Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[bmp152]

Perhaps the most solid evidence that the Berkowitz offer wasn't considered lucrative enough for the government.

I've tried to copy verbatim, but it's slightly paraphrased….

Near the 1:10:50s mark:

Senator Corker talking to Mark Zandi:

I noticed that in the last few weeks we had an offer from Berkowitz, in Florida, to buy the credit portion, remnants of Fannie and Freddie. And while the offer will likely be rejected because of the amount and talking with people that are related to that type of offer, in many ways does that not give us hope that there are people out there willing to invest in the credit risk portion only? It's really just a matter of getting the economics right. It does show there is interest out there for investors to participate in the new system, is that correct?

It seems to me that the offer that was made was exactly in line with 1217 (the Corker-Warner housing reform proposal). We would need to have something like 1217 passed to have a modular system for that type of offer to even work. It seems to me that what we're already seeing is that hedge funds, private equity, etc. are willing to re-capitalize this system to make it modular and competitive.

http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=43c24d50-cb8c-4aff-8bed-7f1ab8038f18