Replies to post #286290 on Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[Donotunderstand]

and she stayed on TRACK

and a left
and a right

again - while in NYT - she is no liberal - she just loves to find dirt and write about it - left or right - main street or wall street and whomever is in power etc

Her ending

If the government has its way, we may never know what involvement executive branch officials had in changing the Fannie and Freddie agreement. But recall what was going on in mid-2012. The presidential election was in full swing, and Democrats and Republicans were clashing over the debt ceiling. That May, in a shock to many, Fannie and Freddie reported profits from their operations for the first time since the mortgage crisis. The amount: $4.5 billion. And plenty more was to come.

Certainly, giving the Treasury access to billions of dollars in the companies’ profits during this time provided financial flexibility to the executive branch that Congress might not otherwise have approved.

Whatever the case, it is disturbing that the government goes to such lengths to shroud the details of the profit-sweep decision. It reminds me of a comment made by Ferdinand Pecora, the hard-driving prosecutor who investigated Wall Street’s role in the crash of 1929. In his memoir, “Wall Street Under Oath,” he wrote: “Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism.”

Mr. Pecora was writing about the banking practices of the time. But his assertion resonates today.