“So the only thing I can see this advertising as being about is currying political goodwill, which is lobbying in another form, something that Fannie and Freddie are forbidden from doing.”
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Adam Levitin | Fannie and Freddie Charitable Donations?
I’m generally skeptical about corporate charitable donations. My sense is that they are primarily a transfer of value from shareholders to managers, rather than a value-enhancing investment in goodwill. So on the DC Metro, what did I see today, but a poster advertising the 2012 DC Servathon that featured the logos of a variety of corporate sponsors, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Aren’t Fannie and Freddie insolvent and in conservatorship? Whatever one thinks of corporate charitable donations, they are a lot harder to justify when the corporation is insolvent. Critically, as far as I can tell, the sponsorship is from Fannie and Freddie themselves, NOT their charitable foundations–at least there is no indication that it is the foundations, not the GSEs involved. If that is correct, then why on earth is FHFA permitting Fannie and Freddie to make charitable donations? It is practically a fraudulent conveyance. It is also using taxpayer money for charitable donations outside the appropriations process. That strikes me as really problematic. It also raises the question why FHFA will let Fannie and Freddie spend taxpayer money on charitable donations, but not on principal writedowns that might actually save taxpayers money in the long run.
Rest here…
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Ed DeMarco, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — which oversees Fannie and Freddie — has stood in the way of (principal) reductions and he’s claimed the support of Fannie and Freddie. But that’s no longer the case. Even Fannie and Freddie now support principal reductions. It’s time for Ed DeMarco to step aside by signing this Whte House petition:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/push-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-issue-principal-reductions-underwater-homeowners/qtS3crg7
Here is the way I see it,if Fannie and Freddie have sucked the Tax payer tit for long enough it is time that the Tax payer gets the FNF tit. Cut all mortgages in half, sell fannie and freddie and start over again. It seems high time we quit throwing money to a fire that sends it up in smoke.
If Fannie & Freddie were ‘normal businesses’ in a Chapter 11 reorganization, rather than their essentially ‘wards of the state(federal)’ status, donations would be forbidden. Certainly Chapter 13 BK does not allow donations.
So why are we given lip-service on the fact that FCIC is overseeing these wayward institutions? Fannie & Freddie are simply continuing to spend, spend, spend as if nothing has changed. They ran up a hefty bill at a recent conference also.
Nothing is changing. Even the robo-signing continues, now with more sophistication.
The banksters are busy pulling the strings on the puppets in government and we are blasted with their propaganda in the major media. A couple of years back I read a comment from a gal from the former Soviet Union. She was aghast about the US scene. She found it just as corrupt as what she had fled.
FHFA, also part of Treasury is “overseeing”. They won’t inconvenience rich folk, so they support the theft of your house.