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Fannie and Freddie: Finally a Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Why are Freddie and Fannie still trading? Doesn't the government own it now? Same with WAMU - it was trading today after the government confiscated it and sold it to someone else. Obviously they'd been thinking about it, yet there was no warning - at 3:47 I bought 5k shares @ 1.69, sold them 12 minutes later for 1.77...but only because my buy orders for 20K @ 1.55 didn't go through and I needed to go grocery shopping - and there was an angel on my shoulder, PTL.
I come back from shopping and O M G.....they were close to 5 bucks about a week ago.
Are they going to trade tomorow? Why, or why not?
The Dummy's Guide to the U.S. Financial Crisis
It would have subsidized mortgages for those who can't afford them for up to 40 years;
publicmarkup.org/bill/.../
And it's an unlimited line of revolving credit - 700 billion is just the start.
This is a full fledged attempt to turn this country into a socialist one under the guise of "bailing us out".
What are they bailing us out of? A disaster that started in 1977 - as quazzy1 noted, "It started with the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, which was substantially strengthened in 1995 by Cuomo and Clinton."
Banks were required to lend money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. Fannie & Freddie would bundle these worthless mortgages into equities and sell them on the stock market. They consistantly cooked the books, but got away with it with help from a steady stream of crooked dem CEOs such as Jamie Gorelick, of 911 fame for putting up the wall between the FBI and CIA
www.freerepublic.com/f...
virginiavirtucon.wordp.../
who made about 26 million, Obama advisors Frank Raines www.ofheo.gov/media/pd....
and Jim Johnson
Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008
Name Office Party/State Total
1. Dodd, Christopher J S D-CT $133,900
2. Kerry, John S D-MA $111,000
3. Obama, Barack S D-IL $105,849
4. Clinton, Hillary S D-NY $75,550
5. Kanjorski, Paul E H D-PA $65,500
Barney Frank had his hand on Fannies.....
Democratic House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive
www.businessandmedia.o...
And there's one question I have - if WAMU and the F team has been sold/confiscated, why are they still trading?
The McClatchy Company Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
MNI.PK...has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
Houston to Obama: Smell the Oil
Thanks
WaMu Borrower Purposely Defaults, Gets Foreclosed On, Sues
The ones who are taking advantage of the system, the 'me too's anytime they hear of a handout should be made to pay restitution plus 100% fine in addition, to help out some honest, productive family that really needs the help.
I don't have enough fingers and toes to count all the people I've met who considered credit card bankruptcies a right - one girl my brother couldn't seem to shake ran up over $200K and never paid back a dime, and my ex chiropracter strongly suggested I default on the credit cards I used to fund much of a couple years of college not long ago (algebra really sucks in your late 40s if you never took it before!), but I was wearing a grin he'll never understand when I paid off the last one.
He said that he and all his friends default, often twice, and they all had good jobs and weren't hurting for money.
They considered it a right, he said, and so should I.
I also had a right to never put another penny in his pocket, and never did, other than that visit's check.....you know he would have been the 1st one to come after me if I cancelled it!
Houston to Obama: Smell the Oil
It appears there was, during times of war - 1st enacted in 1863 by the Confederate Army (Slave Owning Southern Democrats, what a surprise!) - and the government later experimented with taxing companies who were either profiteering off the war(s) or at other times when an entity was making in excess of a set standard, neither of which are relevant in this case.
The government has not set a standard for excess profits, so they have no standing to use that as a reason. Indeed, there are many companies and individuals which operate on a much higher margin - look at the gain in income percentage for the Obamas and Clintons lately - Both O and Ms O had their income increase over 100% in one year, Mr. C suddenly made 20 million for God knows what in Dubai, and where in the world did Ms C pop up with 5 million to lend her campaign on her salary?
In short, the Excess Profit Tax did not set a precedent for attacking one industry whilst leaving other, more profitable industries alone when it was in effect (AFAIK), and there is no EPT in this country at this time.
I look forward to the rest of your answers - especially if you care to address the obvious market manipulation factors.
Whether this market manipulation is strictly for political power plays, fame or for fortune could be considered irrelevant, as it is without a doubt intended to interfere with and harm the oil companies, and the American Citizens (and maybe even some Citizens of the World) who own them.
Houston to Obama: Smell the Oil
The context the term is being used in by Hillary, Obama, and the vast majority of the Democrat party is one of confiscation of capital and of nationalization of refineries.
This is exactly what Communist leaders like Hugo Chavez and totalitarian dictators such as Saddam Hussein have done. I don't know if Castro had an oil well or refinery, but he "freed" his people of their possesions as soon as he had the political power to do so.
If you want to take the time to give a dissertation on the semantics of the name these politicians have affixed to confiscating personal property, have at it.
You say "Windfall profit tax" is an incorrect term, yet it is the one you used, and in the same context as the one the D candidates and both D sides of their respective houses of congress are using to demonize American companies, affix the blame for the current crisis on these companies when it is and was clearly the fault of the democrat leadership that caused this shortage, then add insult to injury by trying to raise political capital from this heinous deceit by confiscating American Investor held funds, and redistribute them as political gifts to potential voters in the heat of a presidential election.
Can you not see where arbitrarily suggesting that one oil industry company might be ripe for a windfall profit tax in the heated environment caused by these 2 pandering candidates and thier majority collegues might result in a clubbing?
BTW, please quote your source for "excess profit tax being reserved for wartime, etc."
Analyzing Chevron's Q2 Earnings
How does their $22.9 billion exploration plan turn into "reducing investment in drilling and buying back shares" once it's richochet'd about the inside of your skull?
You make it sound as if Ried & Pelosi's refusal to allow drilling where there are KNOWN reserves is actually a plot by the oil companies to control the price.
The fact that oil companies operate on smaller margins than many companies that never need exploration nor the continued risk of $billions in capital that goes along with it somehow never gets mentioned as the Democrat Hoax soaks up one sap after another.
Chris Wallace brought up the fact that there are many companies making much more money, on a much higher margin in an interview with Dick Durbin today. Durbin stared straight ahead at the teleprompter, refusing to address Wallace's assertions, and continued to rattle on his wildly innacurate speech.
How Chris could hope to interview a beanbag like Durbin I'll never know.
Houston to Obama: Smell the Oil
"Pundits are likely to conclude that there is room here for a windfall tax and I would be inclined to agree. Obviously, there is not enough competition in the rig business."
By your OWN words, you clearly buy the "windfall profits tax" scam, AND state a sample of the criteria by which this confiscation would be found agreeable.
There's nothing opaque with your writing, you're just in the wrong country is all. You should be writing for Pravda, or some other government nationalized rag.
Houston to Obama: Smell the Oil
WTH gives you the right to judge who's property gets confiscated, the right to arbitrarily concoct a formula based on your personal whim, and the authority to discern it's relative morality?
We know why the odd couple of Hillary & Obama (for clarity purposes, we'll just refer to them as "HO") want to confiscate money from the shareholders of energy companies and gift it to people who didn't earn it --> HO wants to buy voters with other people's money.
This isn't anything new, and if HO can get away with it now, HO's tentacles will pillage any company, anytime, for no other reason than the company these shareholders invested their hard earned after tax dollars survived the competition, the military attacks on equipement and personel such as those ongoing in Nigeria & the ME, and the childish whims and pandering of Democrat Socialists in Congress.
Were you to be put in charge of deciding which shareholders to attack, who would be the next 1,000 or so companies would you deem meets your criteria to pillage after RIM?
If HO is going to send a gift wrapped $1,000 to every middle class & below resident paid for by a shareholder, you're going to have to extend this out WAY past the oil industry.
For instance, Chevron (CVX), of which both my son and I are investors in, only has 215,000 shareholders. They had a relatively good 2nd quarter, even if they are down 15% since the talk of confiscating - or in the words of Maxine Waters - "Socialising, Nationalizing" gained steam. If you confiscate 1 HO present from each shareholder, that's going to be a drop in the bucket!<p>
Why, for HO to be successful, you'd need 1,000 compaines the size of Chevron, and there's only 3 in the US that are larger - what are you going to do? What ARE you going to do?
Just do me a favor, Saul. When you and HO decide how many vote buying HO gifts my son and I are going to have to pay for, can you at least send me a little picture of where my HO gifts went, what country they're from, and which HO member campaigns they donated my HO gift to?
WaMu and More: Uninsured Depositors Begging for Trouble
Otherwise he would have posted the rest of the article he was qouting, rather than cherry picking the worst part, knowing that most people don't bother reading past the headlines, much less follow the link to see if there is any data that might balance out the article and Shedlock's anonymous joker "AJ".
The rest of the story;
<i>``As we stated publicly months ago, WaMu funds all of its business through its banking operations and does not rely on commercial paper,'' the company said in an e-mailed response.
Cash Infusion
Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger has said the $7 billion cash infusion led by TPG Inc., coupled with plans to save $1 billion annually by trimming the mortgage business, gives the lender enough money to ride out the U.S. housing slump. The decline in federal funds purchased on WaMu's balance sheet may be the result of the company using cash to prefund short-term maturities and not creditors withdrawing money, which suggests it didn't need to borrow in the Fed Funds market, WaMu said.
WaMu slid 62 cents, or 13 percent, to $4.03 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock fell 20 percent yesterday and has lost 90 percent of its value in the past year.
Some 335 million WaMu shares changed hands, more than eight times the daily average over the past year, according to Bloomberg data. The stock has moved at least 10 percent nine times in the past three weeks.
Credit-Default Swaps
Credit-default swap sellers demanded 14 percentage points upfront and 5 percentage points a year to protect WaMu bonds from default for five years, up from 7.3 percentage points a year yesterday, according to CMA Datavision.
That means it would cost $1.4 million initially and $500,000 a year to protect $10 million in bonds. Yesterday, that would have cost $730,000 a year without an upfront payment. Protection sellers start demanding upfront payments when the risk of an imminent default increases.
Credit-default swaps were conceived to protect bondholders against default, and pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should the company fail to adhere to its debt agreements.
Analysts at Piper Jaffray Cos., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Friedman Billings Ramsey Group Inc. said after WaMu's earnings report that it may need to raise more cash. According to a clause in the TPG agreement, if WaMu raises more than $500 million in equity at less than $8.75 a share within 18 months, it must compensate TPG for the difference.
Standard & Poor's said WaMu has the liquidity to meet obligations without raising more funds through 2012. Analysts at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG also said the company should have enough capital.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 24, 2008 17:34 EDT </i>
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, tells a starkly different picture.
The conference call is worth the approx. hour to listen to. There's some interesting dialogue, such as concerning the sale of Etrade Canada.
One fellow had run the numbers on that and asked for verification as the sale appeared to be very much in parent Etrade's favor.
His numbers were correct. Etrade did very well on that sale.
Message ~ Etrade is not having a fire sale. They got top dollar for an asset that would have had minimal impact on income. I don't have a number, but I'm pretty sure Etrade Canada didn't account for a third of the parent's income - there's only so many people there, and their govt. doesn't leave 'em much change to invest. Yet, the price they paid reflects about one third Etrade's market cap.
The progress they've made during this national crisis is proof they were fast on their feet and did a spectacular job of minimizing exposure.
Instead of making excuses, they displayed difinitive actions which allowed them to show growth over last year, just a few months after the analysts were predicting their imminent demise.
I think the shareholders (of which I am one) and customers (ditto) have a great team working for us.
Combined with the undisputed premium product, I think this company deserves a vote of confidence.
Newspapers 'Rightsizing'? More Like Frightsizing
LOL, spoken like a true "blue" economist!
I'm sure their investors would have appreciated some advance notice before they drove the company headfirst into the ground!
Facts are, if someone wants hyperpartisan editorials, they have a plethora of opportunities out there without having all that hate screaming out at them as they try to have a cup & a read to start the morning.
No one needs to have their news politicized for them, and McClatchy never learned that.
I'll never forget the fellow I worked with who sent out all his faxes with an image of Bill Clinton on a 3 dollar bill on top. I'm sure some of his clients found it humorous, but I suggested to him that he was certain to piss off at least 50% of every person he sent one to, and an unknown percentage who thought it was tasteless or misplaced.
McClatchy - and it's investors - would surely be in a different spot right now if it simply reported the news as it happened, rather than present a skewed, ultra left wing rant posing as the news.
But you go ahead and make excuses for McClatchy, and while you're at it, step on up and buy some stock!
(They're having a "going out of business sale". You can get all you want dirt cheap).
Newspapers 'Rightsizing'? More Like Frightsizing
They abandoned the truth and embraced the far left and all its lies.
We are able to fact check now, and where we weren't when Walter Cronkite told us the Tet Offensive was a huge defeat for the United States, we were able to find that Harry Reid was lying when he told us we lost the war in Iraq.
The drive by media bet against the citizens of the United States being able to sniff out it's bias and they lost.
Take a look at McClatchy's chart - as the papers they own here in Washington state have have moved further to the left, lionizing our enemies while demonizing defenders, failing to report our state government's overspending while supporting socialist goals, attacking anything or anyone conservative along with our rights, so has gone their stock, from mid 70s to just over 5 buck in 3 short years.
I think it was just about 3 years ago that McClatchy added its hyperpartisan news.McClatchyHeadline... column to the Tacoma News Tribune.
Coincidence? No, I predicted it when they out left'd the left coast and I've been enjoying watching this part of the Dinosaur Death Watch ever since. This is one company that truly deserves to sink back into the primordial goo that it built it's glass house on.
E*Trade's 'First In, First Out' Position: Yes, 111M Shorts Can Be Wrong
If etfc meets or beats -.15eps for this quarter, we could have a 6 day party.