Thursday, November 10, 2011

Voracious and Insatiable

From The Wall Street Journal:

Fannie Mae said it would seek $7.8 billion more in U.S. government assistance after posting a wider loss in the third quarter as the housing market's troubles continued.
The Washington-based mortgage finance company on Tuesday posted a net loss of $5.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of $1.3 billion. It was the 16th loss in the past 17 quarters for the company, which nearly failed more three years ago and has been kept on government life support ever since.

The request for aid from the Treasury Department includes $2.5 billion to cover required quarterly dividends . . . .

. . . and at the same time, the Journal reported this: 

WASHINGTON—U.S. lawmakers are seeking to rein in pay for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants that remain on taxpayer life support, nearly two years after the government approved the firms' compensation arrangements.

The firms' continued losses, largely the result of loans that they guaranteed as the housing boom turned to bust, have resurrected calls from Republicans and Democrats to scrap the multimillion-dollar pay deals.

Their top executives received nearly $13 million in cash awards granted at the start of 2011 based on regulators' assessment of corporate and individual performance goals.

 Comment: Their performance must be measured by their perpetual ability to consume an ever increasing number of taxpayer dollars.

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