The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the cost of the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae(which own or guarantee half of the nation's mortgages) is around the tune of potentially $5,400bn .(that's $5.4 trillion) To put that number in perspective the entire US deficit is $407bn so over the weekend our deficit doubled .

Remember the almost daily saturation news reports about Enron ? Why is this not getting the press it deserves ? Perhaps it's because of the politicians wearing lipstick who have been greased the most by political contributions from these companies are the same crowd that the MSM covers for .The media refuses to touch it while they scour Alaska for stories about Sarah Palin getting parking tickets.

Edit : a whole section of this did not copy so this post is incomplete . Rather than redo it I will leave as is and add follow-up comments. Basically I argue for an independent prosecutor to run an investigation on the Congress Representatives and the officers of the 2 corps to get disclosure on how much of the collapse of these institutions are the result of fraud and outright theft.

Hello tom:

This is YOUR dufus at work. Buy gold. It's cheap now.

excon

Nope wrong again . That part of the posting that got wiped out clearly shows this to be primarily a Democrat boondoggle... hence the relative news black out.

Here is the list of the primary beneficiaries in Congress:

OpenSecrets | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Democrats - Capital Eye

The key oversight committees are run by Chris Dodd #1 beneficiary on the list ,and Barney Frank . I will name others as this post progresses but suffice it to say that one of the few in the Senate who has been pushing for years for reform of these institutions has been John McCain.

Hello again, tom:

I don't understand what the connection to their managements political giving has to do with the dufus using several trillion of YOUR dollars to bail them out. Those who gave the money are gone. The shareholders are wiped out.

I can't see any Democrat benefiting. I don't see any Republican benefiting either. All I see is your grandchildren suffering...

excon

The Dems want to keep the institutions operational as is. It has been their piggy bank since at least the Clintonoid term . Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick both Clintonistas pocketted multi millions above their base salaries while there by cooking the books. The institutions have been hotbeds of corruption while the Dems primarily have given it cover. That is what I want investigated .

As for the institutions themselves .I want them broken up and auctioned off on eBay .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomder55

The Dems want to keep the institutions operational as is.

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Hello again, tom:

You mean to tell me that the dufus spent TRILLIONS just to give the DEMS a break?? Sorry. I'm not buying it.

excon

No he did it because it averts a great depression-like collapse of the institutions that hold 50% of the mortages in the country... and buys time for something to be done... just like any other bailout done throughout the years. Where we go from here is vital .

Still no call for investigations by the Dem. Congress... interesting coming from the Congress that has had perpetual investigations since 2006.

Yeah, the Dems are too busy trying to find a way to impeach Bush. After all, that's more important than anything else, right?

Quote:

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George Will on Politics and the Economy | Newsweek Voices - George F. Will | Newsweek.com


Today's surge of "conservative corporatism" began with the Bush administration's brokering of JPMorgan Chase's takeover of Bear Stearns...

Nevertheless, this looks like semi-socialism—keeping profits private, but socializing losses.
...


Today's conservative corporatism of the Republican administration might "work," meaning it might minimize the duration of, and damage from, the current crisis. It is, however, complicating McCain's task of depicting Obama as a reckless enlarger of government. McCain is losing recourse to conservatism's core message about the rationality of governmental minimalism that allows markets to inflict their rigors.

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Is it truly to big to fail? Big meaning big corporations, but you the common citizen don't get any bailout for the risks you take. You enjoy true capitalism, whereas the corporations agree as long as they make the profits and have the taxpayors cover their losses... with the agreement of this administration.

If they truly believed in capitalism, let the bloodshed begin.
If you have true faith in capitalism, though the short term effects of collapsing fm2 would truly be hard, would not market capitalism come up with a better more beneficial arrangement than the one failing now ?

inthebox

Exactly... that is why I said that they should be auctioned off on eBay (the Palin solution)

Dubya had a Republican congress that sat on their little investigating hands starting in late 2002 until '06. Congress in general has been fairly worthless, right behind the presidency. BTW Tom that plane did not get auctioned off on Ebay. Palin, another hot-headed quick tempered maverick, only listed the plane on Ebay. She then sold it privately to an entrepreneur.

Gov. Sarah Palin's eBay plane claim: The Swamp

"Palin's statement implied the plane was sold through the online auction site revered for empowering millions of small entrepreneurs, and Palin's spokeswoman insisted Thursday that the transaction occurred. But the plane failed to sell on eBay.

Instead, the 23-year-old 10-seat Westwind II was sold in August 2007 for $2.1 million to a Valdez, Alaska, entrepreneur; that's about $300,000 less than a broker's asking price, according to news accounts."

Yes I realize that . I used the term as a metaphor ,as did Palin in her speech ,to getting rid of cr*p . The gvt. Should not be in the mortgage business so break up the 2 corps and let the private sector buy them.

Congress is not likely to investigate their own piggy bank. That is why an independent investigator is needed.