I’ve been struck over the past few days with the scope of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts. I mean, we’re talking about the taxpayers footing the bill for the difference between US house values and the borrowed price for a $5 trillion portfolio.
These bailouts are rising in cost and graft, with FNMA boasting $1M+ salaries for the top twenty executives and over $250M in bonuses over the past five years to those same twenty. These were supposed to be organizations devoted to bringing housing to those who could not otherwise afford it, not institutions responsible for absorbing over half of the entire nation’s housing debt.
Capitalism is dead. Or, if it’s not dead, it’s certainly being handed its hat.