Barron's: End could be near for Fannie, Freddie shareholders

Random morning real estate links from here and there:

From the New York Times: A subprime glossary: Liar's Loans, Ninja Loans, Jingle Mail and Exploding ARMs: Those are all part of a glossary of sub-prime expressions that, according to the Times "reflect the deceit, cynicism and scandalous exploitation that are taking the homes of many thousands, perhaps millions, of families."

From Bloomberg News: "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to almost 18-year lows in New York trading Monday on concern the government will be forced to bail out the mortgage-finance companies, wiping out common stockholders."

Behind the Fannie/Freddie jitters, from Barron's:  "It may be curtains soon for the managements and shareholders of beleaguered housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." (Registration required, but you get the idea.)

--Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips or links suggestions to peter.viles@latimes.com

Photo credit: Bloomberg News

Comments

[Roger Ramjet]

The knee-jerk response to voting for a Democrat is, "Oh, taxes well go up!" If the taxpayer bail out of Freedie and Fannie is not a new tax then what is it?

[Tombstone Realty]

I knew this was going to happen. Sure, Paulson said the line of funds was ONLY for an emergency and ONLY as the lastest lastest resort.

But watching as he piledrived that bailout bill through congress in a near panic, showed me the truth of that.

I knew from that moment these two would get bailed out. Only thing is - do we have the money for it?

[WEJ]

Tombstone Realty-

We'll print the money! We're the US Govt.!

[Bill Rice]

We may get to see the Alan Greenspan advocated receivership plan afterall.

This is going to create another seismic after-shock: bailout taxpayer shock, upset Chinese shareholders, more Fed confusion--inflation or economic stability, and more rattled market confidence.

[sheila]

i thought this one would appear today:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/17/
critical-step-in-ensuring_n_119427.html

the total lack of regulations and enforcement of existing regulations led to massive appraiser fraud, job losses for honest appraisers, and formed the linchpin of the bubble.

not only were state government agencies VERY aware of all of it, and still didn't bother staffing up and enforcing, but so was the 2004 Congress, which declined to proceed with enforcement actions on the states at the federal level, or to modify the existing draconian enforcement methods with common-sense regulations to make sure appraisers were being "policed" like other licensed professionals.

the invisible hand of the unregulated free market at work - unchecked greed, fraud, collusion and massive ripoffs of taxpayers, home buyers, renters and investors. all they had to do was follow up on hundreds of leads about the fraud, and they didn't. why not?

[E]

The NYTimes was way behind the curve on this whole mess.

In fact, I place a healthy portion of blame on them for it.

They were the biggest shills for the RE industry of all the newspapers in 2006.

And now they backpedal...when the REIC advertising dollars don't flow quite as readily.

[CD]

Does anyone has a dollar amount for this debacle ?