Jezebel: Freddie Mac

Now You'll Never Own A Home

Erin Gloria Ryan — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:20:59 EST

With the government itching to gracefully back out of the clusterfuck that is the American consumer loan industry, home loans are poised to get a lot more expensive and a lot less accessible. Home ownership is going to go the way of supper club membership, and unless you're a winsome red headed orphan whose pluck wins over a wealthy and soft-hearted benefactor, you might be stuck renting a lot longer than you'd hope. More »

Righteously Insulted At Republican Slurs And Unrighteous Rage

Megan Carpentier — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:40:00 EDT

Remember Oliver Clark? He asked a question at Tuesday's debate on the economy and John McCain told him he "probably" hadn't ever heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Well, it turns out he has a B.A. in PoliSci, a Masters in Legal Studies, and is in the midst of a Masters in Public Administration. So, he'd heard of them both, and he thought McCain's remark was condescending — and he's right. [MSNBC]
Oh, speaking of telegraphing contempt and racism, former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating called Obama "a guy of the street" and suggested he should admit to the drug use he's already admitted to. Frank ought to admit that he's just trying out something BET founder Bob Johnson tried on Hillary's behalf in January in South Carolina that failed so spectacularly. [Huffington Post , NY Times]
Other things John McCain is stealing from Hillary? His mortgage buyout plan. He thinks that'll make us fickle ladies vote for him. [UPI]

John McCain has attempted a couple of times...

Megan Carpentier — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:20:00 EDT

John McCain has attempted a couple of times to hit Barack Obama for his ties to lobbyists who worked for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Of course, it's long been known that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, had his own ties — but the New York Times reports today that those ties aren't exactly past tense. Davis has been on a leave of absence from his lobbying firm since 2006, but Freddie Mac kept paying that firm $15K a month until recently — and as a partner/equity holder, Davis continued to benefit from that money. The McCain camp denies this, naturally, but there's only so many times that Steve Schmidt can call them in the tank before people stop listening. [Time, NY Times, Time, NY Times] More »

Q&A With A Wall Street Woman: "We Are In A State Of Devastation Across All Areas Of Finance And Business"

Jessica G. — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:30:00 EDT

If you're anything like me, the financial state of the U.S. terrifies you, but in an amorphous way. You try to read numerous newspaper articles about Lehman and Merrill Lynch and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but it's like reading Don Quixote with seventh grade Spanish: a certain grasp of the vocabulary is missing. We decided to ask a Wall Street woman to explain just what the sam hell is going on. This financial female wanted to remain anonymous, so we're going to call her Katharine Parker after Sigourney Weaver's moderately duplicitous but whip smart financial analyst in Working Girl. We ask our expert about what happened with Lehman, whether cutting interest rates is helpful, and if it's time to take our savings out of Citibank and shove it under our mattresses. Our Q&A with Katharine, after the jump. More »

Palin Gives Thumbs Up To Financial Bailouts, Down To Rape Victims

Megan Carpentier — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Another day, another dollar, another morning of Crap with me and Moe — but this time, with economics! Yes, there's another financial market bail-out going on if you hadn't heard because you were being all political while the Republicans were being all Realpolitikal and abandoning their free market principles (again) to save their financial and political hides! Anyway, so Sarah Palin hopped on board the bail-out train even though she would never allow rape victims to come in the way of her bedrock fiscal conservative principles! Also, Moe and I decide to take the Foreign Service exam so we can get out of Dodge during the Palin Administration which will be in charge when Kim Jong Il dies, and Condi wonders what someone like herself could do about the startling lack of minorities at the State Department. More »

Sarah Palin And Indulging In "The Liquor Cabinet"

Megan Carpentier — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EDT

It is way-back week on Crappy Hour, when my first Crappy Love, Moe Tkacik, agrees to relive our original blogospheric passion for a full five days! Today's edition — for which we decided to stay up late, get drunk, and parse the headlines rather than get up early and hungover — includes my embarrassing encounter with David Gregory, the origins of human life, the First Dude, rumors, Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, David Broder, laughable Safire-ian stupidity, teabagging and the comparison between Governor Palin's leaky vagina and my own. Yeah, this is what sort of happens when Moe and I drink together. More »

But Doesn't The Bush Administration Care About The Nation's Heroin Addicts?

Moe — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:30:00 EDT

Society has a drug problem, if numbers like these are any indication (and they are). I mean, don't get me wrong, drugs are an excellent way for consumers to waste time, but add to that the snitch-killing and the crop dusting and the weapons stockpiling and the car detailing and wiretapping and the condom swallowing and the fact that determined junkies will figure out how to fatally overdose on legal cancer drugs anyway and you start to think, hey now let's just call this a day, DEA. But is that why the Bush Administration, according to yesterday's Times Magazine, appears to have given up on the Drug War in Afghanistan? Or is it just like, what the fuck else are they going to grow there? That and how Gabriel Garcia Marquez's plan to eradicate the Colombian coke trade didn't work out so well, plus sundry other dour observations and musings on the meaninglessness of with me and Megan after the jump. More »

Nothing Says 'China, Just Like Us' Like Freak Multiple Birth Pictures!

Moe — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EDT

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UPDATE: And the galvanizing fear of terror attacks! In cuter news, meet the Jiaos. They're quintuplets. What one-child policy, right? Anyway, these are some of China's youngest "Olympics ambassadors," although they are not the "sweetest" as chosen by preeminent lecherous horndog filmmaker Zhang Yimou, no, his picks for 10 Olympic Sweethearts are on another page of this state-sponsored site, but anyway, the Olympics is still not yet happening, though it is only a matter of 17.92 days, which on a slow news day means lots of China-related stories to read, namely the New Yorker story about the nationalistic rage of China's internerd youth, reared on science fiction, Fox News clips and years of 10% annual GDP growth attained making consumer goods for a bunch of pathologically clueless West. They seem like nice enough kids, but they tried to beat up this one Chinese Duke student for trying to make friends with Tibetans and the worst thing about brainwashed people is how they hear "brainwashed" the first time and think it describes everyone else. So that and Chandra, Chuck Hagel and the election after the jump. More »