harsh. You F*CKED yourself by buying.
That's free market capitalism.
Renters say "its all just a business decision";
ReplyDelete....it is just a non-emotional analysis of numbers;
....then in the very same breath they spew emotionally charged comments about how they'll "laugh their asses off" because buyers are "FUCKED".
Neither position is convincing.
"I rent for about 15% less than buying."
ReplyDeleteIf renting were all about "freedom" and copious "excess cash" to spend or invest; you'd think it would be a no-brainer. But it isn't a no-brainer, as all the complaining and emotional insults coming from renters continually demonstrate.
The Washington Post says this is "one of the tightest rental markets in decades"
ReplyDeletehere
As tight as that market might be, it's still 50% cheaper on average ot rent in DC than to own - not 15%.
ReplyDeleteRather than having a baby, I think I'm going to give birth to a Cleveland steamer in the bathroom - that's what the quality of the last few postings induces in me.
hmm, constant scatological references. recommend reading up on the psychology of individuals who are focused upon scatology:
ReplyDeletehttp://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Scatalogical
Have you guys seen this savings account from CITI? This is where I am keeping the cash that I will be using for downpayment after the correction. Deposited a couple months ago, and that 4.75% interest rate has been nice.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/p3uhm
how much cash do you have?
ReplyDeleteDavid, check out this site.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.condorenege.com/
I think this sounds like a great idea.
The power of the market.
http://matrix.millersamuel.com/?p=693
ReplyDeleteMore negative news on home sales...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIQgkc8VFr4&search=sign%20spinner
ReplyDeleteLatest RE fade - "open house" sign spinning.
Watching the video reminds me of trying to read through one of Lance's posts - no telling which direction the "spinner" wants to point you...
Bill, You don't need any help spinning ... It's obvious your head is spinning all day long trying to understand anything more complicated than "jeez, what goes up, must come down ... I'm soooo smart, duh ... "
ReplyDeleteBill: "Watching the video reminds me of trying to read through one of Lance's posts..."
ReplyDeleteLance: "Bill, You don't need any help spinning..."
You two are like an old married couple...
Wanna join us and make it a threesome?
ReplyDelete