whtamess

How Much Are Fannie and Freddie to Blame?

Dear Realist,
Did you ever hear of Mark to Market accounting... the gov't doesn't have to abide by it Fannie and Freddie did. You want the culprit to this fiasco look at the Financial Accounting Standards Board site and review the rules and if you have any idea at all about accounting rules you will begin to understand a portion of what happened here. I found it interesting to hear a Senator mention on the news that the govt doesn't have to abide by these rules and therefore they will be in a position to make money and protect the taxpayers for this rescue plan.
And yet another reason for the mess. From an article..." Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie
How the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history gave birth to the mortgage crisis
By Wayne Barrett"
published: August 05, 2008
and I quote "Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history, made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to the country's current crisis. He took actions that—in combination with many other factors—helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the subprime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded "kickbacks" to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans. Three to four million families are now facing foreclosure, and Cuomo is one of the reasons why." here is the link for the article www.villagevoice.com/c...