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happyslug

(14,779 posts)
13. Freddie Mac is NOT Tax payer owned, never was
Mon Jan 30, 2012, 06:39 PM
Jan 2012

Its cousin Fannie Mae had been from 1938, but that ended in 1968 when Congress decided to spin it off to private enterprise (This was part of the deal involving the Vietnam War, balancing the budget for Fiscal Year 1969, the last Budget of LBJ and the last Balanced budget till Clinton's administration).

As Wikipedia states:

From 1938 to 1968, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) was the sole institution that bought mortgages from depository institutions, principally savings and loan associations, which encouraged more mortgage lending and effectively insured the value of mortgages by the US government. In 1968, Fannie Mae split into a private corporation and a publicly financed institution. The private corporation was still called Fannie Mae and its charter continued to support the purchase of mortgages from savings and loan associations and other depository institutions, but without an explicit insurance policy that guaranteed the value of the mortgages. The publicly financed institution was named the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) and it explicitly guaranteed the repayments of securities backed by mortgages made to government employees or veterans (the mortgages themselves were also guaranteed by other government organizations). To provide competition for the newly private Fannie Mae and to further increase the availability of funds to finance mortgages and home ownership, Congress then established the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) as a private corporation through the Emergency Home Finance Act of 1970. The charter of Freddie Mac was essentially the same as Fannie Mae's newly private charter: to expand the secondary market for mortgages and mortgage backed securities by buying mortgages made by savings and loan associations and other depository institutions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mac

Just pointing out that since 1968 neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac have been "Taxpayer owned" corporations.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

A good read. It details how Freddie Mac makes money by keeping struggling homeowners in higher fasttense Jan 2012 #1
Why do these people want this country to fail? PuraVidaDreamin Jan 2012 #2
If there's some way the president can stop this crap, he ought to do it. Congress sure won't. flpoljunkie Jan 2012 #3
Making money by screwing people. This company should have been shut down. sarcasmo Jan 2012 #4
Freddie Mac Mission Statement with charter attachment PADemD Jan 2012 #5
Key word: liquidity. Hedging is sometimes necessary to ensure liquidity. Dreamer Tatum Jan 2012 #12
A taxpayer-owned mortgage company TatonkaJames Jan 2012 #6
Freddie Mac is NOT Tax payer owned, never was happyslug Jan 2012 #13
Since 2008, we now own a big chunk of them. That was part of the bailouts. Common Sense Party Jan 2012 #18
Quite a bit Snake Alchemist Jan 2012 #21
80%???!!? Common Sense Party Feb 2012 #24
Straight from Freddie Mac Snake Alchemist Jan 2012 #20
We just refinanced thru HARP: roadblocks every step of the way! FailureToCommunicate Jan 2012 #7
"mortgage servicing company (Wells Fargo) didn't want to budge": of course not, Warren Buffett wants stockholmer Jan 2012 #11
Ja. FailureToCommunicate Jan 2012 #15
i bet freddie mac it he tip of the iceberg. pansypoo53219 Jan 2012 #8
Jeez! The FEDERAL mortgage company was doing this: betting on failure!? Peace Patriot Jan 2012 #9
Your welcome... ghurley Jan 2012 #16
another article and video stockholmer Jan 2012 #10
Glass-Steagall Act was enacted after the Great Depression to prevent these greed based conflicts of mother earth Jan 2012 #14
+1000, Repeal of Glass-Steagall, NAFTA,and the horrific Commodity Futures Modernization Act are the stockholmer Jan 2012 #17
Yes, bipartisanship to derail the protections of Glass-Steagall, moreso from the GOP, nonetheless, mother earth Jan 2012 #19
And for this discovery and revelation, NPR will be defunded by the rethugs in 10... 9... 8... truthisfreedom Jan 2012 #22
Freddie Mac/Fannie May again natasor Jan 2012 #23
Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»Freddie Mac Betting Again...»Reply #13