Yesterday Henry Paulson, United States Treasury Secretary, held a press conference at 11:00am EDT on a Sunday morning to tell us, the tax payers, we're going to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and their $5.4 trillion worth of home debt - half the mortgage debt in the country. This was a well choreographed press conference, at 11:00am EDT Sunday morning when a large portion of the Eastern and Central U.S. were either in church or on their way to church and the folks out on the west Coast were still in bed or just getting up. In the meanwhile Republican Gov. Charlie Crist was holding a press conference at the very same time about hurricane Ike, what a coincidence.
Our government is potentially putting us $5.4 trillion in debt and they hold a press conference at 11:00 am EDT on a Sunday?
Well the good news is we don't have to worry about the terrorist destroying the United states, because George W. Bush and his banking pals are beating them to the punch, oh by the way let's don't forget John McCain (the Keating Five) or his son Andrew K. McCain.
Now you would think that someone would go to jail over this mess, but these folks have raked in some serious money. Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd reaped a 7 percent rise in pay to $13.4 million in 2007 while the company lost $2.1 billion and its shared fell 33%. How would you like to have a job like that?
Using a pay-disclosure measure that the SEC prefers, which treats the value of stock and options differently, Freddie Mac chief Richard Syron's pay for 2007 was $18.3 million, up 24% from 2006. That ain't bad either.
It's really hard to believe the conservatives are for socialized Health Care, opps I mean banking, but seeing is believing!