Monday, September 8, 2008

End Run

Apparently the Fed wasn't exactly eager to tell Congress about the Fannie/Freddie bailout plan...in fact most of Congress only heard about it after the Washington Post broke the story on Saturday morning.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) got a phone call on Saturday, after the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac deal had already made it into The Washington Post, according to a Democratic aide.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) also got a call Saturday along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate and House aides said. Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank was fortunate enough to get a call Friday, considering he wrote the legislation that gave Paulson the power to seize the massive housing agency.

And when they got the news, everyone seemed resigned to accept that there was no other choice but to have the federal government put the under capitalized companies into a receivership.

Course there was no choice. Both stocks are trading around 75 cents now, having lost almost 99 percent of their value since last October. Wall Street's convinced the problem is over.

It's not.

It's just beginning.

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