Freddie Mac Losses = $50 Billion
This is truly an astonishing number:
Freddie Mac reported yesterday that it lost $50.1 billion last year, almost half of it in the final three months of 2008, and would need an additional $30.8 billion in taxpayer assistance to stay solvent . . .
The federal government, which seized Freddie Mac and its counterpart, Fannie Mae, last fall, has agreed to cover $200 billion in losses at each firm. Freddie Mac has already received $13.8 billion. Fannie Mae has asked for nearly $15 billion.”
That is some serious wood . . .
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Source:
Freddie’s 2008 Loss Exceeds $50 Billion
Mortgage Giant Seeks More Taxpayer Money, Names Interim Chief
Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post, March 12, 2009; Page D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/11/AR2009031101068.html
March 12th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
How could it be that most of it was lost in the 4th Q? Coincidence, or were they playing hide the salami hoping for a rebound by the end of the year?
On a shorter time frame sounds like what Citi and B of A are saying after 2 AWESOME QUARTERS. Things really hit the fan in that 3rd month, will be their cry.
I heard they added operating earnings as a disclaimer…big surprise the off balance sheet and SIV’s aren’t included in that number.
Sad how a $50 billion dollar loss from a quasi-gov’t entity gets no response…these are the times we are living in.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Sad how a $50 billion dollar loss from a quasi-gov’t entity gets no response…these are the times we are living in.
–natoK,
that’s what I was thinking– “What else is new?”
O, but, hey wait, Made-off is in a Cell..like that amounts to anything Productive..
better than understanding: “Thus, the groundwork was laid for an imperial presidency and a potentially totalitarian government–a state of affairs that has not ended with Barack Obama’s ascension to the Oval Office, despite hopes to the contrary that President Obama would fully restore the balance between government and its citizens to a pre-Bush status quo. As Charlie Savage reports in the New York Times, “Signs suggest that the administration’s changes may turn out to be less sweeping than many had hoped or feared–prompting growing worry among civil liberties groups and a sense of vindication among supporters of Bush-era policies.”
The fact is that the problem is bigger than Obama or any individual who occupies the White House. Indeed, once the government assumes expansive powers and crosses certain constitutional lines, it’s almost impossible to pull back.
Just consider some of the lines that have already been crossed.
The local police have, in many regards, already evolved into de facto extensions of the military. Dressed like Darth Vader look-alikes, the police have opted for the SWAT-team dress formally adopted by the federal agencies. Congressional legislation allows the U.S. military, by way of the Pentagon, to train civilian police. The Pentagon has also provided local police with military equipment such as M-16 rifles, bayonets, boats, vehicles, surveillance equipment, chemical suits and flak jackets, among other items. Thus, they are armed to the teeth.
We already have a federal police force comprised of Secret Service agents who are authorized to “carry firearms; make arrests without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence.” A recent incident demonstrates the increased and immediate involvement of federal agents in local matters with the assistance of local police. Chip Harrison, a construction worker in Oklahoma, was pulled over by local police because of an anti-Obama sign proclaiming “Abort Obama, not the unborn” in his pickup truck window. The sign was confiscated by local police, and Harrison was informed that the sign could be considered a threat to the president. The local police contacted the Secret Service, who, within a matter of hours, came to Harrison’s home and investigated the matter. So much for the freedom of expression.
According to the Army Times, we now have at least 20,000 U.S. military troops deployed within our borders to “help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.” I am not alone in believing that we are just one incident–be it a terrorist attack, a major financial blowout or a widespread natural disaster–away from martial law being declared in this country. And once that happens, the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be suspended and what government officials believe and do, no matter how arbitrary, will become law.
Our methods of communication are already being monitored–and, in some instances, shut down, abetted by the telecommunications giants, which act as extensions of the government. Thus, not only does the government have the ability to open and read our mail, it can also listen in on our phone calls and jam our cell phone calls. As the Washington Post reports, federal authorities already have the ability to jam cell phones and other wireless devices. Unbeknownst to the nearly two million people who attended the Obama Inauguration festivities, federal authorities jammed…”
http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=581