Within the last few years, mortgage houses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been placed in conservatorship. Given that the government is now in charge, the company was given a ton of money in bailout funds. The emergency loans which were given to the mortgage houses weren’t from TARP funds, and taxpayers think it is too big of a burden. The afflicted firms have become targets of protest, and perhaps rightly so.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tabs expected to rise
Recently, Fannie Mae went to the government, asking for $8.4 billion in loans, after posting an $11.5 billion loss for the first quarter of 2010. Freddie Mac also dropped revenue for the quarter and saw $6.7 billion go down the drain. Of course that isn’t as bad as last year but Freddie Mac wants $10.6 billion additional from taxpayers. Besides these requests, that brings the total tab to $145 billion, as outlined by CNN Money.
Don’t contain the TARP bailout
Not part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program are the funds that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already taken. The Congressional Budget Office, according to CNN, believes the toxic twins will end up costing taxpayers $389 billion by 2019.
Hard to tell final Fannie Mae tab
It’s tough to say what the final cost of the bailout and takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can be. The Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Spending budget (the counterpart office that reports to the President) have conflicting viewpoints. One says they are in the budget while an additional keeps them off books. To be fair, the CBO has made mistakes, and some pretty famous ones. One wonders how long it could be before Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be on YouCut.
Sources for the article
Fannie Mae
http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/05/12/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-foreclosures/
CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/13/news/companies/fannie_freddie_teaparty.fortune/
