Fannie, Freddie and Barry.....

[Roscoe]

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac execs now offering advice to Obama

Senator's links to mortgage giants also include campaign contributions

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made to Barack Obama may backfire if the Democratic presidential hopeful wages an aggressive campaign to cast blame on rival John McCain and the Republicans in Congress for the mortgage-related losses that forced the U.S. Treasury to take over the quasi-governmental mortgage giants.

A review of Federal Election Commission records back to 1989 reveals Obama in his three complete years in the Senate is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions, behind only Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee. Dodd was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including contributions from PACs and individuals, followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.

In contrast, McCain warned of the coming mortgage crisis as he pressed in 2005 for regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Finish your assignment...http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.p...w&pageId=75586

[Ron61]

Boy, they do love the name wall don't they.

The memo, which became known as the "Gorelick Wall," appeared to establish barriers that barred federal anti-terrorist criminal investigators from accessing various federal records and databases that may have assisted them in their criminal investigations.

This should bring some interesting discussion about.

Ron

[Roscoe]

I'm going to make some popcorn.......

Roscoe

[Ron61]

Think I will order a dozen hot dogs and a few burgers and fries. I am tired of popcorn. Oh yea, and an order of frog legs and turtle soup for desert.

Ron

[Bill Bess]

Hey, somebody better warn Barry that the wall may fall a little further and smack him in the butt!.
The truth would be nice, but money always seems to win out and then new truths are created.

OH Man, I'll thick I better get my CHEETO'S and eat the whole damm bag.

OLD BiLL

[Wayne Maybury]

This is beginning to sound more rediculous than a soap opera plot. I cannot understand how the executives and officers of these quasi-governmental agencies / companies were able to "cook" the books and take home millions of dollars year after year. These SOB's should be strung up, after a fair trial, of course.

I have been following this whole sub-prime / variable rate mortgage mess for a couple of years but I had no idea that the greed, corruption, dishonesty, and stupidity reached such high levels. Many people are going to lose their retirement savings while a relatively small number of people are going to walk away with millions.

Wayne

[Ron61]

Wayne,

This seems the way they do business any more. Basically the same as a few years ago when PG& E was screaming they were going bankrupt. Wanted the state to help them out and then the first thing I saw was that the top executives had given themselves millions in bonuses. I guess it pays well to run large companies and corporations into bankruptcy.

Ron

[392cobra]

Another close friend of O's shouldn't be forgotten, Jimmy Johnson.Past CEO of Fannie Mae.

Jim Johnson, Former Fannie Mae CEO, To Begin VP Search for Obama

Atlanta, GA 5/22/2008 04:08 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)



Former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson has been asked by Senator Barack Obama on Thursday to start the search for a viable Vice Presidential candidate.

Johnson and Obama are starting the top-secret search as Obama edges closer to the Democratic nomination. Johnson did the same job for Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.

Johnson created the Fannie Mae Foundation where he served with distinction as its chairman and CEO from 1991 to 1998. In 1999, he became CEO of Fannie Mae.

As of 2006, Johnson is a vice chairman of the private banking firm Perseus LLC, a position he has held since 2001. He is also a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission.



Monday, June 09, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

How is Obama's veep searcher Jim Johnson not one of those overpaid CEOs the candidate decries?

The McCain camp is hitting one of Obama's veep hunters, Jim Johnson, for his seemingly sweet loans from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Jim Johnson, A Former CEO Of Fannie Mae Chosen To Lead Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee, Received Special Loans From Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo. "Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo. These borrowers, known internally as 'friends of Angelo' or FoA, include two former CEOs of Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of Countrywide's mortgages, say people familiar with the matter. One was James Johnson, a longtime Democratic Party power and an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, who this past week was named to a panel that is vetting running-mate possibilities for the presumed nominee." (Glenn R. Simpson and James R. Hagerty, "Countrywide Friends Got Good Loans," The Wall Street Journal, 6/7/08)

• While CEO Of Fannie Mae, Johnson And Mozilo Worked Closely And Maintained A "Close Friendship." "From 1991 to 1998, Mr. Johnson served as CEO of the Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae, which worked closely with Countrywide, one of the nation's leading lenders and loan servicing companies. In 1996, Mr. Johnson named Mr. Mozilo as chairman of Fannie Mae's national advisory council. A 1999 article in the American Banker said the two men had a 'close friendship.'" (Josh Gerstein, "Top Talent Scout For Obama Tied To Subprime Lender," The New York Sun, 6/9/08)

They note Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, criticized his counterpart with Hillary, Mark Penn, for working with Countrywide.

David Axelrod: "She's stuck him with him through the revelation that his firm was working for Blackwater and working for Countrywide, and, you know, so, it’s kind of stunning. Remember that the embassy said they weren't sure whether he was there as a representative of his firm or a representative of Senator Clinton. I mean, I think there are issues associated with this. I'm not - you can use the word hypocrisy, but there are certainly questions that arise from this." (MSNBC's "Countdown," 4/7/08)


Readers of the Kerry Spot will remember Johnson, once Kerry's veep-searcher, getting caught up in the Fannie Mae financial mismanagement mess. Byron noted it more recently in the Corner.

Here's the thing... Johnson made $21 million in one year from Fannie-Mae, a quasi-private corporation that enjoys a massive subsidy of taxpayers' money.

Obama repeatedly complains about CEOs making more in ten minutes than most workers make in a year, calling it a "moral deficit." If Johnson worked the standard 40 hour week for 52 weeks that year, he had an hourly rate of $10,096.15.

Salaries at Fannie Mae vary quite a bit, it seems, but it appears that Johnson had to work about five hours to equal the annual salary of a securities analyst, or just under twelve hours to equal the annual salary of an IT project manager. (No word on what the janitors, groundskeepers/facilities management and secretaries made there...)

Really, if making anywhere from 175 to 412 times the salary of your worker is an unacceptable "moral deficit" to Obama, it's not clear why he would tolerate it on his running mate search team...


06/09 12:34 PM

[Ronbo]

I have been following this whole sub-prime / variable rate mortgage mess for a couple of years but I had no idea that the greed, corruption, dishonesty, and stupidity reached such high levels.

After a while you'll get like me and just wonder how far down it goes from the top...

[DAVID GAGNARD]

This is beginning to sound more rediculous than a soap opera plot. I cannot understand how the executives and officers of these quasi-governmental agencies / companies were able to "cook" the books and take home millions of dollars year after year. These SOB's should be strung up, after a fair trial, of course.

Wayne:

I think the more apppropriate punishment for those guys would be to let all the folks that lost everything becasue of their greed, stone them to death on the town square at high noon every saturday morning for all to see..........how long do you think it would take for the high dollar execs to straighten up?????????

David