
And now what could become history's biggest transfer of tax dollars to bail out bad lending begins. Last month Congress passed a bill that gave the Treasury Department $800 billion to bail out Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE). And while it is unclear how much money will be used to bail them out, the general outlines of the soon-to-be-announced terms are becoming clearer than they were last night.
The New York Times and The Washington Post report on five key features as follows:
-
Government bankruptcy. Fannie and Freddie will be taken under a conservatorship -- which is similar to a bankruptcy wherein a trustee operates the company so it can be fixed and ultimately sold back to public investors. The bailout would reduce the value of their common and preferred shares "to little or nothing," according to the Times.
-
Taxpayers bailout defaulted mortgages. Some share of the $800 billion in taxpayer funds will be used to pay "any losses on mortgages [Fannie and Freddie] own or guarantee," according to the Times.
-
Payouts on a quarterly basis depending on reported results. Treasury is trying to dribble the bailout over time. "Instead of giving each company a big capital infusion up front, the government could make quarterly injections as the companies' losses warrant. This would be an attempt to minimize the initial cost of the rescue," according to the Washington Post.
-
Fire CEOs and replace the boards. At a meeting earlier in the week, on which I posted, Daniel Mudd, Fannie's CEO, and Richard Syron, Freddie's CEO, "were told that they would have to leave. [And] the companies boards would be replaced," according to the Times. I can only imagine the firestorm that will ensue if Syron gets another $38 million as a severance package.
-
Announce deal before Asian markets open. As it did with the Bear Stearns bailout, the government caters to Asian markets so it "had been planning to announce the decision as early as Sunday, before the Asian markets reopen," according to the Times -- as I thought yesterday.
Why did Paulson decide on this bailout? His bazooka strategy -- merely having the authority to bail out the two companies -- did not alleviate investor anxiety. He measured that by the widening interest rate difference between Treasury and Fannie- and Freddie-backed securities. And concluded that in order to lower that spread and bring down mortgage rates he would need to use his bazooka rather than merely keeping it in his pocket.
When it was announced in May 2006 that Paulson would take over as Treasury Secretary, I speculated that he did so because he thought he would have a bigger challenge than Robert Rubin -- another Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) alum -- in cleaning up the coming financial catastrophe created by our dependence on foreign ownership of U.S. debt. And I thought Paulson would try to make his name in the history books by dealing with that cleanup.
It remains to be seen how history will judge him -- but since China owns $340 billion of Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities -- it looks like my guess about the first part was partially right.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
9-07-2008 @ 4:17PM
Connie said...
Did you know our government is allowing,states to lease our toll roads....
I always marveled at the condition of the
Chicago toll roads......wondered where all
the money was going...because it wasn't
going for the road work... that is for sure.
No Americans... it is going to foreign countries...Yes Foreign countries are leasing our american toll roads......
9-07-2008 @ 4:13PM
ALDO said...
solution #1 America workers to take responsibility in their job, no more getting paid for doing nothing, no more trying to get something for free, earn your pay, renew American
made product to be the best in the world, by only American made, respect your family and your neighbor, turn off the TV AND START TEACHING YOUR KIDS TO BE PROUD TO BE AMERICAN,
KEEP THE CONSTITUTION AND OBEY THE 10 COMMANDMENTS, AND DON'T SELL OUT YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS TO VULTURES, IF YOU BELIEVE IN THIS YOU ARE A TRUE AMERICAN DON'T GIVE UP.
PS
WINGSONTIME@AOL.COM
9-07-2008 @ 4:18PM
Vern said...
If I knew where to begin, I would start a petition against citizens bailing out private companies making bad decisions.
This seems like something we've seen before. The richest seem to be getting away with financial murder. It's happening with our housing industry, our fuel costs, and I'm willing to bet there will be another scheme that tries to nickel and dime the average income person. Will someone please start a petition and help those that are trying to get theyir head above water?!?
9-07-2008 @ 4:33PM
spanky said...
Sounds like we have a consensus here. Maybe it's time for another Boston Tea Party.
9-07-2008 @ 6:26PM
d.ash said...
CEO--Daniel Mudd, and CEO-Richard Syron should be charged,tried ,fined ,and sent to prison ,for there part in this highly unconscionable ,criminal act managing of Fannie May,& Freddie Mac. Jail Them !!!!!!
3-14-2009 @ 5:03AM
J. Schottenstein said...
Whats the matter with OHIO, mortgage and hacking problems, perhaps
Governor Strickland can answer this question?
"Office of the Governor Executive Orders & Directives"
One BILLION GONE???
EX-10.1 2 agreement.htm EXHIBIT 10.1 SECURED CREDIT AGREEMENT
"Section 10.1 Taxes.
"(a) Payments Free of Taxes
"Section 11.3 CHOICE OF LAW; VENUE. THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE GOVERNED
BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF TEXAS"
"IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this instrument to
be duly executed as of the date first above written."
LENDER:
GUARANTY BANK,
a Federal savings bank,
Address
as a Lender
BORROWER:
M/I FINANCIAL CORP.,
an Ohio corporation
"
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
3601 Minnesota Drive, Suite 200
Bloomington, MN 55435
Huntington Mortgage Company
7575 Huntington Park Drive
Columbus, Ohio 43235
Freddie Mac (FHLMC)
8200 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, Virginia 22102
Universal Mortgage Corp.
12080 N. Corporate Parkway
Mequon, WI 53092
CitiMortgage, Inc.
13736 Riverport Dr
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
US Bank
3501 Del Prado Blvd.
Cape Coral, FL 33904
Flagstar Bank
5151 Corporate Drive
Troy, MI 48098
Countrywide Funding Corp.
8511 Fallbrook Ave.
West Hills, CA 91304
Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp.
6867 Southpoint Drive North
Jacksonville, FL 32216
Fannie Mae (FNMA)
One South Wacker Drive
Suite 1300
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Home Savings
3690 Orange Place
Beachwood, OH 44122
Taylor, Bean & Whitaker
3201 SW 34th Ave.
Ocala, FL 34474
"GMAC Bank
100 Witmer Road
Horsham, PA 19044"
"BWC lawsuit cost state $1.8 million
Legal fees, other expenses erased a chunk of hedge-fund exec’s $5
million settlement
Saturday, May 17, 2008 3:05 AM , DSW
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
“Mark D. Lay and his company, MDL Capital Management, handled an
offshore hedge fund for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation
that lost $216 million.”…
” Special counsel fees: $5,762 to Schottenstein Zox & Dunn”…
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 3:30 AM
"Hacker, thieves get OSU ID data"
"About 14,000 faculty and staff and 3,500 students affected"
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 3:30 AM
‘”A hacker broke into an Ohio State University computer two
weekends ago and stole the names, Social Security numbers, employee
ID numbers and birth dates of more than 14,000 current and former
faculty and staff members, the university said yesterday. ”
“And in a separate incident, the same information about 3,500 OSU
chemistry students dating back a decade — including Social Security
numbers and grades — were on two laptops stolen from the home of a
professor in late February, the university said. “….
4/19/2005 2:56 AM Updated 4/19/2005 11:46 AM
“DSW data theft much worse than predicted
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Thieves who accessed a DSW Shoe Warehouse
database obtained 1.4 million credit card numbers and the names on
those accounts — 10 times more than investigators estimated last
month.”…
“..
Has anyone audited OSU, DSW, & Special counsel Schottenstein Zox &
Dunn? -
Mr. James Quigley
CEO and President
Deloitte & Touche
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
212-492-4000
Dear Mr. James Quigley,
I am writing this letter to fully disclose all the material
statements that may apply to your consulting and auditing firms. I
believe you have been completely responsible for all the consulting
and auditing for the public company MI HOMES, since 1976. This
company also was known as MI Schottenstein Homes before the name
change. There are material allegations that you should be informed
about that apply to all the board of directors, law firms, and
auditors associated with MI HOMES. There are allegations of
securities fraud, tax fraud, and other possible criminal activity
that you may wish to disclose. Enclosed you will find several
documents that you may wish to review:
1)The HO xxxx number established on July 12, 2005 from the SEC in
connection to alleged securities fraud and tax fraud associated with
MI HOMES.
"SunGard Data Systems, Inc, cnanged to SunGard Insurance
Systems..acquired by Schottenstein Stores Corp...."
THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT MIKE HARKINS
By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer
"Even the judge seemed to get the sniffles when he handed down the
sentence to send Michael E. Harkins away.
"The Delaware River & Bay Authority
Michael Harkins, Secretary of state of the State of Deleware do
hereby certify the attached is a true and correct copy of the merger
of "M/I Homes Acquisition Corp." merging with and into "M/I
Schottenstein Homes, Inc" under the name of "M/I Schottenstein Homes,
Inc" as received and filed in this office the twenty-ninth day of
June, A.D. 1998, at 9 o'clock A.M."
Kerrii Anderson was the acting CFO...
"Bank of America and Barclays spells bad news
Posted Dec 8th 2006 2:03PM by Douglas McIntyre"
"Since 2001 there have been 60 or so club deals of more than US$1
billion involving a U.S. entity. The second and third-largest
leveraged buyouts in history were completed in 2005 by way of
consortium bids. SunGard Data Systems Inc. was sold to a consortium
of seven private equity firms led by Silver Lake Partners for US$11.4
billion in August of 2005. Shortly thereafter, in September of 2005,
Hertz Corp. announced its sale to a three-firm consortium led by
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc. for US$15 billion."
"The recent announcement of the definitive agreement by
Albertson’s, Inc. to sell the entire company to a consortium of
industrial strategic buyers and private equity firms (Supervalu Inc.,
CVS Corporation, and an investor group led by Cerberus that includes
Kimco Realty, Schottenstein Realty, Lubert-Adler Partners and Klaff
Realty, LP) for a total transaction value of approximately US$17.4
billion in cash, stock and assumed debt marks the largest consortium
bid in the current rise of club deals."....
" Schottenstein Real Estate Group FORMELRY MI REAL ESTATE CO."
Home Office: 2 Easton Oval Columbus, OH 43219 Telephone: 614-418-8900
"Schottenstein Real Estate Group 2004 SCHOTTENSTEIN REAL ESTATE GROUP
All rights reserved Home Office: 2 Easton Oval Columbus, OH 43219
Telephone: 614-418-8900"
"Bank Data Breach Affects 12.5 Million Consumers"
Biggest data breach in 2008
9-07-2008 @ 6:40PM
Connie said...
To d.ash,
Don't forget that China has 350 Billion invested with Fannie Mae....Where was
our gov,with letting that happen?
9-07-2008 @ 8:29PM
Robert J. said...
It is stated that the common and preferred shareholders will be wiped out. What will happen to the bond holders?
9-07-2008 @ 9:21PM
Pat said...
Big question: why are the people having to bail out the home loan industry. they lent money to home buyer who were not qualified. they went against normal lending practices. I think they should re-write all the mortages they wrote to a 30 year fixed rate that the people they gave the loans to can afford. this would stop the foreclosures. the first 5 to 10 years of a mortage is just interest not principal payments. may and mac would still receive monthly payments. at the end of the mortage in 30 years they will lose some money but not the billions a bailout will cost. all the people involved in this should be charged with conspiracy to defraud the american people , tried and spend a minimum of 35 years at hard labor and the ones most responsible should be sentenced to 100 years at hard labor with the possiblity of parol.
9-27-2008 @ 1:48AM
Pat said...
Big question: why are the people having to bail out the home loan industry. they lent money to home buyer who were not qualified. they went against normal lending practices. I think they should re-write all the mortages they wrote to a 30 year fixed rate that the people they gave the loans to can afford. this would stop the foreclosures. the first 5 to 10 years of a mortage is just interest not principal payments. may and mac would still receive monthly payments. at the end of the mortage in 30 years they will lose some money but not the billions a bailout will cost. all the people involved in this should be charged with conspiracy to defraud the american people , tried and spend a minimum of 35 years at hard labor and the ones most responsible should be sentenced to 100 years at hard labor with the possiblity of parol.
9-08-2008 @ 12:16AM
joe said...
IT'S FUN THEY PRINT MORE MONEY.REMEMBER THEY OWNE THE PRINTING PLATES AND WE THE PEOPLE PAY FOR IT ,YOUR KIDS AND GREAT GRAND KIDS.GET IT AMERICA
9-08-2008 @ 3:55AM
kittykiwi said...
Everyone on this board misses the point. What "taxpayers" are you talking about?
The taxpayers aren't paying anything. We are actually in default now, just propped up by "paper" backed by the federal government.
Bush cut taxes so that the government now has borrowed as much money as Fannie and Freddie, i.e. $9 trillion. We can't pay for the Iraq war, we can't pay for health care, we can't pay for education. Bush and his Republican cronies have destroyed our financial system. If they had lost in 2004, we might be able to get out of this mess. I'm not so sure now. As the jobs disappear, housing will continue to fall.
In John McCain's words "My friends" (lol) we are about to enter into the 2nd Great Depression. Get ready!!
9-10-2008 @ 11:46AM
sad man said...
citi analyst told very large investor not to worry about fannie...this was on friday....the same analyst did not change the BUY rating until monday....what a piece of work....i say this as I literally had to apply for unemployement benefits today...first time in 53 years....i remember my grandparents talking about the soup lines during the depression....no one says this is a depression...but i see the soup and bread lines....they can all stop lying to me now....it isn't getting better...YET.....
9-12-2008 @ 2:08AM
VIGIL said...
Phone discussion & comment on real estate and mortgage recovery
Thank you for having taken my phone call on 09-10-08
Re:Fannie and Freddie bail out Phone discussion & comment on real estate and mortgage recovery
As I mentioned I have over 38 years in real estate and mortgage banking.
I truly understand both markets and know that I have a realistic strategy to help the real estate industry and the mortgage industry to reach it highest and best use as well as stimulate the local community economics through out the USA.
I do not think the government can do it for us. we together must do it for ourselves and for the good of our community.
Paul Runninghorse Vigil
303-921-8193
www.capitalvigilfundingdept.com
paul.vigil@comcast.net
9-14-2008 @ 6:07PM
sfosct said...
The Fannie/Freddie bailout was clearly to keep the promises made to CHina, Japan etc that their investments in GSE was guaranteed by the Treasury. Paulson sold out American citizens, retired people, pension funds etc who supported the GSEs.
I hope Paulson's retirement funds were devastated by his decision. My parent's were.
9-15-2008 @ 7:44AM
R L said...
So effectivly 340 billion gets transferred to china from the US.
9-18-2008 @ 7:12PM
Dianne Lee said...
America is already trillions of dollars in debt and borrowing money from countries we used to send CARE packages to.
Just because they print the money doesn't mean that it just magically has value. By the time they get through, we'll have to go buy gas with the car trunk loaded with twenty dollar bills.
9-18-2008 @ 8:24PM
Dianne Lee said...
I finally sold my house-at a huge loss- and am trying to get the paperwork out of the finance company. I called them and told them PLEASE to take me seriously, that they were weeks late getting to paperwork to me and this was turning into a crisis. The response on the other end; "Yeah, well, get in line. You're our hundred and twenty third crisis today."