U.S. mulls remaking mortgage giants

[Robert Toy]

The Obama administration is considering an overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would strip the mortgage finance giants of hundreds of billions of dollars in troubled loans and create a new structure to support the home-loan market, government officials said.

The bad debts the firms own would be placed in new government-backed financial institutions -- so-called bad banks -- that would take responsibility for collecting as much of the outstanding balance as possible. What would be left would be two healthy financial companies with a clean slate.

Until the future of the firms is worked out, the Obama administration has been using them to carry out its housing recovery program, including restructuring mortgages to avoid foreclosures.

In addition, the Federal Reserve has bought well over $1 trillion worth of mortgage-related securities and debt from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That further helped to lower interest rates on home loans. The government also has pledged up to $400 billion in direct investments in the firms.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32309615/ns/business-washington_post//

Now you see it…now you don’t

[Don]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are definately broken.

I know, let's have the same body that created these FrankenBanks write another couple thousand pages of legislation to overhaul them... since they did such a great job creating them in the first place, and then provided such terrific oversite after their creation.

We're really lucky that our government is filled with such a great collection of top-notch economists.

[Robert Toy]

betcha that little ol' trillion slipped your memory, huh?

[Roger J Carlson]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are definately broken.

I know, let's have the same body that created these FrankenBanks write another couple thousand pages of legislation to overhaul them... since they did such a great job creating them in the first place, and then provided such terrific oversite after their creation.

We're really lucky that our government is filled with such a great collection of top-notch economists.Oh, but that was the old collection of top-notch economists. The new ones are much better.

[Robert Toy]

I forget to add:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090805/bs_nm/us_usa_housing_deutschebank

[clintl]

I won't be one of them.

[Robert Toy]

Fannie Mae needs another $10.7B in federal aid

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage insurer, said Thursday that it needs another $10.7 billion from the Treasury Department to stay afloat.

The new infusion means the troubled company has drawn a total of $45.9 billion of its $200 billion lifeline this year. Fannie Mae and its sister firm, Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), were taken over by the federal government last September amid the global financial meltdown.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/06/news/companies/Fannie_mae_earnings/index.htm?postversion=2009080618