Democrats question Fannie, Freddie CEO exit pay

[The Backlash Cometh]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on Tuesday criticized the multimillion-dollar pay packages awarded to the former chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a time when taxpayers could foot a massive bill for the companies' bailout.

In a joint letter to Fannie and Freddie's regulator, Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Jack Reed of Rhode Island said the combined pay and bonus packages of about $24 million should be revised.

"We find it way out of line," they said in the letter, saying the severance pay for former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and former Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron should be questioned especially if any financial losses could have been caused by errors in management.

The U.S. Treasury Department over the weekend seized control of the two government-sponsored entities, which together back about half the country's $12 trillion in home mortgages.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0929070420080909?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

[crickets]

1. Way out of line, indeed.

I'm glad Dems are making this an issue.

Obama warns on Fannie, Freddie golden parachutes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3479829

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. This is a winning issue all around,

Republican voters are not crazy about the bailout. Though they see this as the fault of individual homeowners who couldn't even qualify to get a loan for a car. They don't understand that the system just stopped underwriting those applications, intentionally.

And, you know, the more you think about it, the more it becomes clear to me that the bankruptcies were intentional. There are some patterns that you can't ignore. Private corporations are hijacking the government process, and after the private entities usurp the money, they leave the bill for the public to pay. I just don't understand why Republicans who are rah-rah property rights and individual rights, don't see that they are expediting this process.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. Not only no golden parachute - they should have to give back

their entire salary for the years that they screwed up so badly.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. The retro-active pay doesn't bother me.

What bothers me is that this guy probably has a network that will give him a job in the private sector and he'll just keep doing what he's been doing, using some innocuous community organization as a shell.

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. I worked in the mortgage industry. There is plenty of blame to go around.

But Freddie and Fannie set the guidelines that all the other banks use. They were the ones who began using automated underwriting which was a disaster. It made fraud way too easy.

[guitar man]

3. no kidding it's way out of line

hell, I could have fucked it up that bad too, maybe I should start looking for a CEO job? :crazy:

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. There is no excuse for this one.

We have an issue here that even Republican voters will agree with.

[guitar man]

5. I hope so

my Republican brother has awakened to the fallacy of rethug economics, if he can do it, there's hope for everyone.

[Festivito]

9. It's reasonable, payable in common stock.

In fact, at the issue price from the day they took their offices.

In fact, whatever they have drawn from their work over the last years should be retrieved from them and reverted to that stock price and the resulting amount of stock should be theirs to cash in for them to receive exactly what they deserve.

I'd even extend this to their business partners, family and friends if those monies could be proven in a court of law to be directly related to outlays from the two FMs.

I hope you see exactly how fair I wish to be with these people.