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In extraordinary times, exceptional things are often asked of ordinary people.
Government-controlled mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Friday they have immediately suspended all foreclosure sales involving occupied single-family and 2-4 unit properties through March 6, to give troubled borrowers more time to work with loan servicers to avoid losing their homes.
- As snowstorms blew into this Northwest city and the economy iced over in December, the occupants of a shelter nestled among industrial buildings on the north side prayed for divine intervention.
The Treasury Department has picked two financial institutions to manage a program it unveiled last month to provide support for beleaguered mortgage-backed securities.
Highest congressional career totals for contributions from PACs tied to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:
This fall, many members of Congress will see a major source of campaign contributions disappear, possibly never to return.
President Bush's "ownership society" was never supposed to come to this.
Mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae shook up its executive ranks Wednesday, after shares in it and sibling company Freddie Mac rose for a third straight day as investors appeared less certain a government bailout of the two troubled companies is imminent.
As mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac struggle with continuing credit losses, their ability to raise needed capital is uncertain and, analysts say, is complicated by the possibility of a government bailout of the two companies.
Whether or not the government is actually on the verge of taking over mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investor fears that a bailout is imminent could turn such a worst-case scenario into reality.
Behind their down-home names, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so vital to the economy that the government scrambled to offer them a lifeline. But what exactly are they, and what do they do?
A federal rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost taxpayers $25 billion, congressional budget experts said, as the House scheduled a Wednesday vote on legislation that would tap the mortgage giants' profits to cover any losses from saving 400,000 homeowners from foreclosure.
Democrats and Republicans queasy about a federal rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are coalescing around the idea of letting the government slap limits on the multimillion-dollar pay packages of their executives.
For years, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tenaciously worked to nurture, and then protect, their financial empires by invoking the political sacred cow of homeownership and fielding an army of lobbyists, power brokers and political contributors.
Fears that the government will be forced to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday the government cannot let mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac go under.
A deep recession could force mortgage-finance titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to require a federal bailout large enough to hurt the U.S. government's top-grade credit rating, Standard & Poor's warned Monday.
The government on Wednesday relaxed capital requirements at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of a plan to quickly inject an additional $200 billion of financing for home loans.
Loosening the regulatory reins around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gives them the freedom to play a bigger role in trying to stabilize a worsening housing market.
The federal regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Wednesday it would lift restrictions later this week on the amount of mortgages the government-sponsored companies can hold on their books.
Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are changing their criteria for purchasing delinquent home loans they've guaranteed, in order to reduce the number they buy from investors, the companies said Monday.
Freddie Mac's Secrecy Pacts Face Court Test WASHINGTON — One year after the government took over and bailed out Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage finance company, federal regulators are blocking former employees from revealing information to investors who are suing the company for fraud, lawyers for shareholders say.
Fannie Mae needs another $10.7B in federal aid - Aug. 6, 2009NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage insurer, said Thursday that it needs another $10.7 billion from the Treasury Department to stay afloat.
Police: Arizona woman led sons on crime spreeThe case of an Arizona mother who allegedly led her sons on a crime spree has outraged authorities and the public and drawn comparisons to "Ma Barker," the infamous mom in the early 1900s.
In her novel The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand introduced a type of person she called a second-hander. Second-handers are those who base their own self-worth off others opinions and are in fact not truly people, but vessels for the beliefs of others.
Despite a depressingly tight job market, many corporate executives are saying "Thanks, but no thanks" to some lucrative jobs. Not surprisingly, embattled government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are both having hard time recruiting top talent.
Tree traps man in bed (Video)Two teenagers were injured Tuesday afternoon after a tree fell through the roof of their Polk County home. One of the men was pinned in the bed in which he was lying when the 40,000-pound tree came crashing down through the house's second floor.
Buffy is Pregnant!Well Buffy isn't actually pregnant but Sarah Michelle Gellar is expecting her first child with Freddie!
On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson rewrote history to blame Frank for mortgage crisisHere is a Summary: Tucker Carlson claimed that the mortgage crisis "emanated from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," and asserted that one of the "reasons this crisis began ...
Fannie and Freddie Are Unlikely to Be RestoredDespite assurances that the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be temporary, the giant mortgage companies will most likely never fully return to private hands, lawmakers and company executives are beginning to quietly acknowledge.
Rescuing America's Homeowners: an overview of the President's proposalOf the 52 million US homeowners with a mortgage, more than a quarter -- nearly 14 million -- are underwater. They owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
So here we are. President Barack Obama's $75 billion plan to help up to 9 million families with their mortgages would apparently: (1) remove restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from lending when more is owed on a home than it is worth;
No "magic bullet" - but at least show me the gunpowder!Towards the end of Mr. Schoen's article, he mentions "guidelines [which] include a standard formula for estimating the value of a home in a falling market."
Obama will travel to Phoenix Wednesday to announce a 50 Billion Dollar plan to "fix" the Mortgage crisis and find a"bottom" to the real estate market as Fannie "dumps" property for under a thousand dollars! You can go to any major city and search the local listing service and at …
Ft Myers mighty well be the poster child for the crippled hosing market and how housing prices have tanked since 2005. Today Obama goes to Ft Myers on the "Pork Tour" to sell the stimulus plan.
U.S. Economy Disintegrating as Government Supports Zombie BanksThe climax of this charade in ass-backward policy will be the nationalization of the mortgage system . It is a fully neglected problem, soon to need powerful aid in the nation's largest program in its history.
Fed is now buying Paper it createdBig Trouble in the US economy. When a non-government bank (FED) starts buying paper issued by the government using money it printed we are headed for a wild ride!
If you have been watching shows like CNBC (Shills for Financial Industry) you may have seen a short notice that as of the 25th the Fed is now buying Treasury backed paper. Did you get that! Fed (gov) is buying Government issued secured paper.
Fan Scan: Sounders FC kits 'leaked!'An ECS member got his latest Eurosport catalog today, and guess what? It had a full page of Sounders gear including the home and away kits. So of course the fan scanned the page so we all could see it early!
Fishermen catch dog a mile out to sea Two North Sea fishermen made an unusual catch when they caught a dog.
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the LightsI remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
Thank the Democratic Party for the Loan CrisisAfter hearing many accusations of Republicans being in bed with Wall Street, it does not surprise to learn that Democrats are benefiting handsomely from crony capitalism.
Building Flawed American Dreams Henry Cisneros, HUD and the sub-prime mess. As the Clinton administration's top housing official in the mid-1990s, Mr. Cisneros loosened mortgage restrictions so first-time buyers could qualify for loans they could never get before.
Newt Gingrich Discusses Political Solutions for the EconomyA video from American Solutions, Newt Gingrich discusses the state of the economy and the steps we must take to ensure growth for future generations.
Arlo Guthrie: "I'm Changing My Name To Fannie Mae"Arlo Guthrie performs THE song of our times: "I'm Changing My Name To Fannie Mae" in this amusing video. More soup for the soul from the owner of Alice's Restaurant. Enjoy!
America the Banana Republic: Politics & Power: vanityfair.comRemember the scene at the end of Peter Pan, where the children are told that, if they don't shout out aloud that they all believe in fairies, then Tinker Bell's gonna @!$%#ing die? That's what the fall of 2008 was like, and quite a fall it was, at that.
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