Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[FOFreddie]

We should root for Ackman to make gobs of money being long FNMA but you are right!

Hank Paulson wanted to take down the GSE's and he started to roll out his plans in March 2008 or earlier. Here is a memo from Jason Thomas from UST to Robert Steel who was the ex- Vice Chairman of GS. Ackman is a GS alum and the short thesis was likely well known to GS alumni. Not only were the GSE stock prices were under pressure while Paulson and others said that the GSEs were going to be fine while they stuffed the public with newly issued JPS shares but financials with any housing exposure were also being brought to their knees by short sellers. Curiously Steel became Chairman of Wachovia after it was forced into a merger at low valuations with Wells Fargo. Thomas is now a senior officer at Carlyle which is a well established Washington DC private equity firm.

Here is the memo from the Treasury Department of the United States of America to Steel giving him the heads up on the GSE hit piece the UST planted with Barrons on March 8, 2008.

https://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-docs/2008-03-08_Treasury_Email_from_Hason_Thomas_to_Robert_Steel_Re_Source_document_for_Barrons_article_on_FNM.pdf

Our hope is that Ackman can convince the same guys who made gobs from shorting the GSEs to go long now. Best of wishes to Ackman and all longs. Better than Ackman is the Growth Fund of America which is a widely held mutual fund including many 529 college fund investors that suffered from the GSE Conservatorship but now has the opportunity to recoup losses and possibly make more since they bought more common and JPS! Go Growth Fund of America!!