Archive for the ‘New York Times’ tag
Government Considering a Fannie Freddie Takeover
For the third day this week the stocks of Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae took a hammerin’ on Wall Street and for
the second day major newspapers are speculating on their survival as
independent companies.
On Friday The New York Times and Barons both reported that the two
government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are under mounting pressure to
raise additional capital and The Times saying that the Bush
administration is considering a plan to take over either or both
of the companies and place them in a conservatorship if their problems
continue.
AG Cuomo May Have Reached Agreement with Credit Agencies
According to The New York Times, three of the nation’s largest
credit rating firms are close to an agreement with the
New York attorney general to change some of their core business practices
which had brought them under his office’s scrutiny.
The ratings firms will also assist Cuomo in his larger investigation
into how mortgages were packaged into securities.
Doubting the Viability of Fannie Mae
With Washington increasingly relying on Fannie and
Freddie to pick up the slack in buying mortgages and mortgage-
backed securities - the two between them bought 80 percent of all
mortgages purchased by investors in the first quarter of 2008 - The New
York Times in an article on Tuesday asked whether the two companies were
up to the task.
The Times article says that some financial experts
worry that the companies are dangerously close to the
edge. The article quoted analysts as saying that the companies are
sitting on billions of dollars in additional losses that
they have not yet…