Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Bailout Blogs -> Calculated Risk

Bailout

: Calculated Risk

Nonsense Rumor on Fannie and Freddie

By Anonymous

Several people have sent me a political blog post on Reuters: An August Surprise from Obama?

Main Street may be about to get its own gigantic bailout. Rumors are running wild from Washington to Wall Street that the Obama administration is about to order government-controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt of millions of Americans who owe more than what their homes are worth. An estimated 15 million U.S. mortgages ? one in five ? are underwater with negative equity of some $800 billion

The blog post includes the poorly considered proposal from Morgan Stanley (that Tom Lawler responded to last week), and an excerpt from a July 16th Goldman Sachs research note that suggested "while there are ways in which the GSEs could provide support through policy, the effects on the broader economy would ultimately be fairly modest."

Not exactly foretelling a "gigantic bailout".

This nonsense is part of the silly season. Sure, some small changes could be made to Fannie and Freddie, but nothing like this post would suggest.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

Alert Drudge and the tinfoil hat sites - they will run with this story. It is a political post ... I'm already sorry I mentioned it.

Full post as published by Calculated Risk on August 05, 2010 (boomark / email).