House Votes Down Bailout Bill!

Wood'nCoal wrote:Glad to see that my rep, Scott Garrett, voted no.

Adamiscold wrote:I like the idea of raising the FDIC from 100k to 250k,

Devil505 wrote:Tell me why you want it passed right now instead of waiting just a few more months for a new administration

Devil505 wrote:Would someone in favor of this bill please answer a few simple(serious )questions for me:

1. Tell me why you want it passed right now instead of waiting just a few more months for a new administration & a new Congress can be seated & who we Americans can have more faith in their integrity & honesty? ( Do you really still trust the present administration & Congress?)

Devil505 wrote:2. If your answer is that we can't wait a few months due to the dire nature of our economy, why not back a bill that will only cover a short time span until the next Congress can hammer out a permanent bill we can all have confidence in?
(if anyone from this admin or Congress tells me we must have a permanent bill now for it to work.......I'll say.....F....YOU!........then you'll get nothing!

Adamiscold wrote:This Bailout really isn't a bailout at all, it is more of a rescue plan to try and keep us from going deeper into the hole that we are heading towards. They are expecting the job loss numbers this week to be over 100k bringing the total number for job losses to 700k for the year so far.

Adamiscold wrote:I like the idea of raising the FDIC from 100k to 250k, was telling this to the wife the other day. It's been 28 years since they updated that amount, too many people have lost money because of the low amount of insurance the FDIC is providing with all the banks going under.

Devil505 wrote:We'll just have to agree to disagree about who's mainly responsible for the current crisis Greg. (I blame the people who ran the government completely for most of the last 8 years & stopped any meaningful Congressional oversight,

(D)Rep. Maxine Waters Dem. California : ...We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines.

On December 21, 2004 Raines accepted what he called "early retirement" [4] from his position as CEO while U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators continued to investigate alleged accounting irregularities. He is accused by The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulating body of Fannie Mae, of abetting widespread accounting errors, which included the shifting of losses so senior executives, such as himself, could earn large bonuses [5].

In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $50 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings [6] initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as 6.3 billion.[7].

Civil charges were filed against Raines and two other former executives by the OFHEO in which the OFHEO sought $110 million in penalties and $115 million in returned bonuses from the three accused.[8] On April 18, 2008, the government announced a settlement with Raines together with J. Timothy Howard, Fannie's former chief financial officer, and Leanne G. Spencer, Fannie's former controller. The three executives agreed to pay fines totaling about $3 million, which will be paid by Fannie's insurance policies. Raines also agreed to donate the proceeds from the sale of $1.8 million of his Fannie stock and to give up stock options. The stock options however have no value. Raines also gave up an estimated $5.3 million of "other benefits" said to be related to his pension and forgone bonuses.[9]

An editorial in The Wall Street Journal called it a "paltry settlement" which allowed Raines and the other two executives to "keep the bulk of their riches." [10] In 2003 alone, Raines's compensation was over $20 million.[11]

A statement issued by Raines said of the consent order, "is consistent with my acceptance of accountability as the leader of Fannie Mae and with my strong denial of the allegations made against me by OFHEO."[12]

In a settlement with OFHEO and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie paid a record $400 million civil fine. Fannie, which is the largest American financier and guarantor of home mortgages, also agreed to make changes in its corporate culture and accounting procedures and ways of managing risk. [13]

In June 2008 The Wall Street Journal reported that Franklin Raines was one of several public officials who received below market rates loans at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered the officeholders "FOA's"--"Friends of Angelo" (Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo). He received loans for over $3 million while CEO of Fannie Mae.