New owners of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - U.S. taxpayers - deserve transparency

[Dover]

So, ladies and gentlemen of the United States, how does it feel to be the new owner of those two big and banged-up mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Not exactly the kind of real estate you were looking to buy, you say? Felt you had swallowed enough garbage after the Bear Stearns bailout tapped you for $29 billion?

Make no mistake: We, the American taxpayers, are amassing quite a portfolio of flotsam and jetsam in the mortgage bust. It certainly brings new meaning to the notion of an ownership society, doesn't it?

To be sure, the terms of the Mac 'n' Mae rescue deal are still sinking in. And it will be years before we know how much taxpayers will have to pay for the privilege of backing these out-of-control entities. But in the meantime, here are some of the joys that ownership in Mac 'n' Mae might bring.

The proud new owners - the taxpayers - could be asked to cover niceties like the pay packages awarded to the chief executives, Daniel Mudd at Fannie Mae and Richard Syron at Freddie Mac, as they exit the accident scene...>

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/14/business/morgen15.php

[kikiek]

1. This is ugly. And it could bring down the whole economy.The result of no regulation enforcement.

Sounds like it has become worse since 2000, but concerns were voiced since its inception. What was intended to help increase home ownership was used and abused to make people rich. This is the story we should all be sweating bullets over.

[glinda]

2. Can we become the collection agency then?

I think if we own it, the people who broke it should pay up? I want their homes, savings, clothes, toys, cars, houses........

[kikiek]

3. We can only hope we don't all lose everything. It won't be the ones who got rich off it.

Greenspan used the word deflation today while talking about it. Lehman now, Merrill Lynch next. They are all going down.