Fannie Mae

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Treasury May Lower Mortgage Rates to 4.5%

Rates could go as low as 4.5% to curb falling home prices

(Newser) - The Treasury may try to bring new mortgage rates down to 4.5%—a full percentage point lower than current rates—to revitalize the housing market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under the proposal, which is still in the early stages, the department would use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

Fannie, Freddie Will Stop Foreclosures Over Holidays

Some 16K affected by pause

(Newser) - Homeowners facing foreclosure got a morsel of good news today: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t give them the boot over the holidays. The companies will suspend foreclosures of occupied houses from Nov. 26-Jan. 9 while they work out a loan-reform plan with lenders, MarketWatch reports. The six-week suspension...

Freddie Posts Record $25.3B Loss; Taps $13B Infusion

(Newser) - Freddie Mac, the swamped mortgage giant seized by the government two months ago, asked for $13.8 billion from the Treasury today after a record quarterly loss plunged its net worth into the negative, Bloomberg reports. Sister company Fannie Mae, also under government control, said this week it might need...

Fannie, Freddie to Offer Mass Loan Modifications

Housing giants aim to reduce foreclosures

(Newser) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will roll out a plan today to modify hundreds of thousands of loans in an effort to prevent foreclosures, the Wall Street Journal reports. The mortgage giants, under federal conservatorship, aim to reduce mortgage payments to no more than 38% of household income. Private banks...

Fannie Mae Posts Stunning Losses
Fannie Mae
Posts Stunning
Losses

Fannie Mae Posts Stunning Losses

Lender bled $29B last quarter, dwarfing total bubble gains

(Newser) - Fannie Mae lost more in the third quarter of this year than it gained from soaring house prices between all of 2002 and 2006, the New York Times reports. The massive $29 billion loss, mainly from asset writedowns, means the company may need more than the $100 billion pledged from...

Private Sector Sparked Subprime Crisis: Fed

Liberal housing policy wasn't at fault—risky betting was

(Newser) - A talk radio campaign blaming the credit crisis on lower-class Americans is up against new federal data, McClatchy reports. Critics argue that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pushed by Clinton policies, gave subprime mortgages to minority Americans who could not afford homes. But 84% of mortgages were handed out...

American Capitalism Is Dead. The Culprit? America
American Capitalism Is Dead. The Culprit? America
ANALYSIS

American Capitalism Is Dead. The Culprit? America

(Newser) - As Wall Street banks collapse like a house of cards, American capitalism isn’t just failing in practice; the very idea of unregulated, free-functioning markets has received a serious blow, writes Anthony Faiola in the Washington Post. Once the symbols of American economic might, there's a real possibility that many...

Mortgage Forgiven After 90-Year-Old Shoots Herself

Fannie Mae dismisses foreclosure action after House hears of woman's plight

(Newser) - Fannie Mae will let 90-year-old Addie Polk keep her house and forgive her mortgage, the Akron Beacon-Journal reports. The widow shot herself in the chest Wednesday as deputies arrived to evict her from her home of 40 years. Rep. Dennis Kucinich raised the Ohio woman's plight in the House yesterday...

O'Reilly Berates Frank in On-Air Shouting Match

Fox host, Mass. Democrat call each other names

(Newser) - Bill O’Reilly has called for the resignation of House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, so it was a predictably tense situation when the Massachusetts Democrat appeared on his show last night. A remarkable shouting match ensued, even by O’Reilly’s standards. The Fox host quickly began screaming at...

Candidates Return to Capital to Back Bailout

McCain, Obama stress urgent need for financial intervention

(Newser) - The presidential candidates took a break from stumping today to visit Washington, DC, and support the Senate's financial bailout plan, the New York Times reports. Barack Obama repeated his pro-bailout argument on the Senate floor, saying that "the worldwide economy could be plunged into a very, very deep hole....

FBI Begins Probe of AIG, Lehman, Fannie, Freddie

(Newser) - The FBI is investigating four major US financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700-billion bailout plan by the Bush administration. The agency is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, insurer AIG and Lehman Brothers. The inquiries will focus on the companies and...

Paulson Outlines His 'Bold' Bailout
Paulson
Outlines His
'Bold' Bailout

Paulson Outlines His 'Bold' Bailout

He and Bush say it's urgent to act now to stabilize markets

(Newser) - Henry Paulson confirmed today that he is working on a "bold" plan to buy bad loans from banks, the Wall Street Journal reports. Such a plan would cost taxpayers “hundreds of billions of dollars,” Paulson said, but he believes it is necessary to stabilize the economy. “...

How Much More Will Taxpayers Have to Pony Up?
How Much More Will Taxpayers Have to Pony Up?
analysis

How Much More Will Taxpayers Have to Pony Up?

The US has pledged some $320 billion in bailouts for struggling enterprises

(Newser) - More than $320 billion in taxpayer funding has already been pledged to treat firms sickened by the subprime contagion—more than twice the $124 billion the government spent fixing the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s, reports the Los Angeles Times. The question, writes Michael Hiltzik, is how much...

Her Golden Parachute Fine With McCain
Her Golden Parachute Fine With McCain
ANALYSIS

Her Golden Parachute Fine With McCain

'No analogy' between Fiorina's $45M from HP, subprime payouts

(Newser) - John McCain and Sarah Palin made a point yesterday of blasting CEOs who left their companies with multimillion-dollar golden parachutes while workers and shareholders suffered. But McCain’s top economic adviser deployed just such a shiny parachute when Hewlett-Packard ousted her, ABC News reports. Carly Fiorina pocketed $45 million, even...

How Market Turmoil Affects Campaign
 How Market Turmoil 
 Affects Campaign 
ANALYSIS

How Market Turmoil Affects Campaign

Obama, McCain haven't talked much about US economy—now they'll have to

(Newser) - The crisis on Wall Street will change the shape of the presidential campaign in its final weeks, forcing both sides to adjust their messages and strategies. Mike Allen, in Politico, details four major effects:
  • Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has talked much, or in detail, about economic plans. No
...

Wall Street Rumbling Means Little on Main Street

Financial meltdown has small effect on 'real economy': Kaletsky

(Newser) - Fannie and Freddie have been nationalized, Lehman has collapsed, Merrill Lynch has been bought out—an economic disaster, right? Not really, Anatole Kaletsky writes in the Times of London: The US economy is actually showing signs of improvement. More than ever, "there is no contradiction between expecting a recovery,...

Credit Crisis at Tipping Point
Credit Crisis at Tipping Point
analysis

Credit Crisis at Tipping Point

As troubles mount, US government's intervention shows signs of strain

(Newser) - The federal government keeps taking aggressive steps to keep the markets from flying off the rails, and yet here we are again: facing another crisis and wondering how much intervention is necessary, the Wall Street Journal reports. With government intervention showing signs of strain amid entrenched economic problems, the crisis...

McCain, Obama Both Have Ties to Loan Giants

Both took cash from leaders; McCain's manager is GSEs' ex-lobbyist

(Newser) - Barack Obama and John McCain are both railing against the excesses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the campaign trail, and promising to end the lobbyist culture in Washington that led to their fall. But both candidates and their parties have multiple ties to Fannie and Freddie, the New ...

Mortgage Rates Fall After Fannie, Freddie Bailout

Average 30-year loan rates drop nearly half a point

(Newser) - The federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sent mortgage rates plummeting today, MSNBC reports. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage dropped nearly half a percentage point to 5.88%, dipping below 6% for the first time since January. The average rate for a 15-year loan is down to...

Senator: Fire 'Socialist' Paulson
Senator: Fire 'Socialist' Paulson

Senator: Fire 'Socialist' Paulson

Ky.'s Bunning appears to have problem with Fannie/Freddie move

(Newser) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but now he may have to worry about saving his own job: One Republican senator called his policies socialist and recommended that he and Fed chief Ben Bernanke resign, Bloomberg reports. “They have taken the free market out of...

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