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fanniemAeTM

thank you, senator -- please take your money

If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

– John McCain, May 25, 2006

Needless to say, Congess did not act. Lord knows I’m no fan of John McCain, but he’s too right on this one and has been riding it for years.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together hold or own up to FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS in mortgage debt. That’s more than half the total of the current U.S. national debt.

Their failure is what has sparked the world financial crisis and the blame lies solely with the Democrats in Congress who shielded them from reform for years while Democrat party hacks running the companies enriched themselves.

From Flopping Aces, where there is plenty more. We put five trillion dollars in the hands of the sleaziest band of thieves and sociopaths in America? And told them to make loans to people with bad credit? And then didn’t keep an eye on them? We did this? Really?

So now I have my nice little house on the market 30% below the value I’m paying taxes on and I can’t get a nibble because the city is stuffed with foreclosed property. Which doesn’t matter because the sort of first-time buyer who would be interested in my house couldn’t get a mortgage in this market if he sacrificed his firstborn on the altar of Ba’al.

So, Democrats — this helps minorities and poor people…how, exactly? Oh…right, right. That was never the point. It was only the cover.

John McCain is lord and master of this one. If he continues to point finger at “greedy Wall Street” out of deference to his friends in the Kleptomaniac Kongress — verily, my Bonce shall catcheth on Fyre with ye Rayge.

I barely have enough good humor left to mention that it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, however horribly appropriate that might be.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 7:00 am

Gah! THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH MORNING PEOPLE ON THE INNERNETS! I hate it when I get up and all the news sites and blogs haven’t changed from the night before. Wake up and talk to me, you bastards!

Here’s the news from Rhode Island: the unemployment rate has spiked to 8.9% — making us second worst in the nation, right behind Michigan. Yay! I’ll never sell my house now!

Also, Adam West turns 80 today. Holy hip replacement, old chum!


Comment from memomachine
Time: September 19, 2008, 7:29 am

Hmmmm.

It’s worse than that. Congress deliberately made sure that Fannie and Freddie remained private corporations rather than integrating them into the US government because agencies of the US government are barred from contributing to election campaigns while corporations aren’t.

Basically Congress setup a money-spigot.


Comment from Princess Bernie
Time: September 19, 2008, 8:56 am

It’s even worse than that. While Fannie and Freddie were out competing against privately owned banks to buy up mortgages (not all of which are bad, mind you) and racking up huge losses, the highest ranking employees of these enterprises were raking in MILLIONS of dollars in bonuses.

Franlin Raines and Jamie Gorelick, to name two of those who lined their pockets with millions of dollars.

AND they gave money to dems in congress who kept them in business.

Here’s where to find out what federal employees can and cannot do with regard to elections/campaigning.

http://www.osc.gov/ha_fed.htm#agencies

I can’t believe Fannie and Freddie were allowed to use funds to pay congress members. As a recipient of federal funds where I work, we cannot use funds to lobby. AND if we use our own funds to lobby, we have to register as a lobbyist.


Comment from apotheosis
Time: September 19, 2008, 9:56 am

It’s even worse than THAT…I only had enough shredded wheat for one bowl this morning, and the kids had left the wrapper open so it was STALE.

When’s someone going to be proactive about all this crap? 🙁


Comment from apotheosis
Time: September 19, 2008, 10:07 am

And honestly, most of the people I know trying to sell houses would be better off, profit-wise, to burn the damn things for insurance. It’s that bad.

By sheer chance, I was fortunate to get into a house right before all this insanity really started. I don’t really pretend to understand all the details and nuances of the situation, and the more I learn about it the less sense it mkaes. It seems like the sort of freight train even a complete idiot could’ve seen coming miles away, and know that when it arrived it was going to squish everyone without regard to their political alignment…who ultimately could’ve believed they’d benefit from this?


Comment from Dave in Texas
Time: September 19, 2008, 10:17 am

I’m a morning person. I’m just at work.

ok? OK?!?


Comment from Jill
Time: September 19, 2008, 10:29 am

(munching on dry Kix cereal straight outta the box) Hrmphf?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 10:39 am

Work? Pff! You must be one of them entreprenoor fellas, Dave. Real cubiclemonkeys don’t think of working before 10, no matter what time they get in.

This is the first time in my life — well since the days of Jimmeh Carter’s stagflation — that economic turmoil has touched me personally. When you have the same house and the same job and the latter covers the former pretty well, then the cycle of boom and bust doesn’t really touch you. It’s only when you go to make a major change…


Comment from Cuffy Meigs
Time: September 19, 2008, 10:51 am

Silly Weasel, don’t you know that McCain’s attacks on Obama’s Fannie Mae connections are RAAAAACIST?


Comment from porknbean
Time: September 19, 2008, 10:52 am

One of the women I work, has a day job in a mortgage-type business….which is picking up foreclosed houses…it is a great time for them in picking up great deals. Most of these foreclosed homes are in the part of the city where most people wouldn’t want to live if given a choice. Says basically that these mortgages/houses were handed out like candy to people with no credit/bad credit/no jobs. They would not pay their bills much less the mortgage or take care of them.
The pure essence of redistribution. You haters should be more patriotic, and give even more of your taxes so that they can keep these folks in their homes.
And Obama is out there talking to the same type of people, telling them he will fight those predatory lenders making it impossible for them to have their share in the American dream. Hey f*ckwit, other than the thieves totally in charge of root of the problem, Fannie, what other mortgage co. is going to take that kind of risk again?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:01 am

Sadly, I’m in one of those neighborhoods, PnB. My street is like the United Nations. Mostly upwardly mobile immigrants of various flavors. Most of the time, that’s a good thing — many of them are fiercely house-proud and determined to keep moving up. But clearly some people on my street shouldn’t have been given mortgages.

When I asked my real estate agent last week if there were currently any foreclosures in my neighborhood, she said, “not on your street.” When I laughed she said, “I couldn’t have said that a month ago.”

What am I doing in a neighborhood like that? I’m too lazy to live anywhere nicer.


Comment from JackStraw
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:07 am

Well I’m moving on up…

Looks like I got out of Little Rhodie just in the nick of time. Shiver me timbers.


Comment from Dave in Texas
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:07 am

well I was actually working on a post linking your post and pshop.

that’s like work. it’s a labor of love.


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Time: September 19, 2008, 11:10 am

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Comment from Princess Bernie
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:11 am

I tried for a year and a half to sell my house. I owe more on it than it’s worth and don’t have cash reserves to dig into to give to someone to get out from underneath it (divorce expenses can be a real bitch, dontcha know?).

My son is willing to buy it from me but can only afford a price $20,000 less than I owe on it. So he’s living in it now with his fiance and the “rent” they are paying me is paying down my mortgage balance until it gets to a point where I can actually sell it to them at a reduced price. And in the meantime, his house is on the market and he’s had no bites.

And yes, this housing market and job market does remind me of the horrible Carter days – a time when I was young and trying to get started. And now my sons are in the same type of boat trying to get established.

BUT although the mortgage/home market bad, it’s still not as bad overall as living in the Carter era. Hey, at least we are kicking butt on terrorists – something Carter didn’t do which has resulted in where we are now in that arena. If he hadn’t been so weak with Iran then, we wouldn’t be where we are today. That being said, however, there were a few decades in between where others let shit slide, too, which added to the tempest that is radical islam today.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:23 am

Yeah, I was in my late teens in Jimmeh Carter’s day. I got the malaise down in my bones. Possibly because I was so young, it seemed like everything was spinning out of control.


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:36 am

Nothing I had to say wasn’t even more depressing than Carter, so I decided to point out that I get the pup tomorry. I’m fully prepared to scritch and hug that pup until she can’t take any more. The I’m-away-from-mom cries are always the hardest, but we’ll weather it.

Hope that is a bright spot.


Comment from porknbean
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:38 am

So the Hostages have a ‘name that Fraggle’ on BBF. While looking at fraggle characters, I came across this one and thought of you, weasel.

muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Cotterpin_Doozer


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:38 am

Man, if just ONE more person goes “Arrrr!” to me I’m going to give them a wedgie that will crush their vocal cords.

I’m feeling curmudgeon-ey.


Comment from porknbean
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:44 am

In the part of the city I’m talking about above, er…we are talking ghetto. Immigrants generally won’t go there and if they do, move out just as quick.
The other part of the city – where I grew up – sounds like the type of place you live. I’m sure there are plenty of foreclosures there too as many questionable legal status immigrants have moved in, in the past decade.


Comment from Dave in Texas
Time: September 19, 2008, 11:45 am

I was a little older Stoaty, 21 when Reagan was a-swore in. I remember a) getting laid off from an oil company when the bottom dropped out (and my oldest kid was a week old), b) black Tuesday when my 401k dropped 60% (down to about 37 bucks) and c) thinking a 10% non-qualifying assumable mortgage was teh awesomest deal eveh!


Comment from Vmaximus
Time: September 19, 2008, 12:03 pm

Rhode Island?
Did they really install wall to wall carpet there?

(Sorry bad 80’s joke)


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Time: September 19, 2008, 12:22 pm

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Comment from Scubafreak
Time: September 19, 2008, 12:35 pm

“Also, Adam West turns 80 today. Holy hip replacement, old chum!”

You mean that Stewie hasn’t vaporized Mayor West yet? Or is he being mercifull because of Cool-aid night on the Death Star?


Comment from TattooedIntellectual
Time: September 19, 2008, 12:39 pm

The Fraggles are awesome. I’ve got the first season on DVD (2 and 3 are on my Xmas list, but my family ignores them).


Comment from former mtg broker
Time: September 19, 2008, 12:40 pm

In Amerikka, its still easy to get a mortgage with no money down, no verifiable income, and no credit history, you just have to be an illegal immigrant


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 12:47 pm

It’s sort of beneath me to post a spelling flame, Former, but I think you dropped a K out of Amerikkka there.


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 19, 2008, 12:48 pm

Ok, I’m in a better mood now. New pics of the pup were sent to me. http ://lemurking.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/p-day/
(note the space after the “http”)

Yep, I’m about ready to pee on the floor with excitement.


Comment from Jill
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:09 pm

It’s time for everyone to take a dance-in-your-chair break:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZLVLPyzoCg&feature=related

(spinning merrily through the office)

🙂


Comment from former mtg broker
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:14 pm

love the atm pic
it’s too bad cnn and mslsd, i mean msnbc wont use it


Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:17 pm

I lucked out buying a house at the bottom of the market, especially since I didn’t also have to sell one…I probably could have gotten it for even less if I had been coldblooded enough, because they had had it on the market for a while and had moved out once the deal with me started going well. Plus, the roof was so old that they didn’t have windstorm insurance, which is an absolute necessity in this neck of the woods; in fact, I couldn’t even buy the place without getting windstorm, which meant I had to replace the roof. (My insurance agent has been insuring the family for so long that he agreed to cover me as long as I promised to replace the roof immediately, which I did.) So I really-really had them over a barrel, and I could have really socked it to them. But I’m too damn nice for my own good, and my realtor was a total asshole (“You’re getting a good deal. I can’t say the same for them”), so he didn’t help me negotiate.

Oh well. I did still get a good deal, and I guess I would rather pay a little more than it’s worth than have to live with myself after having royally screwed someone else over. I know all’s fair in love and real estate, but I just couldn’t take advantage of someone in a bad position like that.

(Of course, it was their own fault. I found out at the closing that they actually had two loans. They did the thing where you take one loan on 95% of the house and then you take another loan on the other 5%, and that’s your “down payment.” IMO, if you’re in a financial position such that you have to take two loans, you have no business buying a house to begin with.)

Wow, is today Friday? Man, I totally lose track when I don’t go to work. I also didn’t bother going to class yesterday because one class out of two was canceled, and I’ll be damned if I’m making an 80-mile round trip for one class with gas this rare. (It’s getting better, but still not easy to find.)


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:34 pm

This is a Bad Mugshot Face. When you are popped for sex with a five-year-old boy, do not make this face. Though I suppose if you’ve been popped for that, there really isn’t a good face to make.

I have to question how much sex you can have with a 5-year-old, but whatever it was bought her life in prison.


Comment from Surly Ermine
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:46 pm

The Fraggles are awesome. I’ve got the first season on DVD (2 and 3 are on my Xmas list, but my family ignores them).

I remember Fraggle Rock TI. I liked Traveling Matt. There was also that old fart with the dog. He was the only human if im not mistaken, the fart that is not the dog.

I myself am waiting for the remaining seasons of the BBC Wind in the Willows series to make it to DVD. Not that they every will. Stoaty’s probably familiar with that one. Enjoyable but typically anti-weasel (us weasels promote our bad public image so people leave us the hell alone ya know). The Wild Wooders look more like my type of folks. They scared the shit outta my daughter when she was wee little. Ahhh good times.


Comment from JackStraw
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:50 pm

My three years of sort of living in Florida made me realize that Florida isn’t so much a state but more of a big top filled with strange wild animals, freaks and clowns.

What kind of freak has sex with a 5 year old?


Comment from Walker, Texas Toast
Time: September 19, 2008, 1:58 pm

I’ve also got a house on the market. Nothing! It’s like the housing market is in suspended animation. If you want to move for a new job, or to take care of a sick relative? Be prepared to take a giant bath on the sale of your house, and be prepared to have a lot more trouble getting a loan on the next one . . .

Thanks, Barney Frank, Charlie Wrangel, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines, et al. Good job!


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Time: September 19, 2008, 1:58 pm

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Comment from Dawn
Time: September 19, 2008, 2:10 pm

This Talk Like a Pirate Day is drastically different. Last year, we were happy pirates.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 2:23 pm

Arrrr…I’m happy enow, Missy. It be Friday an’ there be an extra drop o’ spirits waitin’ back t’ the ship for the whole scurvy crew. Like, whateverrrr.

I’m less flexed about the price than the fact nothing is moving. And I don’t think it will until the market stabilizes. It’s like everybody is freezing until the music begins again.


Comment from Jill
Time: September 19, 2008, 2:44 pm

Jack, the same kind of freak who marries a professional pornographer.

“…strange wild animals, freaks and clowns…” and spiders as big as your effing head. I lived there also, for 3 years in the 90’s. >>shudder<<


Comment from jwpaine
Time: September 19, 2008, 3:37 pm

In answer to your question, Weez, not much. Plus, you’ve got that long walk out of the woods alone.


Comment from TattooedIntellectual
Time: September 19, 2008, 3:45 pm

Surley Ermine,

Speaking of weaselish things. There are two otters playing in the lake where I live/work. Very cool!


Comment from TattooedIntellectual
Time: September 19, 2008, 3:47 pm

Okay, I hate to make fun of people’s names b/c mine’s no treat but Lumadue –> luma due. Dude, I’d have changed it.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 19, 2008, 3:47 pm

Heh. JW made me bark.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: September 19, 2008, 3:58 pm

Good god, stoatie. That girl (you notice I didn’t say ‘Lady’) would make a GREAT klingon. She wouldn’t even need makeup….. 🙂


Comment from jwpaine
Time: September 19, 2008, 5:07 pm

heh-heh. Love it when I can sneak in punchlines to sick jokes in regular conversation.


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Time: September 19, 2008, 6:54 pm

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