something me and you share , fun.
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paperwork is moving from today, If the desions will make on Monday!
Do we see 12$ when court ruling in?
Dick Bove said very easy to get out of Gov....company made 16$ billions a year!
Do we see 4$ today?
Mortgage Rates Today, Dec. 5: Rates Tick Higher; Carson Accepts HUD Nomination
Updated: Monday, December 05, 2016 @ 11:33 AM
By: Hal M. Bundrick, CFP - NerdWallet
http://www.whio.com/business/consumer-advice/mortgage-rates-today-dec-rates-tick-higher-carson-accepts-hud-nomination/2kGrhSIdZIM92GOaHn9yiK/
Hope for Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) with Ben Carson’s Joining HUD
...Ben Carson will play a key role in defining the policies that will affect housing market in near future. Mr. Carson had stated that “We have much work to do in strengthening every aspect of our nation and ensuring that both our physical infrastructure and our spiritual infrastructure is solid.” on Facebook page.
Carson had provided some views during his run for Republic Nomination. Below are the key takeaways
1) Removal of home mortgage interest deductions
2) Removing inefficient federal programs or decreasing spending, Carson had spoken in favor of privatizing Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) in his six-page document. Carson extensively spoke about “A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America” which focuses on spending cuts worth $5.5 trillion over the next decade.
The savings will primarily come from repealing of Obamacare, elimination of corporate welfare, reduction of government’s interference in energy sector, and privatizing housing giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC).
3) Fair housing rule of U.S. department of Housing and Urban Development
Subsidized housing and affordable housing has been in crisis. Carson’s appointment might bring in a new ray of hope for the homeless, low income and senior Americans.
http://investcorrectly.com/20161129/hope-fannie-mae-fnma-freddie-mac-fmcc-ben-carsons-joining-hud/
Trump’s pick of Ben Carson is beyond baffling
...Mr. Carson’s nomination is the second puzzling sign about where housing policy might be headed under the Trump administration. The first was Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin’s comment that “we’ve got to get Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac] out of government ownership. It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have.” That could mean Mr. Mnuchin will argue for a total overhaul of the government’s mortgage guarantee business that finally ends the system of private gain, public risk that prevailed before the government took over the failing Fannie and Fred in 2008. Or, it could be interpreted as support for the efforts, so far thwarted by courts and Congress, of hedge funds to make a killing through a Treasury-blessed “privatization.” Certainly it would help if the next HUD secretary were an expert on the housing market capable of weighing in against the more dubious plans being floated for Fannie and Freddie....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-pick-of-ben-carson-is-beyond-baffling/2016/12/05/9089e604-b32d-11e6-840f-e3ebab6bcdd3_story.html?utm_term=.064f4d90dca7
Trump Treasury May Mean Independence for Fannie and Freddie
Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee to run the Treasury Department, electrified Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders on Wednesday when he signaled that the mortgage finance giants would finally be allowed to get out from under Washington’s thumb.
“We got to get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership,” he told Fox Business. “It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have.”
Mr. Mnuchin is right. It has been more than eight years since the federal government took over Fannie and Freddie in the mortgage crisis; as such, they are the last big piece of unfinished business from that era....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/trump-treasury-may-mean-independence-for-fannie-and-freddie.html
Mnuchin wants U.S. to sell Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac stakes
Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed under federal government control in September 2008, during the global financial crisis. But Donald Trump's Treasury secretary pick, Steven Mnuchin, wants them set free.
He told Fox Business News on Wednesday that "we've got to get them out of government control" and added that the incoming Trump administration should be able to restructure Fannie and Freddie "reasonably fast."
Fannie and Freddie buy mortgage loans from lenders. They were created by the government to make it easier for borrowers to get mortgages. They hold some of the loans that they buy in their own portfolios and package others into pools that are sold to investors.
Both ran into trouble after the housing bubble burst as more and more borrowers defaulted on their mortgages. The government wound up investing $187 billion to bail the two of them out.
But they are still both publicly traded companies that are backed by some prominent investors, many of whom have been clamoring for the government to finally let them go.
To that end, shares of Fannie (FNMA) and Freddie (FMCC) -- whose official names are the Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation -- each soared more than 30% on Wednesday following Mnuchin's comments.
The hope is that Fannie and Freddie will become truly independent companies that no longer have ties to the government.
Related: The national debt is the Republicans' problem now
Washington's relationship with Fannie and Freddie is a bit complicated, though. The government actually doesn't own any of the common shares that trade on Wall Street.
The Treasury Department has warrants that give it the right to a 79.9% ownership stake. But the government has not exercised those warrants.
So who owns the shares that trade on Wall Street?
Mutual fund giant Fidelity has big stakes in the stocks of both companies. Bill Ackman's Pershing Square is the largest investor in Fannie and also has a stake in Freddie. Fairholme Funds, run by value guru Bruce Berkowitz, owns preferred stakes in both.
And many of these investors have been feuding with the feds over their role in the takeover of Fannie and Freddie.
Fairholme sued the government over its takeover of Fannie and Freddie, alleging that Washington improperly seized the two companies' profits. A federal judge ruled last month that the government withheld some of the documents about its takeover.
Ackman had also filed a lawsuit over the terms of the bailout.
But Mnuchin's comments about privatization could be the biggest victory yet for Fannie and Freddie shareholders.
Related: Donald Trump's curious Goldman Sachs connections
What remains to be seen is whether Mnuchin's plan will get past Republican congressional leaders.
Texas GOP Representative Jeb Hensarling, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has said on numerous occasions that he wants Fannie and Freddie to eventually be unwound completely.
Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker also backs the elimination of Fannie and Freddie.
Unshackling Fannie and Freddie from the government could also put an end to a steady stream of cash that the two have paid the Treasury Department in dividends over the past few years.
Both have payments due in December. Including those dividends, Fannie and Freddie will have paid $255.8 billion to Treasury since the government took them over. So Fannie and Freddie have actually wound up being a profitable investment for taxpayers.
Now Wall Street wants more of the action -- and Mnuchin and Trump may give it to them.
CNNMoney (New York)
http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/30/investing/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-mnuchin-trump/
Is Bill Arckman sole all his F&F shares?
Concentration of Shares Held
1.90% Top Owners
1.90% Top 50 Owners
1.90% Top 20 Owners
1.90% Top 10 Owners
98.10% Other Owners
Other Owners
Average Turnover Rating
Very High
High
Moderate
Low
Name Shares Held Position Value % of Total
Holdings Outstanding
Shares Owned Investment Style
William Harris Investors Inc. 653.4 K $1.1 M 2.75 0.03% Moderate
VNB Wealth Management 265.3 K $448.4 K 1.12 0.01% Low
TIFF Advisory Services, Inc. 438.0 K $718.4 K 1.85 0.02% Low
Seamans Capital Management, LL... 959.8 K $2.2 M 4.04 0.05% N/A
Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, Inc... 1.7 M $2.8 M 6.96 0.07% Low
Janus Capital Management LLC 519.8 K $691.3 K 2.19 0.02% Low
Hosking Partners LLP 383.4 K $647.9 K 1.62 0.02% Low
Fidelity Management & Research... 1.9 M $3.2 M 7.82 0.08% Low
Delaware Investments 1.3 M $2.2 M 5.48 0.05% Low
APG Asset Management 14.6 M $23.9 M 61.44 0.58% Low
Taxpayers Have Now Made A $63 Billion Profit From Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Bailouts
https://www.benzinga.com/general/education/16/12/8776774/taxpayers-have-now-made-a-63-billion-profit-from-fannie-mae-freddie-
Shares of Federal National Mortgage Assctn Fnni Me
FNMA 0.7%
and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp
FMCC 1.75%
have been all over the map in the past week following comments from newly-appointed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
When asked about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mnuchin said the Trump administration has “got to get them out of government control.”
Fannie and Freddie were placed under government conservatorship when they required taxpayer $185 billion bailouts during the financial crisis.
At the time, the bailout was a controversial use of taxpayer dollars. As part of the terms of the deal, Fannie and Freddie issued preferred shares of stock to the U.S. government that pay annual dividends. In 2012, the Treasury amended the terms of the bailout agreement and declared a “net-worth sweep” that would sweep all of Fannie and Freddie’s profits into the government’s pocket until the entities were completely wound down.
It’s now been eight years since the bailout. As most investors know, dividends tend to add up over time.
How Much?
Between Fannie and Freddie, U.S. taxpayers have now made more than $63 billion in profits, including the $185 billion bailout.
Fannie Mae’s most recent dividend payment was $2.87 billion in September 2016. Freddie paid $933 million in September.
In the past year, Fannie Mae has paid $8.849 billion in dividends, and Freddie Mac has paid $2.673 billion.
The government’s bailouts of Fannie and Freddie are by far the most profitable bailouts of the financial crisis, and the two GSEs are the primary reason why the financial crisis bailouts have generated an overall net taxpayer profit of $71.9 billion.
Mr.Ben Carson to theHUF!
Carson also supported scaling back and eliminating various federal programs he deemed “wasteful, inefficient or unnecessary” in a six-page document outlining his positions during the race. He indicated he would support privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which insure mortgages......
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/ben-carson-as-hud-secretary-what-could-it-mean-for-housing/
pls don't trust SA 100% , sometimes they write the way they want the stocks go! jmo
Carson also supported scaling back and eliminating various federal programs he deemed “wasteful, inefficient or unnecessary” in a six-page document outlining his positions during the race. He indicated he would support privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which insure mortgages......
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/ben-carson-as-hud-secretary-what-could-it-mean-for-housing/
Welcome Mr. Ben Carson to the HUD !
If appointed secretary of Housing and Urban Development, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — rumored to be President-elect Donald Trump’s top pick — would likely reinforce housing discrimination in an effort to reduce “communist” government overreach.
Carson is a vocal critic of HUD’s “affirmatively furthering fair housing,” an Obama-era rule aimed at strengthening a stipulation in the 1968 Fair Housing Act that requires communities “affirmatively further” fair housing practices.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/hud-secretary-front-runner-ben-carson-recently-called-fair-housing-communist
Carson also supported scaling back and eliminating various federal programs he deemed “wasteful, inefficient or unnecessary” in a six-page document outlining his positions during the race. He indicated he would support privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which insure mortgages......
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/ben-carson-as-hud-secretary-what-could-it-mean-for-housing/
Jury Awards $93 Million in Federal Fraud Case Against Allied Home Mortgage
Federal prosecutors win case against Allied six years after ProPublica detailed an extensive list of misconduct and government sanctions against the Houston firm.
by Tracy Weber
ProPublica, Dec. 2, 2016, 12:08 p.m.
A federal jury has ordered two Texas-based home mortgage companies and their chief executive to pay nearly $93 million for defrauding the government by issuing improper and risky home loans that later defaulted.
The companies, formerly known as Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. and Allied Home Mortgage Corp, and their founder, Jim C. Hodge, were the subject of July 2010 stories by ProPublica, which detailed a trail of alleged misconduct, lawsuits and government sanctions spanning at least 18 states and seven years. Borrowers said they’d been lied to by Allied employees, who in some cases had siphoned loan proceeds for personal gain. Some borrowers had lost their homes.
Despite the years of warnings, the federal government didn’t restrict Allied’s ability to issue mortgages until 2011, when prosecutors intervened in a pending whistleblower case and sued Hodge and both Allied companies in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended Allied and Hodge from issuing loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Allied was also barred from issuing mortgage-backed securities through the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae).
The case was transferred to Houston in 2012. On Tuesday, a federal jury found Hodge and Allied liable for violating the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act. The award of nearly $93 million in damages includes $7.4 million against Hodge, a sum that is subject to mandatory tripling. Further penalties are expected, which U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr. will set at a later date.
Houston attorney Wendell Odom Jr., who represented Hodge and Allied at trial, said he “fully anticipated there will be an appeal.” Odom said there was a “causation” issue with the government’s case, with the assumption that Allied’s behavior “caused these loans to go bad” when it “may very well have been other market conditions.”
He also said the judge may have improperly removed one of the nine jurors for misconduct. The juror, who was the only one who supported Allied, Odom said, refused to deliberate and other jurors told the judge they felt threatened. That left eight to give the required unanimous verdict, he said.
Allied had billed itself as the nation’s largest privately held mortgage broker, with some 200 branches. (At one point, the company operated more than 600.) The sprawling network made Hodge a rich man with properties in three states and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and two airplanes to get to them.
When the government sued Allied in 2011, it was facing stiff criticism that it had been slow to act on rampant fraud and abuse in the mortgage market. ProPublica found Allied had operated for years despite numerous red flags, including:
The firm had the highest serious delinquency rate among the top 20 FHA loan originators from June 2008 through May 2010.
Nine states had sanctioned it from 2009 to mid-2010 for such violations as using unlicensed brokers and misleading a borrower.
Federal agencies had cited or settled with Allied or an affiliate at least six times since 2003 for overcharging clients, underpaying workers or other offenses.
At least five lenders had sued, claiming Allied tricked them into funding loans for unqualified buyers by falsifying documents and submitting grossly inflated appraisals, among other allegations.
In its suit, the government contended that Allied operated more than 100 “shadow” branch offices that originated FHA-insured mortgage loans without HUD authorization. Allied then submitted these loans using the ID numbers of approved branches. This resulted in $7.4 million in losses to HUD when some of those loans defaulted, the government said in a press release announcing the verdict.
Under HUD guidelines, Allied was required to make sure that FHA-insured loans were only made to borrowers who could repay them, the government said. Instead, Allied “recklessly underwrote and certified” at least 1,192 loans for FHA insurance that were ineligible for insurance under HUD’s guidelines, resulting in $85.6 million in losses when the mortgages defaulted, the government said.
In a news release announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the years of fraudulent behavior had caught up to Allied and Hodge: “After a month-long public trial where all their misconduct was exposed, a jury has held Mr. Hodge and Allied responsible for their lies and has made them pay for losses the United States suffered on loans that would never have been insured by HUD absent their lies.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/jury-awards-93-million-in-federal-fraud-case-against-allied-home-mortgage
I like that idea ...if it comes true you are very rich ...lol..Jury Awards $93 Million in Federal Fraud Case Against Allied Home Mortgage
Federal prosecutors win case against Allied six years after ProPublica detailed an extensive list of misconduct and government sanctions against the Houston firm.
by Tracy Weber
ProPublica, Dec. 2, 2016, 12:08 p.m.
A federal jury has ordered two Texas-based home mortgage companies and their chief executive to pay nearly $93 million for defrauding the government by issuing improper and risky home loans that later defaulted.
The companies, formerly known as Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. and Allied Home Mortgage Corp, and their founder, Jim C. Hodge, were the subject of July 2010 stories by ProPublica, which detailed a trail of alleged misconduct, lawsuits and government sanctions spanning at least 18 states and seven years. Borrowers said they’d been lied to by Allied employees, who in some cases had siphoned loan proceeds for personal gain. Some borrowers had lost their homes.
Despite the years of warnings, the federal government didn’t restrict Allied’s ability to issue mortgages until 2011, when prosecutors intervened in a pending whistleblower case and sued Hodge and both Allied companies in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended Allied and Hodge from issuing loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Allied was also barred from issuing mortgage-backed securities through the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae).
The case was transferred to Houston in 2012. On Tuesday, a federal jury found Hodge and Allied liable for violating the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act. The award of nearly $93 million in damages includes $7.4 million against Hodge, a sum that is subject to mandatory tripling. Further penalties are expected, which U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr. will set at a later date.
Houston attorney Wendell Odom Jr., who represented Hodge and Allied at trial, said he “fully anticipated there will be an appeal.” Odom said there was a “causation” issue with the government’s case, with the assumption that Allied’s behavior “caused these loans to go bad” when it “may very well have been other market conditions.”
He also said the judge may have improperly removed one of the nine jurors for misconduct. The juror, who was the only one who supported Allied, Odom said, refused to deliberate and other jurors told the judge they felt threatened. That left eight to give the required unanimous verdict, he said.
Allied had billed itself as the nation’s largest privately held mortgage broker, with some 200 branches. (At one point, the company operated more than 600.) The sprawling network made Hodge a rich man with properties in three states and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and two airplanes to get to them.
When the government sued Allied in 2011, it was facing stiff criticism that it had been slow to act on rampant fraud and abuse in the mortgage market. ProPublica found Allied had operated for years despite numerous red flags, including:
The firm had the highest serious delinquency rate among the top 20 FHA loan originators from June 2008 through May 2010.
Nine states had sanctioned it from 2009 to mid-2010 for such violations as using unlicensed brokers and misleading a borrower.
Federal agencies had cited or settled with Allied or an affiliate at least six times since 2003 for overcharging clients, underpaying workers or other offenses.
At least five lenders had sued, claiming Allied tricked them into funding loans for unqualified buyers by falsifying documents and submitting grossly inflated appraisals, among other allegations.
In its suit, the government contended that Allied operated more than 100 “shadow” branch offices that originated FHA-insured mortgage loans without HUD authorization. Allied then submitted these loans using the ID numbers of approved branches. This resulted in $7.4 million in losses to HUD when some of those loans defaulted, the government said in a press release announcing the verdict.
Under HUD guidelines, Allied was required to make sure that FHA-insured loans were only made to borrowers who could repay them, the government said. Instead, Allied “recklessly underwrote and certified” at least 1,192 loans for FHA insurance that were ineligible for insurance under HUD’s guidelines, resulting in $85.6 million in losses when the mortgages defaulted, the government said.
In a news release announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the years of fraudulent behavior had caught up to Allied and Hodge: “After a month-long public trial where all their misconduct was exposed, a jury has held Mr. Hodge and Allied responsible for their lies and has made them pay for losses the United States suffered on loans that would never have been insured by HUD absent their lies.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/jury-awards-93-million-in-federal-fraud-case-against-allied-home-mortgage
Fannie/Freddie investor deal sooner rather than later - Dick Bove
Dec. 2, 2016 12:17 PM ET|About: Fannie Mae (FNMA)|By: Stephen Alpher, SA News Editor
Corporate tax cuts would produce negative net worths for Fannie Mae (OTCQB:FNMA -6.6%) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB:FMCC -5.9%) as it would reduce the value of their DTAs, says Rafferty Capital's Dick Bove. Thus, incoming Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will need to hammer out a deal with investors prior to any tax bill.
Mnuchin, says Bove, understands the GSEs as well as anyone thanks to his experience turning around IndyMac. "If there's anyone in the U.S. who can do it, it’s the guy who solved IndyMac."
He believes it's possible Mnuchin has already held talks with Trump supporter and Fannie investor John Paulson, and that other prominent investors like Bruce Berkowitz and Bill Ackman would prefer a quick deal vs. spending years and millions in court.
On Jan. 20, all the material Democrats have withheld from the courts becomes available to the Trump administration, says Bove. This gives Mnuchin "staggering leverage" against potential Democratic opposition.
Source: Bloomberg
http://seekingalpha.com/news/3228329-fannie-freddie-investor-deal-sooner-rather-later-dick-bove
Ackman said 20$ .... be a billionaire before you said something... h ha ha
It was at 5$ this week ...have a good weekend all ...see you at 12$ next week ....Trump's Treasury Pick Says U.S. Should Get Out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
http://fortune.com/2016/12/01/donald-trump-steven-mnuchin-freddie-mac-fannie-mae/
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Investors Win Round Against Government
http://fortune.com/2016/10/04/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-ruling-government/
Investors challenging the legality of the government’s effective nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in August 2012 appear to be making some headway with at least one of the two key trial judges presiding over the sprawling, $130 billion litigation stemming from that event.
In an 81-page ruling unsealed Monday evening, Court of Federal Claims judge Margaret Sweeney ordered the U.S. Treasury Department to turn over 11,000 documents that shed light on why it took that extraordinary action—rejecting every single invocation of privilege over them that had been asserted by the Treasury, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the White House.
“Judge Sweeney astutely recognized that the government’s attempt to hide thousands of documents was unjustifiable, for the work of our government must withstand public scrutiny,” wrote activist investor Bruce Berkowitz in an email Tuesday. Berkowitz is the founder of the Fairholme family of mutual funds, which is a leading plaintiff in the litigation.
“She looked at 56 documents in camera,” said Tim Pagliara in an interview, “and gave the government every benefit of the doubt as she did so, and then she ruled that the plaintiffs need to know this information in the pursuit of justice.” (The 56 documents were selected by the parties as a representative assortment of the 11,000 in dispute.) Pagliara heads Tennessee money manager CapWealth Advisors, and also leads Investors Unite, a group supporting the plaintiffs in these lawsuits.
FHFA and Treasury both declined to comment on Judge Sweeney’s ruling.
The ruling could possibly carry political fallout as well. Four of the documents—which the White House tried to withhold by invoking presidential privilege—were authored by, or sent to President Barack Obama’s then-National Economic Council director Gene Sperling. Now an economic advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Sperling also has been mentioned in the media as a possible Treasury Secretary in a Clinton administration.
The order came in a group of consolidated cases, including Fairholme’s, which are all being brought by shareholders in the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). The suits allege that an agreement struck between Treasury and FHFA in August 2012, under which all the GSEs’ profits each quarter since then have been diverted to the Treasury, amounted to an unconstitutional “taking” of their property without just compensation in violation of the fifth amendment. The diversion has come to be known as “the net worth sweep.” (I wrote an article bout this litigation last November entitled, “How Uncle Sam Nationalized Two Fortune 50 Companies.”)
Although cases challenging the net worth sweep have been filed in at least six different federal courts around the country, the group of suits before Judge Sweeney, in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., and a second group, consolidated before Judge Royce Lamberth, in federal district court in Washington, D.C., have garnered most attention and activity so far.
The cases before Judge Lamberth were, for the most part, filed under different legal theories than those before Sweeney. Rather than making the constitutional takings claim—and seeking money damages—they argue instead that imposition of the net worth sweeps in August 2012 violated various federal laws and must be unwound by court order.
The Lamberth cases have gone poorly for the investors so far. The judge dismissed them last September, finding that Treasury and FHFA had acted within their powers and, in any case, that their choices were, in this case, largely unreviewable in court. An appeal of Lamberth’s ruling, known as Perry Capital v. Lew, was heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last April, but no ruling has yet issued.
All the lawsuits stem from these events. In September 2008, as the bottom was falling out of the residential mortgage market and the nation’s economic system was descending into crisis, the government placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, with FHFA acting as the conservator.
The stated goal at the time was to ensure stability in the national housing market. In most, but not all, of the cases now being litigated the propriety of placing the GSEs into conservatorship in September 2008 is not questioned. (The plaintiffs do argue, however, that conservatorship differs importantly from receivership, and that a conservator’s duty is to nurse a company back to health, not to dismantle it for the benefit of creditors.)
Over the next four years the GSEs received, under the terms of special bailout legislation, $189.5 billion in taxpayer money. In exchange, they issued special preferred stock to the Treasury under which they had an obligation to pay 10% interest on the bailout money they’d received. In early 2012, the GSEs began to make money again, together posting a healthy $8 billion in profits for the second quarter.
But in August 2012, Treasury and FHFA suddenly changed the terms of the GSEs’ special preferred stock. They replaced the 10% interest obligation with a requirement, instead, that the GSEs pay Treasury their entire profit each quarter in perpetuity. The GSEs would, therefore, never emerge from conservatorship, and would, rather, be wound down and replaced with some other system of housing finance to be set up by Congress.
Government officials have claimed that they feared the GSEs would start losing money again, and that taxpayers would end up on the hook again. In the months immediately following the momentous switch, however, the GSEs actually booked enormous profits, and they have now paid the government about $240 billion in exchange for the $189.5 billion bailout—and nearly $130 billion more than they would have paid so far under the original 10% coupon agreements.
The investors plaintiffs have speculated that the government officials responsible actually knew the GSEs were healthy, but confiscated the GSE assets for opportunistic budgetary reasons, including, perhaps, the desire to postpone hitting the national debt ceiling at a time Congress was threatening to shut down the government. The investors hope that the internal documents Judge Sweeney ordered turned over two weeks ago will help them make this case. (The documents themselves remain under seal for now.)
In fairness, it’s not certain that the government’s motivation for the August 2012 action is going to prove to be a crucial factor in determining the legality of the net worth sweeps, under either the statutory or constitutional theories of the case.
“Motives are irrelevant for takings purposes,” Judge Lamberth wrote in his order dismissing the cases before him last September, for instance. Similarly, he found that government’s motive was irrelevant in assessing whether it had acted within its powers under the bailout legislation.
A judge's decision may soon pry open the records of Fannie Mae, pictured ... Last month, Judge Margaret Sweeney of the U.S. Court of Federal ...
http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/another-sweeping-rebuke-of-government-secrecy/
No one knows how the Trump Administration will tackle a major piece of unfinished business from the Obama Administration, the fate of the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Until that becomes clearer, litigation involving the handling of their eight-year-old conservatorship under the auspices of the federal government will continue to play out in court.
Last month, Judge Margaret Sweeney of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a stunning and sweeping rebuke of the federal government's dogged efforts to wall off thousands of documents related to the conservatorship. Her meticulous and painstaking reasoning affirms the broader principle of the public's right to know about government machinations. As she put it "(t)he 'public's right to know' is a basic (tenet) of our democracy."
By way of background, during the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government placed Fannie and Freddie in a conservatorship under the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). In 2012, Treasury officials amended the conservatorship and began sweeping all of the profits of the companies into the government's general coffers.
Shareholders of Fannie and Freddie objected to what has become known as the Net Worth Sweep and filed suit alleging a taking of property in contravention of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. To make their case that the government had seized something of value, attorneys for Fairholme Funds had to demonstrate that at the time the government imposed the Net Worth Sweep investors in Fannie and Freddie had a reasonable expectation of profit, i.e., that both companies were expected to reap profits going forward.
Fairholme Funds sought discovery to prove that the mortgage giants had rosy, profit-making, futures. While the federal government handed over some documents, it also insisted upon extraordinary secrecy. With respect to tens of thousands of documents, the government sought and received a protective order from the Court. Under the terms of the order, these documents could be reviewed only by the lawyers and could not be seen by the public.
Further, the federal government asserted executive privilege over roughly 12,000 documents. This privilege meant that the government would not even turn over these documents to the lawyers for Fairholme Funds. The invocation of privilege on such a massive, unprecedented scale would make it difficult, if not impossible, for investors to make their case that the government had seized their private property.
Since George Washington, presidents have sought to keep some correspondence and conversations private to protect matters of national security. In modern times, a Supreme Court ruling on Richard Nixon's efforts to keep his Watergate tapes secret established that executive privilege is hardly sacrosanct. In particular, the interest in confidentiality must be weighed against the right of plaintiffs to prove their case against the government.
With this in mind, Judge Sweeney has been methodically peeling away the government's many layers of secrecy. On September 20, she granted plaintiff's motion to compel the government to produce 56 randomly selected documents over which the government had asserted various privileges.
Her 80-page order, issued October 3, is as careful as it is devastating. With respect to each and every document, she concluded that the government failed to demonstrate that the privilege applied. She then, for argument's sake, assumed that the government had shown that a privilege was applicable. Even under this assumption, she concluded that the shareholders' right to access the information prevailed as to every document. Rarely has the government been given such a black eye.
Though the opinion formally relates to the 56 documents, it perhaps telegraphs that the thousands of documents sought by the plaintiffs must be handed over. After assuming that the 56 documents were privileged, the Court nonetheless held that the plaintiff's pressing evidentiary needs outweighed the government's wish for secrecy. This logic would seem to hold true for each and every one of the over twelve thousand documents that are supposedly privileged.
The ruling also may reverberate in other cases. For over three years, Fannie and Freddie shareholders have been pursuing their rights in courts across the country. One important case lays before a three-judge appellate panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Revelations from the Court of Federal Claims that the Sweep was instituted to expropriate funds from Fannie and Freddie may cause tremors and aftershocks in the Court of Appeals.
Finally, the case underscores the drawbacks of executive privilege and secrecy. It is becoming increasingly obvious to all fair-minded observers that the government's indiscriminate invocation of privilege and demands for secrecy are nothing more than attempts to shield dubious government actions from the disinfecting sunshine of publicity.
In April, Judge Sweeney strongly hinted that the government was hiding the truth: "The court will not condone the misuse of a protective order as a shield to insulate public officials from criticism in the way they execute their public duties."
Judge Sweeney's order has such repercussions and is such a repudiation of the executive that the latter recently sought a writ of mandamus from the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit. Here's hoping that the Court of Appeals denies this attempt to overturn Judge Sweeney's order. The Court of Appeals should reject the government's renewed attempts to shroud the truth.
To be clear, secrecy is often necessary in government. But in this case, there are no matters of national security or foreign affairs, contexts in which claims of privilege have some purchase. We are not talking about military secrets or a list of spies. Rather this case is not about the government's seizure of private property in a manner inconsistent with the Takings Clause and in a method contrary to federal statutes.
Judge Sweeney's welcome opinion begins the long-overdue process of ending the government's stonewalling.
SEKISUI HOUSE BUYS FANNIE MAE PROPERTY FOR $89 MILLION
http://www.builderonline.com/newsletter/sekisui-house-buys-fannie-mae-property-for-89-million_c
add 89$mil cash in this Q profits ....
The Video That Explains Everything You Need To Know About Fannie And Freddie
http://www.benzinga.com/news/16/12/8761133/the-video-that-explains-everything-you-need-to-know-about-fannie-and-freddie?utm_campaign=partner_feed&utm_source=money.cnn.com&utm_medium=web_click&utm_content=ticker_page
“We will make sure that when they are restructured, they are absolutely safe and don’t get taken over again,” Mnuchin said. “But we’ve got to get them out of government control.”
http://www.benzinga.com/general/education/16/11/8754328/what-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-do-and-why-the-government-helps-them
Fannie Mae Prices Latest Connecticut Avenue Securities Risk Sharing Deal
PRNewswire FOLLOW
December 01, 2016 3:30pm Comments
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae (OTC Bulletin Board: FNMA) has priced its latest credit risk sharing transaction under its Connecticut Avenue Securities™ (CAS) program. CAS Series 2016-C07, a $701.7 million note offering, is scheduled to settle on December 8, 2016.
Through this transaction and other credit risk sharing programs, the company is increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market and reducing taxpayer risk. After this transaction is completed, Fannie Mae will have brought 16 CAS deals to market since the program began, issued $19.8 billion in notes, and transferred a portion of the credit risk to private investors on single-family mortgage loans with an original unpaid principal balance of approximately $677 billion. Since 2013, Fannie Mae has transferred a portion of the credit risk on approximately $834 billion in single-family mortgages through all of its risk transfer programs.
"We are pleased to successfully bring our seventh and final transaction of the year to market. Throughout 2016, we continued to drive innovation in credit risk management, increase transparency of our data and tools, and deliver consistent CAS offerings that were met with robust and growing investor demand," said Laurel Davis, vice president of credit risk transfer, Fannie Mae. "We look forward to continued CAS transactions in 2017 and we expect to be in the market within our next scheduled issuance window in January, subject to market conditions."
The reference pool for CAS Series 2016-C07 consists of more than 96,000 single-family mortgage loans with an outstanding unpaid principal balance of approximately $22.5 billion. The loans in this reference pool have loan-to-value ratios between 80 and 97 percent and were acquired from January 2016 through April 2016. The reference pool loans in this deal were acquired with mortgage insurance meeting Fannie Mae requirements. The loans included in this transaction are fixed-rate, generally 30-year term, fully amortizing mortgages and were underwritten using strong credit standards and enhanced risk controls.
Pricing for the 2M-1 tranche was one-month LIBOR plus a spread of 130 basis points. Pricing for the 2M-2 tranche was one-month LIBOR plus a spread of 435 basis points. Pricing for the 2B tranche was one-month LIBOR plus a spread of 950 basis points.
The 2M-1 tranche is expected to receive ratings of BBB-(sf) from Fitch and BBB(sf) from KBRA, Inc. The 2M-2 tranche is expected to receive ratings of B(sf) from Fitch as and B+(sf) from KBRA, Inc. The 2B tranche will not be rated.
Fannie Mae will retain a portion of the 2M-1, 2M-2, and 2B tranches in order to align its interests with investors throughout the life of the deal.
Barclays Capital Inc. is the lead structuring manager and joint bookrunner and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is the co-lead manager and joint bookrunner. Co-managers are J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo Securities LLC. Selling group members are Drexel Hamilton LLC and Mischler Financial Group Inc.
Fannie Mae continues to provide ongoing robust disclosure data for credit investors, and to provide additional transparency, has greatly enhanced its credit risk sharing webpages to provide investors with further access to news, resources, and analytics. This included the launch of Fannie Mae's Data Dynamics™ tool, which enables market participants to analyze CAS deals that are currently outstanding in the market as well as Fannie Mae's comprehensive historical loan dataset of over 23 million loans.
In addition to the flagship CAS program, Fannie Mae continues to reduce risk to taxpayers through its Credit Insurance Risk Transfer™ (CIRT™) reinsurance program and other forms of risk transfer.
About Connecticut Avenue Securities™
CAS notes are bonds issued by Fannie Mae. The amount of periodic principal and ultimate principal paid by Fannie Mae is determined by the performance of a large and diverse reference pool. For more information on individual CAS transactions and Fannie Mae's approach to credit risk transfer, visit http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/funding-the-market/credit-risk/index.html. To view the periods in 2017 during which Fannie Mae may issue Connecticut Avenue Securities (CAS), please view our 2017 CAS Issuance Calendar.
Statements in this release regarding the company's future CAS transactions are forward-looking. Actual results may be materially different as a result of market conditions or other factors listed in "Risk Factors" or "Forward-Looking Statements" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. This release does not constitute an offer or sale of any security. Before investing in any Fannie Mae issued security, potential investors should review the disclosure for such security and consult their own investment advisors.
Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of Americans. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit fanniemae.com and follow us on twitter.com/fanniemae.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fannie-mae-prices-latest-connecticut-avenue-securities-risk-sharing-deal-300371672.html
SOURCE Fannie Mae
Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed under federal government control in September 2008, during the global financial crisis. But Donald Trump's Treasury secretary pick, Steven Mnuchin, wants them set free.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/30/investing/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-mnuchin-trump/
Court ruling today? after market close?
UPDATE: Fannie, Freddie surge as Treasury-pick Mnuchin advocates their release from government controlFont size: A | A | A
undefined undefined | MarketWatch
By Andrea Riquier
Shares had already doubled following Trump's surprise election victory
Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary said the two mortgage enterprises would be released from government control under his watch.
Shares of Fannie were up about 45% Wednesday, and Freddie shares rose about 44%.
Fannie (FNMA) and Freddie (FMCC) were placed into federal conservatorship during the 2008 financial crisis, and in 2012, the Obama administration amended the terms of the 2008 agreement to sweep quarterly profits from the two enterprises, a move that's been challenged in court by shareholders.
"We gotta get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership," Mnuchin told Fox News Wednesday morning. "It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have."
Mnuchin's nomination does have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Asked why the enterprises had not already been released from conservatorship, Mnuchin said that it had not been a priority for the Obama administration.
Shares of the two had already doubled following Trump's surprise election victory, as he surrounded himself with other advisers largely seen as sympathetic to shareholders.
Ken Blackwell, who was picked to lead the domestic transition team, wrote an op-ed (http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/207937-treasury-stealing-from-fannie-and-freddie-shareholders) in 2014 in which he called the Treasury arrangement "theft of private property." In the piece, Blackwell noted that there is a "bipartisan consensus on how to wind down Fannie and Freddie."
Earlier in November, the Wall Street Journal reported (http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-financial-advisory-team-stocked-with-wall-streeters-1478730578?mod=djemMoneyBeat_us) that hedge fund investor John Paulson had been tapped to be a Trump adviser because of his understanding of the housing market. Paulson is known (https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Trade-Ever-Behind-Scenes/dp/0385529945/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478808291&sr=8-1&keywords=the+greatest+trade+ever) for shorting the subprime mortgage market as the housing bubble inflated a decade ago.
Paulson's company has donated extensively (http://www.wsj.com/articles/bets-on-fannie-and-freddie-get-help-from-lobbyists-1463087581) to nonprofits and lobbyists advocating for the release of the enterprises from government controls, according to an earlier Journal article.
Mnuchin also serves on the board (https://searsholdings.com/invest/corporate-governance/board-of-directors) of directors of Sears Holdings(SHLD) with Bruce Berkowitz, CIO of Fairholme Capital Management, one of the firms leading the shareholder lawsuits (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-one-big-fund-is-saying-about-fannie-freddie-2014-03-10).
-Andrea Riquier; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
> Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2016 16:13 ET (21:13 GMT)
Carson also supported scaling back and eliminating various federal programs he deemed “wasteful, inefficient or unnecessary” in a six-page document outlining his positions during the race. He indicated he would support privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which insure mortgages......
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/ben-carson-as-hud-secretary-what-could-it-mean-for-housing/
Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) Investors Are Watching Latest Developments Closely
New Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary
Steven Mnuchin is appointed as the next treasury secretary; he was the finance chairman during Trump’s campaign. Mr. Mnuchin is known for purchase of mortgage lender IndyMac during 2009 as a private investor. He is also one of the ex-employee of Goldman Sachs. Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross will be joining the cabinet as Commerce Secretary. Mr. Mnuchin also stated that Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) need to get out of government ownership. The shares are trading up in pre-market by 8%.
FNMA FMCC
....
http://investcorrectly.com/20161130/fannie-mae-fnma-and-freddie-mac-fmcc/
Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) Investors Are Watching Latest Developments Closely
New Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary
Steven Mnuchin is appointed as the next treasury secretary; he was the finance chairman during Trump’s campaign. Mr. Mnuchin is known for purchase of mortgage lender IndyMac during 2009 as a private investor. He is also one of the ex-employee of Goldman Sachs. Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross will be joining the cabinet as Commerce Secretary. Mr. Mnuchin also stated that Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) need to get out of government ownership. The shares are trading up in pre-market by 8%.
FNMA FMCC
....
http://investcorrectly.com/20161130/fannie-mae-fnma-and-freddie-mac-fmcc/