Rescuing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Sweaty sweaty.....this is the tip of the iceberg.

Too little government involvement and regulation in this case. These banks just extended loans to any Jon, Dick and Harry and now they people are getting antsy and running the banks so now they are in big trouble.

Despite the efforts of high-profile apologists for our capitalist system, such as the head of Boston's Federal Reserve and other commentators on today's program, to convince us otherwise, it is a sober fact that we do not have a "free" economic market, and that fact ought to be hammered home, especially on NPR. Whenever the need to bail out entities like Bear, Stearns or Fannie and Freddie Mae occurs, which happens more often than is generally acknowledged (recall the Chrysler Corporation's bailout in the 1970's), conservatives find all manner of ways to justify what amounts to blatant interference in the (no-longer-free) market. While it may be true that such interference is necessary to prevent widespread suffering, it primarily serves the interests of rich investors, and it should be admitted for what it is: a failure of the "free" market to right itself. What bothers me is that conservative critics who are opposed in principle to "big government" reserve their ire for programs that benefit people of modest means and are strangely silent when it comes to these massive bailouts. What do the anti-tax, anti-government fanatics like Grover Norquist have to say? What say free-market sirens like George Will or William Kristol? As long as government intrusion in the vaunted market benefits the wealthy, none of these people ever bats an eye about it. Yet they loudly voice their indignation when the government steps in, usually in response to years of organized protest and political pressure, to do something on behalf of poor people. How disingenuous can you get? But that is precisely the nature of what passes for "conservatism" today: intellectual dishonesty, writ large.

I sense another bank holiday!

Lived through the last one too, only the timing for this isn't cool for me now....

I would encourage everyone to take a look at http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/bracing-storm.php

Ellen Brown has some good advice on how to handle this mess in a manner that will not please the banks who should not be be bailed via Freddie or Fannie. Its time to return the helm back to the people and their communities.

The government should have better regulated all along ... now it is trying to forestall a disaster. I am glad they stepped in on IndyMac, and are trying to help Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae, but the verbage sounds a lot like they are trying to it it more with hot air than sound fiscal practice.

To state the obvious, any money the government is using for bail-outs is OUR money from taxes and fees.
That out of the way, I, and most of the people I know, have not done one thing to contribute to this mess because we have worked hard and have made sane financial choices in our lives. Many of us have had careers in public service, like education, so we are by no means wealthy. We are mostly of the so called middle class. Yet we will be subsidizing, with our taxes, these bail-outs. (That our tax money could be better spent is another topic, and don't get me started on the cost of this war.)
Since it is too late, apparently, to head this crisis off with good governance, I want to know that every single tax-payer will be required to support, proportionate to their real incomes, the covering of these bail-outs and that what amounts to slick tax schemes will not protect those who can well pay their fair share, from paying their fair share. This includes corporations such as the oil companies.
Most of us in this country have not contributed to the mess and requiring us to bear a disproportionate amount of the burden adds injury to insult.

Conservatives such as George Will, William Kristol and Grover Norquist, interesting choice of people to frame here. Will was on On point recently and while he was and is a very smart man he came across to me as a smug WASP. Which is what he is. People like this don't care about this, they are very wealthy and even if the economy goes belly up, which is a possibility these people will be able to ride this out.

This all about greed, if we the people are not wanting to pay for this, then we should be in the streets, protesting. But we are at the mall buying the newest IPhone.
The crime here is that the government will bail out these fat cats, but they wont do anything to fix the crumbling inferstructure of the country. They wont fix New Orleans, or develop alternative energy sources. Bush's solution is to drill for more oil of our shores. Wow that will solve the problem. Right now Denmark and Germany are leading in both wind and solar, it's creating jobs and building on the future. Yes it is subsidized, but so are our industries such as agribusiness. It depends how we view our future, the Europeans are at least trying, we act spoiled children who have had our toys taken away. What do you expect from an administration who told us to go shopping after 9/11. Who endorses torture and taking away chipping away at our constitutional rights.

This mess is a result of the attitude that all regulations should be removed let the fat cats do what they want. Well here we are, the 'free' market is now the bailout market.

What an old fraud Feldstein is. He thinks it's time for better regulation but he's supporting one of the Keating Five for president. The seeds of the current crisis were sown during the S & L crisis. Everyone involved in that scandal should have been drummed out of public life. Instead, just about every politician got a free pass from the voters and most of the media. Nobody in congress is afraid of being voted out of office over this, so the abuses and the bailouts will continue.
Bob Gardner

What struck me as I was listening to Feldstein and his ideas on supply side economics, was how out of touch this man is. As much as I like Mr.Ashbrook, he dropped the ball here.
I would have nailed this man. This whole thing started in the 80's with President Reagan.
When Feldstein went on about keeping the tax cuts you know what this fraud is about.
Why didn't Mr.Ashbrook ask him how we are going to pay for the crumbling infrastructure that is rampant in this country. You want to stimulate the economy who about fixing our roads and bridges and the national grid for starters.

Cutting taxes does not help anyone, it's a false notion that this kind of thing helps.
The buck only gets passed from the Fed to the state down to the towns.
The money has to come from somewhere, so you lower income taxes on the top 5% and all the corporations, the states raise theres, and so do the cities and towns.

What we need is tax reform that stops all this needless spending. How about the war! It's going to bankrupt this country, and history backs me up on this. Germany and Japan lost WW2 but Britain almost went bankrupt. We did well due to a large increase in capital spending and the GI bill, and the baby boom which gave rise to an increase on road building the suburbs and so on.

I was very disappointed that Feldstein was not taken to task for his mistakes. It was a love fest, and I think he should have been held to account for the prevailing economic winds he helped to bring into the forefront.

Boys and girls, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government banks...There is no greater regulation than seen with these two institutions...

Lower taxes has been proven to work. The last few years tax revenue has been record setting. If a person brings in $100,000 and they invest or even spend say $20,000 that money is being taxed again in either captial gains or sales tax etc. If a busines owner makes $250,000 and his tax is lowered by 10% he/she will either invest that back in the business, creating even more revenue the next year and thus more taxes or use it some manner that another tax will be used against it. Finally, companies such as JC Penny/Wal Mart etc do not pay taxes the consumer and/or employee does. For every cost incured by a business is a cut back or passed down...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are quasi government banks that are bailed out by the tax payers if they screw up, as we see now. It was good idea that has gone wrong, a very good example of how lobbying can get results for the companies and how these two institutions have been allowed to do things most banks can't.

I see in your world the Bush tax cuts are working. I see the economy is doing fine and all the bad things going on are just an illusion.

Get real please every state in this country is hurting from the tax cuts. As I said before the money has to come from somewhere.

Why are Americans so opposed to paying taxes? I think the system needs reform, but it needs to be done so it serves the greater good of the country. Not the top 1 or 2%.

It's so funny every time the conservatives talk about tax cuts they bring up the small business owner and how tax cuts will help them.

You know what will help the small business owner a good national health system.

"Finally, companies such as JC Penny/Wal Mart etc do not pay taxes the consumer and/or employee does. For every cost incurred by a business is a cut back or passed down..."

This is a joke, they give themselves bonuses and pay raises and lay people off to raise the bottom line.

So some guy from Pittsburgh, a big money thinkhead mucky muck man.......is on ON POINT explaining to us what is going on. This is not rocket science here. We all do not need to be Milton Friedman's and win a Nobel Prize. for money and Economics. This is about GREED. and the Milton Friedman Shock Doctrine of Economics......Pure and simple......But we must thank the big money thinkhead for explaining this to us out here in John Q Public Radio Land. That is mighty white of him.