New York Times blows the lid off plot at US Treasury to kill New Deal program Fannie Mae

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Sunday February 15, 2015 · 6:00 AM PST

2015/02/15 · 06:00

***The great majority of this diary is a re-post of a previous diary that didn't get read by the community. True to the history of this august blog however, reading Daily Kos is like reading the newspaper a week or in this case a month in advance. Gretchen Morganson has an outstanding article in the Saturday edition and forthcoming business section of the Sunday New York Times about the plot at the US Treasury Department to kill New Deal program Fannie Mae.

On Aug. 17, 2012, the federal government began expropriating all the earnings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that succumbed to the 2008 crisis.
Now the government is taking extraordinary measures to keep secret the deliberations surrounding that action. What exactly is it trying to hide?

That is the question being asked by a Fannie and Freddie shareholder who has sued the government over the 2012 profit grab. The investor contends that the move amounted to an improper taking of its property; the government disagrees.

Margaret M. Sweeney, a judge in the Court of Federal Claims, will determine who is right. But in the meantime, consider the remarkable secrecy demands that the government has made in the matter.

Previously undisclosed court records show that the Justice Department has asserted presidential privilege to prevent 45 documents from being produced. These materials — emails, draft memos and news releases — were created by officials at the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the overseer of Fannie and Freddie since they collapsed in 2008.

Read the whole article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/...

I've pulled the lever for President Obama in two elections and have been a multiple-time campaign donor. I find that I am often to the progressive left of the President on many issues and frequently fear that the true lines of difference lie on a corporatist vs. working class framing of issues.

As such, I've been a big fan of the Presidents initiative to take the state of the union (SOTU) speech on the road and outline a number of progressive initiatives that can get the majority of the population BENEFITING from participating in the economy again (we all participate in the economy, but few of us benefit from the interaction). Community college, infrastructure bonds, carbon emissions & the rescue of the domestic auto production market, all of these are great initiatives and represent policies that have and will support the upward mobility of the majority of Americans.

Why the President is taking his cues on housing reform from the American Enterprise Institute (far-right conservative think tank that generally favors unregulated big business and TBTF banks) is beyond me.

Kuntawpwnsyou

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Monday January 19, 2015 · 11:14 AM PST

2015/01/19 · 11:14

Kuntawpwnsyou

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Saturday January 03, 2015 · 9:56 AM PST

2015/01/03 · 09:56

Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 as part of ground breaking New Deal legislation and was created to act as a stop gap in the event that a catastrophic economic downturn occurred and froze credit markets (that was some great forward thinking FDR!). Thirty years later, in 1968, congress converted Fannie Mae into a public/private partnership which took the funding of the enterprise off of the government books and outsourced it to private investors who governed the institution via a board of directors.

Fannie Mae functions by guaranteeing loans. What happens is a banking institution makes a loan, and then if the loan meets certain standards (it's not sub-prime, ability to pay is documented, credit risk is acceptable, minimum down-payment is met, etc) it can sell the loan to Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae buys the loan and converts the loan into a security (basically a big pool of mortgages). The securities are auctioned off on the open market and bought by pension funds and other investors.

In 1970 Freddie Mac was created to compete with Fannie Mae so that one institution didn't have complete control of the mortgage market. Together, Fannie and Freddie are the GSE's (Government Sponsored Entities) and ensure stability in the housing market.

As covered in a previous post, there has been a concerted effort by Wall Street over the last 6 years to kill the GSE's.

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday December 30, 2014 · 6:15 AM PST

2014/12/30 · 06:15

Pursuant to the collusion illustrated between the justice department and the Too- Big-To-Fail (TBTF) banks, there has been an elaborate relationship between the Department of Treasury (staffed primarily by former Bankers, including Secretary Lew, who receives a stipend of 1 million dollars per year from CITI while he participates in "high-level public service") and the TBTF banks to quietly kill the Government sponsored entities (GSE’s) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As you likely know, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide the government sponsored insurance that makes the 30 year mortgage affordable for middle income Americans to access the housing market and begin to aggregate wealth (Fannie Mae was a New Deal program created to ensure stability in the housing market and be a stop gap for the very type of crisis that occurred in 2008).

Kuntawpwnsyou

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Thursday May 16, 2013 · 9:50 AM PDT

2013/05/16 · 09:50

Oh wait... that was the FBI who infiltrated Occupy. Wasn't it DHS who was coordinating local police for maximum supression of peaceful protest?

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 15, 2012 · 1:40 PM PST

2012/02/15 · 13:40

Progressive Libertarian Democrat Larry Tunner comments on the state of health care in America below the squiggle.

Poll

1 votes Show Results

If there were a candidate like Larry Tunner, would you vote for them?

1 votes Vote Now!

If there were a candidate like Larry Tunner, would you vote for them?

Yes

1 vote

No, he's not an endorsed Democrat

0 votes

No, He's to progressive

0 votes

No, He's just another white dude

0 votes

Who is Larry Tunner?

Kuntawpwnsyou

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Friday February 10, 2012 · 11:33 AM PST

2012/02/10 · 11:33

Be the change you want to see right?

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 20, 2012 · 3:25 PM PST

2012/01/20 · 15:25

I'm sure this happens to everyone, but I've been thinking a whole lot about this issue lately, and thought it might be worth sharing.

My Grandmother, who is a saint (charitable, bakes pies for strangers funerals, donates to the youth group, cooks dinner for the priests, goes to mass 6x per week, etc..) sent me this forward:

He gives more praise to Iran and the Muslim culture than he does of
the United States of America, for which he claims to be our President.

You can blame the main media for not vetting all of his propaganda
before the Democrats labeled him GOD.

HE is a Muslim not a American.

This jerk is our leader and calls himself an American????? God help us
if he gets in again!!!!!

Send this to your CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, and to every TRUE American you know.

This must be show to all Christian and Jewish people.

How can our America Liberals Live with this and call themselves Christians and
Jews?

This will probably make you sick. Absolutely disgusting. This is
America and we do not have an American President.

This is "supposedly" the video that FOX NEWS has been trying to show
that is constantly blocked by the
administration.

Watch this QUICKLY--I am sure it will get ZAPPED OFF the Internet soon!
IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS ....THIS SHOULD CHANGE YOUR MIND... PLEASE
FORWARD IT TO EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28)

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday January 09, 2012 · 7:18 AM PST

2012/01/09 · 07:18

Do you support the ideals expressed by the greater Occupy Movement? Have you struggled to explain to your Grandmother, who gets most of her news from Rush on A.M. radio, what Occupy is really about? Does your seemingly exceedingly intelligent co-worker not understand what the deal is with all those hippies standing in the cold holding signs?

Wouldn't it be great if there was some fable or commonly know story you could point to that would break it down a little more? As Michael Moore said in The Winter of Our Occupation, now is the time for planning and creation. What we produce this winter, while it's too cold for many of us to stand outside of banks or to camp in parks, will be the ammunition we use to win this national debate when the spring thaw hits.

Please follow me over what used to be the fold to see where this is all going.

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 10, 2011 · 9:57 AM PDT

2011/10/10 · 09:57

Just had a quick idea I wanted to share for the #OccupyWallStreet ongoing protest, given that the media seem to have so much trouble discerning what the protests are all about.

The idea is below the fold.

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 29, 2011 · 10:20 AM PDT

2011/09/29 · 10:20

Does anyone else feel like we should have a fundraiser via Orange to Blue for the #OccupyWallstreet movement? This is the most press the progressive agenda has gotten in years, so keeping it relevent in the national zietgiest might be beneficial...

That is all.

#OccupyWallstreet Messaging for MinistryOfTruth

Kuntawpwnsyou

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 26, 2011 · 7:10 PM PDT

2011/09/26 · 19:10

Hi. This is a diary in response to MinistryOfTruth asking for assistance in framing a message and providing visuals for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

If you agree with the below (and if you don't I implore you to seize the day and craft your own messaging diary) rec this up so that the protesters notice it. Here's the article asking for help.

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New York Times blows the lid off plot at US Treasury to kill New Deal program Fannie Mae

The American Enterprise Institute would really like President Obama to support their narrative

Who profits from killing Fannie Mae?

Failing to drown the Government, TBTF Banks attempt to drown American Dream in bathtub

Remember that time Occupy was examined by the IRS?

Larry Tunner: Let's end the murder by spreadsheet

Who is Larry Tunner?

This crazy forward I got from my Grandma....

The Saga of Larry Tunner

Occupy Wallstreet Protest Art

Fiscal Support of #OccupyWallstreet

#OccupyWallstreet Messaging for MinistryOfTruth