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NOVEMBER 4, 2010, 8:48 P.M. ET
Fannie, Freddie Overhaul Could Cost $685 Billion
By NICK TIMIRAOS
The total cost to rescue and then overhaul mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach $685 billion, according to estimates published Thursday by Standard & Poor's.
Fannie and Freddie have already cost taxpayers nearly $134 billion, but S&P analysts said Thursday that the government could ultimately be forced to inject $280 billion into the firms because of a slowdown in the housing market.
Any entities that might replace Fannie and Freddie would need new start-up funding that would go beyond the money already committed.
A consensus of academics, industry officials and investors has coalesced around the idea of using the government to provide explicit guarantees for securities backed by mortgages that meet certain standards. Tough questions loom over how those guarantees would be structured and priced and what entities would provide them.
Fannie, Freddie Overhaul Could Cost $685 Billion - WSJ.com
The Democrats were warned again and again about the trouble brewing at Fannie and Freddie, especially after they were caught cooking the books so the execs could get the biggest bonuses they could.
Pay special attention to Barney Frank at the 1:30 mark and on. He said he see no problem with Fannie and Freddie and even if there were, we don't bail 'em out.
Here they are in late 2004 defending Fannie and Freddie insisting nothing was wrong. History have proven them SO very wrong. The taxpayers may be on the hook for $280 Billion Dollars when all the warning signs were there years before the crash when something could have been done about it.
This was a headline in the NY Times in 2003.
Fannie Mae's Loss Risk Is Larger, Computer Models Show - New York Times
Fannie and Freddie were even absent of oversight in the Democrats Financial reform bill they passed. This leave the door open and the taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts of F&F.
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