FRE posts
Posted Jun 22nd 2009 10:40AM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Politics, Housing
Outspoken congressman Barney Frank has no shortage of critics, and they're sure to be out in force today. This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, along with his colleague Anthony Weiner, is actually recommending that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) relax their lending standards on condominiums.
The controversial request follows a decision by both Fannie and Freddie to tighten mortgage-lending standards for condos. In March, Fannie said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70% of units have been rented, up from its previous benchmark of 51%. Freddie is due to implement similar measures in July. In a letter to the CEOs of both mortgage lenders, Reps. Frank and Weiner expressed their concerns that the higher standard "may be too onerous," and asked the lenders to "make appropriate adjustments" to their approach.
Continue reading Barney Frank encourages Fannie, Freddie to relax lending standards
Posted Jun 8th 2009 2:00PM by Daleela Farina
Filed under: Forecasts, Conventions and conferences, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis
In celebration of Barry Ritholtz's critically-acclaimed new book Bailout Nation, he held The Big Picture Conference, which I was fortunate to attend.
Here are the main points from the most reputable speakers, Congressman Alan Grayson, Nassim Taleb, Doug Kass, and Josh Rosner.
Florida Congressman Alan Grayson discussed how systemic risk is an excuse for socialism and that interconnectedness is the main reason that these institutions are "too big to fail." In fact, these institutions no longer hold social or economic purpose, they are simply too big to exist.
Continue reading The 'big picture' of our economy
Posted May 26th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), General Electric (GE), General Motors (GM), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM)

All in all, this was actually a light day on the news flow for major stocks. Today's dismal Case-Shiller data for a
record drop in housing prices was trumped completely by a
surge in consumer confidence this morning. The notion that North Korea did a nuclear bomb test was only important for discussions during the very early morning, but slowly faded thereafter.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 8,473.49 +196.17 (2.37%)
S&P 500 910.31 +23.31 (2.63%)
Nasdaq 1,750.43 +58.42 (3.45%)
Top 10 Analyst Calls
Continue reading Closing Bell: When confidence trumps housing (FSLR, CSIQ, FRE, GE, GM, MSFT)
Posted May 16th 2009 9:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart (WMT), International Business Machines (IBM), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Applied Materials (AMAT), Whole Foods Market (WFMI), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Liz Claiborne (LIZ), MBIA Inc (MBI), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Walmart, JCPenney, Freddie Mac, Playboy, Whole Foods and more
Posted May 13th 2009 10:40AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Housing

Late Tuesday,
Freddie Mac (NYSE:
FRE) reported that its
quarterly net loss checked in at $9.9 billion thanks to rising delinquencies. The company also blamed the results on continued impairments on its holdings of mortgage-backed securities. On a per share basis, FRE's quarterly loss increased to $3.14 a share, compared to $151 million a year ago, or 66 cents a share. The mortgage lender's total revenue dropped to $771 million from $1.41 billion a year ago.
FRE put aside $8.8 billion in provisions in order to cover credit losses for the first quarter, up from $7 billion in the final quarter of 2008. FRE attributed this to the increase in the number and rate of delinquent mortgages, coupled with increasing foreclosure-related losses.
Continue reading Freddie Mac's earnings fall as delinquencies increase
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 4:15PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Boeing Co (BA), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Wells Fargo (WFC)

Despite the market being up the last hour, today's stock market made six changes between being up and down. Oil inventories
continued their building to record or near-record levels. It was very light on the economic calendar today so traders had to use the cumulative earnings as the directional report. Even very
weak global recovery targets from the IMF were ignored.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,886.41 -83.15 (-1.04%)
S&P 500 843.56 -6.52 (-0.77%)
Nasdaq 1,645.85 +2.00 (0.12%)
Top Analyst UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Directionless market, but directed stocks (BA, CAL, COF, FRE, WFC, OSTK)
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 12:30PM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: Scandals, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Politics, Housing, Financial Crisis
According to a report today in The Wall Street Journal [subscription required], Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) -- those twin titans of mortgage mayhem -- are planning to dish out $210 million worth of retention bonuses over the next 18 months. James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, explained that $51 million in payouts were distributed in late 2008, with the rest of the bonuses to be disbursed through 2009 and into early 2010.
The news is already raising politicians' ire, since Fannie and Freddie are staying afloat only through the grace of government bailouts. The two lenders reported combined losses of roughly $108 billion in 2008, says the Journal, yet 80% of Freddie's employees and 61% of Fannie's payroll will score retention bonuses based on this bleak operating performance.
Continue reading Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac planning massive retention bonuses
Posted Mar 25th 2009 2:10PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Personal finance, Housing

Here comes the next big rip off by the banks --
mortgage origination fees. Banks normally charge what is called an "origination fee" -- an upfront payment to the bank supposedly for the paper work involved in doing the paperwork.
Just to give you an example, David Rapport, professor at the University of California Medical School had to pay $3500.00 up front to refinance his mortgage. A year ago, there was no fee! So banks are jumping in the refinancing market and charging outrageous fees just for writing a mortgage. Don't tell me that last year there was no fee and now for some magical reason banks have to charge sky high fees. The mortgage Bankers Association boosted its forecast for 2009 home loan originations by $800 billion to $2.78 trillion. This will give you a sense of the size of the market.
Continue reading Banks should lower mortgage rates and origination fees
Posted Mar 11th 2009 10:00AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Politics, Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says if you don't believe the administration's action (or inaction) here will have an effect, look at Lehman. Every time I hear that policy doesn't matter, that rules don't matter, that nothing can be done, I think two words -- "Lehman Brothers." For those of you who think that it doesn't matter what government does, ask yourself whether you would feel the same way about the world today if Lehman Brothers had been bought by another bank, and we would not have had
1. tens of billions in bonds and preferreds destroyed,
2. the buck broken,
3. tens of billions in margin accounts that vaporized,
4. a fire sale of bad assets driving all prices down,
5. a sense of chaos as you knew the government had no plan, even after Bear, Fannie (NYSE: FNM) (
Cramer's Take) and Freddie (NYSE: FRE) (
Cramer's Take) and everything else that happened.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Of course policy matters
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 2:35PM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: Forecasts, Politics, Financial Crisis

Most investors know about the United States' anti-state political culture: in America it's private sector solution first, public sector solution second.
And, most also know that what state that does exist is anti-central government: it dates back to our federalist origination. We're even reluctant to call something 'central' for this reason: we have a central bank, but it's called the
Federal Reserve, not the Central Reserve. And it's the
Internal Revenue Service, not the Central Revenue Service.
Continue reading Socialism by any other name is probably a U.S. government program
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 12:00PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Management, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM)

When
Fannie Mae (NYSE:
FNM) and
Freddie Mac (NYSE:
FRE) were taken over by the government in September, both were
given new CEOs to replace the clowns who got them into the mess.
Now Freddie Mac's CEO is heading for the exits. In a press release, the company said that CEO David Moffett would resign as CEO and as a member of the board no later than March 13. From the press release:
Moffett indicated that he wants to return to a role in the financial services sector. In his letter of resignation, he said, "I have enjoyed my time as CEO of Freddie Mac and I wish all the great employees the very best in the days to come."Continue reading Freddie Mac CEO calls it quits after a few months
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