Notes on the Investors Unite Conference
Though not privy to the Investors Unite Conference plan for the day, the press conference conveyed important messages to the press corp present and to investors watching the activities. Below are the some significant takeaways of the effort to give a human face to the issue of GSE shareholders.
Messages to the Press Corp
1. The majority of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders are ordinary taxpaying, daily working Americans. It would be an error to think of the GSE shareholders as large or small investors. So, at the conference, the speakers are a CEO, a blogger, a family investor, a small farmer, an IT worker, and an homemaker among the others. A diverse group in every way representing Americans invested in the GSEs.
2. The investing views and purposes for investing of these shareholders are diverse and not monolithic. The GSE shareholders are not Wall Street titans hedge fund managers trying to take advantage of the bailout and the conservatorships to gain excessive profits. Instead, they are invested and are investing in the GSEs for personal and generational retirement, for extra money to spread around to themselves and family, for extra income to get by...
3. The shareholders felt and thought that their investments were safe. However, now these investments are threatened with being a wiped out by Congress who never once considered to hear their side of the story and their role by bringing them to the table because they imagined the shareholders to be just hedge fund owners and managers whom they disapprove. The shareholders are against this.
4. The shareholders see the process of housing finance reform as a bad process, a faulty process. It is going to fast and without consideration of the all factors like thousands of shareholders and their futures. It is like Obamacare in that politicians in their offices are making plans without considering the taxpayer on the ground or even the processes of implementation in reality. And so all of the insufferable issues that have arisen did so because of hastily made legislation in Congressional offices without feedback from every quarter. There are hidden taxes, user fees, in the Crapo-Johnson legislation that will burden the American taxpayer without telling them. Interest rates will go up. The 30 year mortgage is threatened. The housing finance system is being played with by politicians who are not the most adept and dealing with financial matters of this magnitude and complexity.
5. So, it is better perhaps to slow down and have a blue ribbon national commission look at all the issues and challenges and come up with a workable plan that will protect all. Congress can then consider how best to get it done using the findings and recommendations of a national commission that represents all aspect of housing finance and housing finance reform. If the legislation gets it wrong, everyone will suffer.
6. The conference leader Tom Pagliara requested that press has an important role to tell the truth and to understand all of the above and to present it to the public.
The success of the press conference can be measured by how much of this message is published.
The conference was provided a human story of real people that gave face to the shareholders standing behind the GSEs. If this is conveyed to the public by the media, then it was a job very well done.
And for all shareholders, it is a job well done on by our fellow investors who made the time to go to Washington and to represent us all. They are still working and every bit of effort they give will make a contribution to the better understanding of what is really going on with the GSEs in the US.
AI
