Looks like Uncle Sugar is going to ride in to the rescue of these anomalous institutions. Word is they are going into "conservatorship" rather than "receivership". The distinction here is beyond me, but as defined in the article, conservatorship sets the business up to return to private operation, and receivership sets it up to be dismantled.
The problem though, is that these are NOT private operations. They are quasi-private, with the US Government still acting as an oversight authority.
What is needed is a temporary state in which the US government exercises increased control, prior to completely privatizing them. Both are huge Democratic Party hobby-horses, but the time has come for them to sink or swim in the market.
Headline today on CNN Money regarding this was "US Seizes Freddie and Fannie". Hadn't read a headline like that since Chavez seized various industies in Venezuela. Sure don't like the sound of it here in the US but suspect there is a lot I don't understand about it. I do like that the leadership was figuratively beheaded but would have hoped the board of directors would have taken such action themselves. Speaking of VZ, did you see news of the planned Russian Navy port visit there in the near future? Makes me wonder if Jim Stavridis has some thoughts on how we regain the 100% democratic South America again that we worked so hard to gain during the Cold War. Given Chavez's boldly obvious support of the FARC and potentially other narco-terrorists in the region, and the fact that the Administration just released US strategic reserves to bail out Citgo to minimize impact on recent storms in the region, I have to wonder how much of that ends up entering the pockets of the FARC.
ReplyDeleteSorry about running all over the map on this but I do find myself rather intriqued at the Kevin Bacon-esque connections between Fannie Mae and the FARC, even if only in my scattered brain.
Post coming on Venezuela/Russia nexus...
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