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The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator for Fannie and Freddie, approved $12.79 million in bonus pay after 10 executives from the two government-sponsored corporations last year met modest performance targets tied to modifying mortgages in jeopardy of foreclosure.


The executives got the bonuses about two years after the federally backed mortgage giants received nearly $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts — and despite pledges by FHFA, the office tasked with keeping them solvent, that it would adjust the level of CEO-level pay after critics slammed huge compensation packages paid out to former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines and others.

Securities and Exchange Commission documents show that Ed Haldeman, who announced last week that he is stepping down as Freddie Mac’s CEO, received a base salary of $900,000 last year yet took home an additional $2.3 million in bonus pay. Records show other Fannie and Freddie executives got similar Wall Street-style compensation packages; Fannie Mae CEO Michael Williams, for example, got $2.37 million in performance bonuses.

Including Haldeman, the top five officers at Freddie banked a combined $6.46 million in performance pay alone last year, though a second bonus installment for 2010 has yet to be reported to the SEC, according to agency records. Williams and others at Fannie pocketed $6.33 million in incentives for what SEC records describe as meeting the primary goal of providing “liquidity, stability and affordability” to the national market.

“Freddie Mac has done a considerable amount on behalf of the American taxpayers


where are the Occupiers?

If they could earn more elsewhere, don't you think they'd have "bailed" by now?

Macs and Tail get it.


There's a clear reason why I was opposed to ANY bail out.


You're seeing the reasons every day!

why not ?

More cogent political commentary based on vapor from a guy who exhibits the reasoning skills of an armadillo.

Given CBid's anti-homosexuality fervor, I don't think it was wise to mention "positions" and "sexy lover Barney Frank" in one sentence. It might leave others with the impression you know just a little to much for their comfort...

End Welfare Breeding.......and get the gubment out of welfare housing too.


it is all unsustainable....hmmmmmmkay?

....and we get it good and hard!

Sorry...it's not 6 BILLION dollars...it's 7.8 BILLION!!!


Fannie Mae loss widens, asks taxpayers for $7.8B
By DEREK KRAVITZ

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is asking the federal government for $7.8 billion in aid to covers its losses in the July-September quarter.

The government-controlled company said Tuesday that it lost $7.6 billion in the third quarter. Low mortgage rates reduced profits and declining home prices caused more defaults on loans it had guaranteed.

The government rescued Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator has controlled their financial decisions.

Taxpayers have spent about $169 billion to rescue Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could reach up $220 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.

Fannie has received $112.6 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company.

Michael Williams, Fannie's president and CEO, said Fannie's losses are increasing for two reasons: Some homeowners are paying less interest after refinancing at historically low mortgage rates; others are defaulting on their mortgages.

"Despite these challenges, we are making solid progress," he said. For example, Fannie's rate of homeowners who are late on their monthly mortgage payments by 90 days or more has decreased each quarter since the beginning of 2010, he said.

When property values drop, homeowners default, either because they are unable to afford the payments or because they owe more than the property is worth. Because of the guarantees, Fannie and Freddie must pay for the losses.

Fannie said lower mortgage rates contributed to $4.5 billion in quarterly losses. While those losses are large, they are temporary and should ease in future earnings reports, said Mahesh Swaminathan, mortgage strategist at Credit Suisse.

"They are accounting losses on their books rather than economic losses," he said.

Fannie's July-September loss attributable to common shareholders works out to $1.32 per share. It takes into account $2.5 billion in dividend payments to the government. That compares with a loss of $3.5 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2010.

Last week, Freddie requested $6 billion in extra aid — the largest request since April 2010 — after it reported losing $6 billion in the third quarter.

Washington-based Fannie and McLean, Va.-based Freddie own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 million home loans. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past year.

Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them with bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors around the world. The companies nearly folded three years ago because of big losses on risky mortgages they purchased.

The Obama administration unveiled a plan earlier this year to slowly dissolve the two mortgage giants. The aim is to shrink the government's role in the mortgage system, remaking decades of federal policy aimed at getting Americans to buy homes. It would also probably make home loans more expensive.

Exactly how far the government's role in mortgage lending would be reduced was left to Congress to decide. But all three options the administration presented would create a housing finance system that relies far more on private money.

Here I thought the media announced Bonuses to Bank execs where going to be down 20-30% compared to last year... due to the recession and all??? With an even deeper recession expected next year???

Is it too late to consider a career change to become a bank exec??? Heck the guberment pays for re-education too don't they???

They where paid and received bonuses and bail-outs when they created the mess. Where paid AGAIN with additional bonuses to supposedly get us out this mess. And now they are going to received more... for what???

Fuqn crooks every one of them!!! I want to see these execs start being brought-up on charges for what is being done to the American tax-payer, instead of them receiving bonuses.

FANNIE MAE [FNMA]
Last [Tick] $0.2306[-]
End of 2007 = over $65

FREDDIE MAC [FMCC]
Last [Tick] $0.2360[+]
End of 2007 = over $65

In the 1990's, Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae may have been a serious conflict of interest because his lover, Herb Moses, was an executive for Fannie Mae at the time Frank's was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie Mae.

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."


Read the whole thing. There needs to be some serious investigations on this matter.

No wonder Bill Clinton said "I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."


http://current.com/news-and-politics/89377987_in-heat-barney-frank-has-love-affair-with-fannie-mae-worker.htm

Far from being a cause of the subprime meltdown, the Community Reinvestment Act actually facilitated more prudent lending from the small segment of the mortgage lending industry actually subject to the CRA (i.e. FDIC-insured banks, as opposed to non-depositary mortgage lenders like Countrywide). Take a look at this study [pdf] of publically available loan data, released before the meltdown. It concludes that lenders subject to the CRA (CRA Banks) were substantially less likely than other lenders to make the kinds of risky home purchase loans that helped fuel the foreclosure crisis, specifically that:

(1) CRA Banks were significantly less likely than other lenders to make a subprime loan;
(2) The average APR on subprime loans originated by CRA Banks was appreciably lower than the average APR on subprime loans originated by other lenders;
(3) CRA Banks were more than twice as likely as other lenders to retain originated loans in their portfolio rather than selling them in the secondary market ; and
(4) Foreclosure rates were lower in MSAs with greater concentrations of bank branches.

Eliminate Fanny and Freddie.

Oh, there are more than 3 I would like to abolish.

No. I know many people that could make more doing something else somewhere else but do not because they either like what they are doing or feel good about what they are doing..... IE what they are doing makes a difference and it feeds a different need than just coin.

Not sure that applies to freddie or fannie, but I do see a lot of it..... and I am in that bucket. I can and have made more but didn't like what I was doing.... so I moved on.

whatever,,,

tis very true. not everyone balances their priorities the same way. I'm working on going another direction that MAY pay me even less..... meh.... but it will be fun. then again it could end up paying me more in the long run

in here saddam would be in the running for that award, but I don't have a cubicle

neither,,,

I'm self employed.

and for the record I have'nt been a strip bar in over a decade...

Another staunch fiscal conservative fighting to eliminate government bureaucracy unless he's compensated by the bureaucrats to influence his compatriots not to elminate them.

Gingrich says he received Freddie Mac compensation
By PETE YOST and THOMAS BEAUMONT | AP – 4 hrs ago..

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — Rising in national polls, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich found himself on the defensive Wednesday over huge payments he received over the past decade from the federally backed housing agency Freddie Mac.

Gingrich said he didn't remember exactly how much he was paid, but a former Freddie Mac official said it was at least $1.5 million for consulting contracts stretching from 1999 to 2007. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.

Speaking with reporters in Iowa, Gingrich said he provided "strategic advice for a long period of time" after he resigned as House speaker following his party's losses in the 1998 elections. He defended Freddie Mac's role and said, "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities." Long unpopular among Republicans, the federally backed mortgage lender has become a focal point of anti-government sentiment because of the housing crisis.

On Tuesday, a House committee voted to strip top executives of Freddie and its larger competitor, Fannie Mae, of huge salaries and bonuses and put them on the same pay scale as federal employees.

In 2008, Gingrich suggested in a Fox News interview that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama should have to return campaign contributions he had received from executives of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He said that in a debate with Obama, GOP presidential nominee John McCain "should have turned and said, 'Senator Obama, are you prepared to give back all the money that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae gave you?'"

Gingrich sought Wednesday to portray his role as a sign of valuable experience.

"It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington," Gingrich said Wednesday. "We just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well. So, having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing."

Gingrich's history at Freddie Mac began in 1999, when he was hired by the company's top lobbyist, Mitchell Delk. He was brought in for strategic consulting, primarily on legislative and regulatory issues, the company said at the time. That job, which paid about $25,000 to $30,000 a month, lasted until sometime in 2002.

In 2006, Gingrich was hired again on a two-year contract that paid him $300,000 annually, again to provide strategic advice while the company fended off attacks from the right wing of the Republican Party.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for years had been under scrutiny from Republicans on Capitol Hill who opposed government involvement in the mortgage business and wanted to scale back the companies' size and impose tough regulation.

In last Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, Gingrich sought to explain his role at Freddie Mac as that of an "historian" sounding dire warnings about the company's future. He said Freddie Mac officials told him "we are now making loans to people that have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do." He said his advice was to tell them, "this is insane."

"I said at the time, this is a bubble ... this is impossible. It turned out unfortunately I was right," Gingrich said.

Former Freddie Mac executives dispute Gingrich's description of his role.

Four people close to Freddie Mac say he was hired to strategize with his employer about identifying political friends on Capitol Hill who would help the company through a very difficult legislative environment. All four people spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the personnel matter freely.

Freddie Mac executives hoped that would speak positively about the company and its business model as he circulated among conservative groups and help to build intellectual support within his party.

Freddie Mac executives were looking to Gingrich to offer up new, inventive ways to think about old problems, the officials said, but that didn't materialize.

Gingrich's hiring was a small — but because of his name, important — piece of a much larger initiative by the company. Freddie Mac and its larger competitor, Fannie Mae, are government-sponsored enterprises, created by Congress to buy up mortgages so that the housing industry has a ready flow of funds.

The two companies had long been the darlings of Democratic politicians in Washington, hailed as the champions of affordable housing, but they had few supporters on the political right.

Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin sought to remedy that by hiring a stable of conservative consultants, including Gingrich.

Before Gingrich was hired, Freddie Mac paid $2 million to a Republican consulting firm to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed both companies.

The $2 million was money well spent. The legislation died without ever coming to a vote on the Senate floor. But the danger of regulation wasn't dead, so Freddie Mac hired more consultants, Gingrich among them.

Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006, all of them former Republican lawmakers and ex-GOP staffers. Besides Gingrich, the hires included former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota and Susan Hirschmann, the former chief of staff to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

By September 2008, amid the collapse of the housing industry, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were in disastrous financial condition, were both taken over by the government and remain in conservatorship.

___

http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pro/1108PSISHOVD/LPSIMB27/PR