Tinfoilhat view of the Freddie/Fannie takeover:

[marmar]

Did the Fed take them over with every intention of allowing them to fail, thus setting up a "See, government run institutions are destined to fail" argument? Bush is seemingly trying to position himself to blame Congress for not acting sooner and avoiding this takeover.

Is Freddie/Fannie the latest SHOCK in the Bush DOCTRINE? (Yes, Naomi Klein is in my head.)

My tinfoil is on tight today. :tinfoilhat:

[gateley]

1. But they're not government run institutions. nt

[marmar]

3. Now they are.

n/t

[gateley]

6. Bwah! You got that right! nt

[billyoc]

2. No, they already failed. There's no way to spin this one, they're screwed.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Ah, but Sarah Palin knows better. She knows it's the fault of Big Gubmint.

She sees right through this nonsense of trying to blame the private sector for the collapse of the...uh...private sector.

[billyoc]

9. OK, OK! Just put the rattlesnake down!

:scared:

[MannyGoldstein]

5. If They Go Down Now, So Does Our Monetary System

Bush would never do tha... oh, shit.

[Greyhound]

7. They were "taken over" in order to prop up the artificially inflated price of housing.

Without socializing the losses by stealing from the taxpayers, the prices of housing will fall back to the level they should be at and many parasites will see a decline in portfolio valuations. This will not do.

Freddie & Fannie were created for just this purpose, a vehicle to force public subsidies of private investments. Don't be fooled by the inevitable sob stories of Marvin & Martha Milquetoast suffering the loss of their retirements and kids college funds, this is true but they don't give two shits about them. Real estate investment has, until recently, always been a long-term investment that yields a steady return over many years, the Mac/Maes were created to guarantee the short-term profits that the market manipulation creates.

[Thothmes]

8. They have only 4 months to do it.

[soothsayer]

10. more likely that they intend to make or break certain banks by either buying (or not) their loans.

The Fed will now be able to control that directly, and with their new powers (they want to see SEC info on banks) they'll be able to prop up some and sink others. And of course the insiders and their friends will be able to play the market accordingly, and make money with no risk cuz they know who to pump and who to dump and when.