Today the Treasury Department and newly created Federal Housing Finance Agency announced their plans to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an effort to stabilize global financial and US housing markets. Below is the full statement from the Treasury Department as well as fact sheets outlining technical elements of their strategy. Also see
Treasury Secretary
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have had a few good trading days this week, but they’re still ripe for a near-term Treasury bailout if capital problems persist. As NY Times writer Gretchen Morgenson pointed out Sunday, this bailout is complicated by credit default insurance (or swaps). She’s covered this otherwise under-reported area of the credit
Classic song from The Band explains The Weight of current Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis. You’ve heard it a million times in good context when you watched The Big Chill, Easy Rider, Starsky & Hutch (movie), The Sopranos, My Name is Earl, or in horrible context like Diet Coke and AT&T ads. But now it’s back to
Morgan Stanley will be paid $95,000 to advise the Treasury Department on how to handle their new, self-imposed power to control Fannie and Freddie. This is a responsible move as the two firms own or guarantee half of all outstanding mortgages in the U.S., and since the private mortgage-backed securities markets are still seized up,
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, the highest ranking U.S. housing regulation official, announced his resignation today, effective April 18. He cited family reasons, but the FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson’s department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Also the housing
This morning Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a 2-8 year plan for modernizing financial market regulation with three main tiers: (1) Increased Federal Reserve power to promote market stability, (2) Consolidating all federal bank charters and insurance companies under one regulator, probably the Treasury, in order to promote safety and soundness of institutions with federal
Today Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spoke at the US Chamber of commerce on ‘Current Financial and Housing Markets’. The full text of the speech is below. There are a few highlights. First, he said that the Fed’s announcement in the wake of the Bear Stearns bailout to allow investment banks to access Fed resources like
The Senate finally signed off on the economic stimulus package which includes tax rebates to individuals, tax benefits for business and conforming loan limits up to $729,750 depending on median home prices in a given area. The higher limits were expected to run through 2008, and go into effect as soon as late-February. Now it
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, along with the House, Senate and White House, has crafted a broad election year economic stimulus package which includes $150 billion in household and business tax breaks, and proposals to up conforming mortgage limits from $417,000 to as much as $729,250. The tax cuts could take a few months, but the
As the saying goes, “There are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes.” But recently, even that seems uncertain. The tax part anyway. As you may have heard or read in the news, there’s currently a tax reform plan floating around Washington, DC that proposes changes to homeowners’ tax benefits. To be clear, it’s