Your mother told you not to bring those filthy things inside, but you snuck them in anyhow. Now, blind, helpless, cold, foul smelling and featherless, the screaming, greedy mouths of the GSEs seem to gape endlessly, never satisfied and eager to suck more capital from the mouths of strained and frantic surrogates, forced to hunt eighteen hours a day to keep the damn things from chewing off a foot in their lust for fiscal calories, or screaming so loudly that your parents may burst in to hear which cat is being brutally tortured. No sooner have they had a hard-won, slime covered bit of roadkill been dumped into their bottomless, sucking orifices than was another immediately required.
Freddie Mac posted a $25.3 billion net loss in the third quarter on surging investment and credit losses as the company announced plans to seek an initial $13.8 billion from the Treasury Department to cover the hole in its shareholder equity.Treasury pledged up to $100 billion each for Freddie and Fannie Mae when they were put under conservatorship in September to prevent their potential bankruptcy. The government will receive preferred stock for any money given to the firm, and Freddie expects to receive its $13.8 billion request by Nov. 29.
Freddie's Loss Balloons to $25.3 Billion [The Wall Street Journal]
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:13AM
Too long; didn't read.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:16AM
Barney Frankenstein's black hole.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:19AM
I'm glad the rest of the world hearts our U.S. dollars so much.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:19AM
I'm glad the rest of the world hearts our U.S. dollars so much.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:19AM
I remember the old days when the GSE's could warm the books a little, smile on CNBC and enjoy the optimistic investors feeding on common stock. For some reason the investors are not so interested nowadays.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:25AM
You can't trust anything the GSE's say - never could. On the way up, they had every incentive to make earnings and balance sheet look good. Now the management has every incentive to take massive, excessive writedowns so they can leak profit back onto the books later and make themselves look like heros.
WFC and JPM are huge buys when we get through this slosh. Not because of the franchise value, but you can be sure that they have written down the assets of WB, Wamu, and BSC way below fair so they can hide some future profits and leak it back onto the sheet when they need earnings. Right now the senior management is just loading up on "cheap" shares and options.
That's really true across the board - right now CEOs can lower expectations because we are facing "unprecedented conditions" - allowing them to clean up their previous lies, load up on cheap stock/options, and squirrel away some PNL for the future.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:26AM
Congressman Elijah Cummings is the classic black preacher-pastor-type who stands for nothing but pissing away my money.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:30AM
Being "forced to hunt eighteen hours a day" is not entirely correct. More like: forcing others to hunt twenty hours a day, then taking half of what they bring in.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:46AM
what was that 1980s movie where you don't feed them after midnight, don't get them wet, etc. or they mutate?
Posted by ep , Nov 14, 2008 10:48AM
"Posted by guest, Nov 14, 2008 10:46AM
what was that 1980s movie where you don't feed them after midnight, don't get them wet, etc. or they mutate?"
Gremlins.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:49AM
@9 Gremlins. Minus 10 points and two demerits for not being able to identify one of the best movies of all time.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:49AM
That's it!
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 10:56AM
This whole thing is so completely fucked. Of course the GSE's were going to need a shitload more money. It's a fucking joke and an absolute disaster that is unfolding before our eyes.
How Paulson, Bernanke, Barney Frank or any of these clowns has any credibility is beyond me. Yet somehow the American public, dumb and blind, thinks the government will fix everything. Unbelievable, really.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Nov 14, 2008 11:04AM
@ 7:
This is where you're confused. You don't have any money. You lent all your money to Citigroup or some other insolvent bank. The only reason you "have money" is because the government reimbursed you via FDIC insurance. Therefore all of your wealth is the product of government intervention in the free market. Therefore you are a communist. If you're lucky Elijah Cummings may let you use some of his government money if you behave yourself. But if you keep posting comments like that you will have to move to Alaska and hunt for your own food.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:08AM
"Yet somehow the American public, dumb and blind, thinks the government will fix everything. Unbelievable, really."
The messiah has been elected and he will solve everything and heal everyone you filthy apostate.
Haven't you seen his unstinted support for the big-3 bailout where he is showing his true centrist philosophy and fiscal discipline (arrived at through careful 'socratic' analysis) as his supporters have always claimed? I mean, how else can you end up at the same conclusion as Barney Frank, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi? Socratic method baby, socratic method.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:09AM
I don't want to hunt for my own food. The dust is pretty thick on my .338 lapua with the leupold Mark IV glass.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Nov 14, 2008 11:14AM
@16:
plus as we just established you don't have any money for bullets commi. you have to use your bear hands. maybe you can pawn your rifle for a knife, or a sharp stick.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:21AM
Has anyone heard of a single individual connected with a GSE who was in any way responsible for this clusterfuck actually losing their job?
Of course, by 'any individual' i don't mean to include Barney Frank's boyfriend. God knows THAT guy can't be held accountable.
Do we have any indication that the people who caused the problem aren't the ones who are being allowed to piss billions more down the drain?
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:22AM
@6, plus--thanks to the repeal of 382, Uncle Barry won't be able to take their money for a while
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:40AM
@18...losing their jobs? LOL they're all getting promoted to BOs cabinet (i.e. Jamie Gorelick).
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:42AM
"The messiah has been elected and he will solve everything and heal everyone you filthy apostate."
Shut the fuck up, wingnut.
McCain would have made this even worse and you know it.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:42AM
@ 17 It does help that he was born with bear hands.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:48AM
18 Since when was "the problem" caused by the GSEs? There's some toxic s!!t there, yes, but the vast majority was originated outside the GSEs and packaged and sold by Wall Street. With big origination fees earned by the originators and huge profits earned by the packagers/sellers.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Nov 14, 2008 11:52AM
@22:
yeah unfortunately the bears also have bear hands.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:53AM
23
Since the GSE's had no involvement in the clusterfuck, I assume their balance sheets are actually solid and the belief that they need billions of taxpayer dollars is misguided?
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 11:56AM
wait a minute...the regulatory capital was all BS? impossible
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 12:35PM
"bear hands" is perhaps the best unintentionally hilarious post i've ever read on this site.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 12:48PM
@16, .375 H&H ...or maybe a T-Rex
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 12:55PM
Just more unpatriotic negativity from liberals who question the party, and real Americans.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 1:03PM
"McCain would have made this even worse and you know it."
Means that the messiah is making this bad? Did I hear that right? The m.e.s.s.i.a.h. is making things BAD!!
Oh my god, is that what we are going to hear for 4 more years - "Sure, the messiah is messing things up by take comfort in the hypothetical that McCain would have made things worse????"
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 1:03PM
"McCain would have made this even worse and you know it."
Means that the messiah is making this bad? Did I hear that right? The m.e.s.s.i.a.h. is making things BAD!!
Oh my god, is that what we are going to hear for 4 more years - "Sure, the messiah is messing things up by take comfort in the hypothetical that McCain would have made things worse????"
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 1:49PM
What you're going to hear in the next 4 years - from me anyway - is that Republicans fucked this country up beyond repair, we all knew that going into the 08 election season.
In this ridiculous two-party system we're stuck with, we collectively chose the lesser of two evils.
Let me guess: you're one of the mouthbreathers who adores Palin and her "executive experience."
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 2:09PM
32, good to hear that. Hence it follows that you blame Clinton for 9/11. Basically had he not slashed defence spending and focussed more - 9/11 could have been avoided. Also, it also follows that the 'balanced' budget of the 90's was a sham built upon cutting essential security expenditure which resulted in disaster for the country.
Oh wait. Now you will say only Republican acts carry over deep into the next administration whereas Dem ones disappear on inauguration day.
How much more of a pretzel do you want to twist yourself into to defend your messaih's present and future actions?
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 2:23PM
I blame Cheney for 9/11 actually.
No pretzels here, cum-face.
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 5:10PM
@33, if you think a larger millitary would have prevented 9/11, you're an idiot
Posted by guest , Nov 14, 2008 6:05PM
I am not going into the merits or demerits of Clinton's involvement. All I am saying is that if messiah supporters are going to continue blaming the previous administration 4 years hence (as 32 said). Then I believe that those same people should also blame Clinton for 9/11 as it happened only a few months into Bush's tenure.
Something tells me that they wont. Also, maybe if Clinton has attacked Afganistan pre-2001, Bush may not have had to do to then. It is not as if the world woke up overnight to the fact that that place was overrun with terrorists. Clinton followed Obama principle (or is it liberal principle?) - do not attack unless attacked. The Taliban, it seems like, did oblige and provide the reason. I would rather they never ever get there. But that is just me.