Citigroup, Inc. Message Board
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It's all good till QE ends. Look at fnma, what a scam.
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reported.
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Why should private corporations be guaranteed USG profits. Profits belong to the taxpayer.
Start your own company without US taxpayers.
We paid it back? BS, the FEd has been buying billions in MBS for years as part of QE.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Bloomberg:
Paulson Leads Hedge-Fund Lobby Push to Privatize Fannie
By Clea Benson & Cheyenne Hopkins - Apr 30, 2013 11:11 PM GMT+0700
No Exit
Treasury holds $188.5 billion in senior preferred shares in the two companies, representing the amount of aid they have drawn from taxpayers to stay afloat. The companies have sent back $65.2 billion in dividends, which count as a return on the government’s investment and not as a repayment. Treasury also holds warrants to purchase nearly 80 percent of the companies’ outstanding common stock.
Under the bailout’s terms, there’s no mechanism for the enterprises to exit conservatorship. Neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac can build capital because Treasury takes virtually all of their quarterly profits.
Holders of the rest of the preferred shares as well as common shares were widely presumed to have been wiped out when the government took over. The companies’ return to profitability has created renewed enthusiasm for the enterprises’ securities.
Hedge funds don’t publicly disclose their holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities. Claren Road and Perry Capital hold preferred shares, according to investors in the funds.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Libs: Senate Republicans are likely to block Watt's nomination in order to keep DeMarco
by srbbs •17 hours agoScared you socialist?
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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The Federal Reserve should not go from "wild turkey" monetary policy to "cold turkey" overnight, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told CNBC on Monday, saying that when to dial back is the key because stopping would be "too violent for the marketplace."
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's principle concern is the efficacy of the central bank's $85 billion a month of purchases of mortgage-backed securities and bonds, Fisher said in a "Squawk Box" interview.
He said the asset buying has helped boost the stock market, "but has it worked in the economy? ... We don't know."
Fisher, who had argued against quantitative easing in the first place, said he'd start tapering by scaling back the purchases of mortgage-backed securities.
"We're going to be at a point soon where ... [in] a couple of months, we could buying 100 percent of the gross issuance of mortgage-backed securities volume," he predicted. "We're going to be at a point where we're buying a significant portion—as these deficits come down slightly over the short term—of Treasury issuance."Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Los Angeles Times: Obama to nominate Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to head housing agency
Obama is expected to announce the nomination Wednesday afternoon at the White House.
DeMarco, a career bureaucrat who has been the agency's acting director since 2009, has drawn the ire of Democrats and liberal activists for not allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the principal on mortgages it backs to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
But Republicans have praised DeMarco for acting in the best interest of taxpayers, who have pumped more than $187 billion into Fannie and Freddie to keep them afloat after the government seized them in 2008.
Quiz: How much do you know about mortgages?
Senate Republicans are likely to block Watt's nomination in order to keep DeMarco in the position.
In 2010, Obama nominated Joseph Smith, then North Carolina's top banking regulator, to replace DeMarco, but Senate Republicans prevented a confirmation vote.
On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), an influential voice on housing finance, criticized Watt's nomination.
"I could not be more disappointed in this nomination. This gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house,” Corker said. “The debate around his nomination will illuminate for all Americans why Fannie and Freddie failed so miserably.”
Corker said that before any nominee is considered to replace DeMarco, the Obama administration should propose specific plans for shutting down Fannie and Freddie.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Senators want to move forward with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform
by srbbs •May 19, 2013 9:59 PMCa you say 5pps?
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Senators want to move forward with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform
by srbbs •May 19, 2013 9:59 PMThey didn't give, it was taken.
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Senators want to move forward with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform
by srbbs •May 19, 2013 9:59 PMGood luck!
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Senators want to move forward with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform
by srbbs •May 19, 2013 9:59 PMWhy do anything? USG guarantees the paper; the USG should be the only ones that profit.
Let the speculators on the common keep pumping and dumping on each other.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Nice exit at 1.40. Waiting for the dump.
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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congrats....
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Forbes: Obama's Victory Lap? Treasury To Accelerate Wind Down Of Fannie, Freddie
by srbbs •May 20, 2013 1:23 AMI read the news today, oh boy.
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Lol, as long as his name isn't fannie, you should be ok!
Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Lawmakers have made little progress on reforming the mortgage giants since they were bailed out during the financial crisis, and the news that they are turning a profit for the government — at a time of steep deficits — could give them a reason to leave the issue for another day.
Fitch Ratings, which has expressed concern about the lack of progress on the overhaul efforts, said on Friday that the massive dividend payment "will likely complicate efforts to pursue far-reaching” reform of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSE).
"Better operating trends at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, driven by continued healing in the housing market” will “likely further reduce pressure on Congress to overhaul the U.S. housing finance system," Fitch said in a release.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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From your link you omitted:
Some hedge funds have held on to preferred shares of the housing giants on a political bet that the government will stop seizing all the profits of Fannie and Freddie and show some willingness to make payments to preferred shareholders.
The preferred shares are seen as a better bet than common shares, which have the lowest priority in the order of repayment.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Senators want to move forward with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform
by srbbs •May 19, 2013 9:59 PMI hope this helps.
“Obviously we're discussing lots of options but I don't know of anybody that's working on an option where Fannie and Freddie are what they are today,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told The Hill.
“No one is looking to re-IPO [initial public offering] them or anything else.”
Corker said that talks are ongoing and “there have been a lot of very fruitful discussions”
While reforms of the mortgage industry is far from the forefront of the legislative agenda, there are some indications that it has a pulse.
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, last week during a hearing said he believed “a bipartisan consensus” was emerging that the status quo for Fannie and Freddie was unacceptable.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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Cowards!!!!
Officials from the mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have withdrawn from a Detroit event where homeowners are set to talk about the impact foreclosures have had on their lives and communities.
The group Detroit Eviction Defense claims the last-minute cancellation of the May 20 hearing comes after officials for the government-backed agencies told organizers it would be "awkward" to hear testimony from homeowners who are currently litigating against them.
Steve Babson, a spokesman for Detroit Eviction Defense, said organizers received word of the cancellation through a series of phone calls with employees of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie and Freddie.
"They said, 'Well, we've decided it would be pretty awkward for us to be in the same room in a public event with homeowners who are in litigation against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over potential evictions,'" Babson told The Huffington Post. "This was a phone conversation, as it had been for several months, but this was unfortunately at the 11th hour saying they were pulling out."
Meg Burns, senior associate director of the Office of Housing and Regulatory Policy, sent a statement to The Huffington Post confirming that officials from FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had earlier committed to attending the hearing but now would be unable to do so.Sentiment: Strong Sell
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If Congress rallies around an approach to at least reduce the government’s role, it would probably squash the efforts of hedge fund investors, who are buying up Treasury-held preferred stock, to benefit from their bet that lawmakers will allow Fannie and Freddie to exit conservatorship with a structure similar to their current form.
Sentiment: Strong Sell