Word: mae
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...early days, the Federal Reserve Board did all the work and usually made its big announcement on a Friday. Since then, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has moved to the fore, and he picked a Sunday afternoon to float his proposal for bolstering beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The basic pattern, though, remains the same: Financial tizzy. Dramatic government action. Period of reduced tizzy. Repeat...
...this most clearly in the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages from banks, thrifts and mortgage brokers and repackage them for sale to investors around the world. The two government-chartered companies have, together with the Federal Housing Administration, been the main factors in keeping mortgage-lending going in the U.S. since the market for private mortgage-backed securities collapsed last summer. They've been able to keep financing mortgages because of the widespread belief that if they faltered, the government would step in to make buyers of their mortgage securities whole. If Paulson...
...house prices keep falling, the cost of the program could rise--but would probably be dwarfed by other spending to combat the crisis. A worst-case taxpayer bailout of mortgage-market giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose plummeting stock prices caused consternation in early June, could cost as much as $1.1 trillion, according to Standard & Poor's. Which brings us back to the big question: Would a law that helps a few hundred thousand homeowners avoid foreclosure really have an impact on house prices? Well, compared to what...
...Obama's preferred veep-vetter, Jim Johnson, stepped down because of questions about possibly preferential mortgages he received, Obama's campaign put a target on the back of A.B. Culvahouse, the top veep-hunter in the McCain camp. While it is true that Culvahouse has done work for Fannie Mae and Lockheed Martin, he is also one of the few Republicans in Washington that Democrats trust, and even turn to for help because of his sound political and legal judgment. But by putting a bulls-eye on the venerated attorney, Obama's aides made it harder on themselves to hire...
...Both McCain and Obama have their selection committees already at work scouring candidates' financial and personal backgrounds, voting records and public statements. In a sudden setback that could slow the Democratic nominee's search, Obama lost his top Veep hunter, Jim Johnson, after the former Fannie Mae executive came under scrutiny for accepting preferential mortgages from a lender linked to the foreclosure crisis. Both camps will finish their work by early August, if not sooner. When they do, the choice of Vice President should tell us something - maybe a lot - about how McCain and Obama think and how they could...