Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Why Fannie and Freddie should be euthanized

Keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operational is consuming hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars:
Friday night, note the timing, Fannie Mae said they will need another $15 billion in cash from the government (that's you and me, the taxpayers). That brings the Fannie and Freddie total to $126.9 billion thus far, but with more to come, according to both companies.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates Fannie & Freddie cost us a total of $389 billion by 2019. That includes all the subsidies they are providing in an effort to keep mortgage rates low, and support the housing market.

And people are mad about Citi and Bank of America getting $45 billion (which they have paid back by the way)?

But Fannie and Freddie money is just going to money heaven.
Will Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be shut down, as they should be? No, because politicians want to use other people's money (i.e. yours) to prop up the housing market.

2 comments:

  1. Actually, I do expect them to be shut down (actually wound down) over time.

    They wont go away however...I expect the govt to create new entities in their place with clean balance sheets to attract investers...sorta like a good bank bad bank thing.

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  2. so sad but true that the expectation is for the government to do what is, in the end, fiscally pathetic and irresponsible. Of course, this is how theese clowns get elected - by making promises of free lunches (when we all know that there are none, and that bell shaped curves will always always always return to baseline)

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