Dick Bove: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in my view are disasters they were basically companies that were filled with fraud and mismanagement for the last five or six years. They have to be broken up, they have to be gotten rid of. I don't think there's any question about that, but it can't be done now and can't be done in a period of hysteria...what will the structure of the financial industry be in 2009, after congress gets finished with it? I think what you'll see is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be gone.
Steve Liesman: That's sort of, I hate to say it at 6:14 in the morning, insane.
Dick Bove: Why?
I'll let the "brains" of this operation offer what my powers of prognostication tell me will be breaking insight on the sitch later but here's one very tangible reason now why a world without Freddie and Fannie would be one not worth living in: sporting events. When I was an senate intern for Corzine in 2005, FNM and FRE gave us an absurd amount of free tickets to a ton of Nationals home games. Yeah, it was the Nationals but who cares free shit is free shit. And the seats were good, third baseline, behind the dugout, only a few rows back, close enough for some pitcher to throw me a ball (whose name I cannot for the life of me remember and might go insane* trying to figure out. Update: It was Ryan Drese. A weight has been lifted off my chest.) Anyway, point is, those (corrupt?) gifts kept us out of trouble for at least a few hours a week. Without them, there are going to be a lot more seasonal senate employees puking through the not impervious to liquid balcony at Madam's Organ and being asked to leave and never come back. For instance.
*Dick Bove knows what I'm talkin' about.
Posted by lemmerdeur , Jul 14, 2008 11:45AM
Dear Mr. Liesman, here's a thought: point out one day in the last eighteen months that hasn't had at least one event that would elicit the response, "that's insane".
Welcome to a world where "insane" will be the norm for a long time to come.
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 11:47AM
Actually, if you listen to his whole argument, about Freddie/Fannie eventually becoming a regional banking system, it's not that dumb.
However, that is a pretty specific prediction, and Bove's confidence in his ability to read the future is quite scary if you're throwing some disposable income his way. Is this how he practices investing, or is he just offering some thoughts?
Btw, I love the tag "mental health" under this post. Lol.
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 11:50AM
Steve Liesman is the epitome of a buffoon.
the guys only education is a bachelors of english and a journalism degree. Why does he try to argue with people who have 10x the brains, 10x the experience, and 10x the credentials?
He just looks and sounds like an idiot every time he opens his mouth, and he is always wrong. Fire that douche already
Posted by CNote , Jul 14, 2008 12:06PM
Liesman's response should have been:
"Mr. Bove- What you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point, in your random, incoherent response, did you even come close to anything that could possibly be considered a rational thought. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul."
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 12:12PM
I didnt see the exchange by I wouldn't dismiss Liesman's view just like that.
So even social security and medicare/medicaid are effectively insolvent given the current structure. So will they disappear?
The are gigantic socialistic schemes hoisted upon the people knowing fully well that they will fail at some point of time. But far from doing away we are currrently in a political environment where MORE of these unsutainable socialistic constructs are the rage of the day (nationalized healthcare masquerading as "government madated but privately run" healthcare anyone?)
If anything, once the new political dispension is in place, they will probably drop the charade and reconvert FNM/FRE to what they original were planned to be - full agencies funded by the HUD. So yes, in the current environment the thought that these agencies will "disappear" is indeed slightly insane.
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 12:13PM
can someone explain this all to me?
are wall street capitalists begging for the federal government to basically hold title for almost all private property in the united states?
that's pretty cool.
and how come only the democrats are so mixed up in this garbage?
Posted by michange , Jul 14, 2008 12:19PM
Don't blame it on the context or on politics.
Fannie and Freddie were really that bad :
http://lacrisepourlesnuls.blogspot.com/2008/07/fannie-mae-indymac-rvlations-sur-des.html
Posted by StMarc , Jul 14, 2008 12:20PM
Why, Steve? Yeah! Why? Why, huh? WHY? HUH? STEVE?
On a somewhat less incoherent point, I note with interest that despite being "consolidated" into the new American KGB (That's literally what "Department of Homeland Security" translates to in Russian. You could look it up. But I hope you won't.) several years ago the umpteen individual bureaucracies are all alive, well, and consuming at least as much money per "sub-department" as each agency did before.
So while Carney's "BERNIE MAC" suggestion was pure comedy gold, I'm thinking that whatever the names on the door(s) say next August, a year is nothing like enough time to make any significant changes to the structure and function of the GSE's.
M
Posted by diablo , Jul 14, 2008 12:44PM
Sorry Saint, the "comedy gold" reference distracted me from your main point.
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 12:50PM
I can't believe that Madam's Organ is what passes for hip nightlife in Washington DC. Stayed with a friend in Columbia Heights recently. Washington sucks. but I guess that's not really news
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 2:15PM
I'm sorry, but the Steve Liesman/Dick Bove exchange was Wall Street comedy at its best.
I can't believe the stuff that goes on, particularly the stuff last Friday and today.
Posted by guest , Jul 14, 2008 4:33PM
"Fortune, fame
Mirror vain
Gone insane
But the memory remains"
Posted by guest , Jul 15, 2008 12:19AM
I like Bove. Guys does his homework and knows his shit. Steve Liesman (and yes he is a "man who lies") is a complete bafoon as the initial commentor noted. Still, you want to biggest problem at CNBC, you need look no further than the Gasbagarumor himself. And, isn't interesting that he was nicknamed this by Judge Judy before the accusations of "rumors gone wild" were made. This slimy fuck needs to be fired. He is always wrong, always disagreeable, always nasty to guests, and always make shit up. Other than that, he's a pro.