The Federal Home Loan and Mortgage Corporation, a government sponsored enterprise(GSE) and publicly held company, gives every sign of being on its way into bankruptcy either this week or some time next week, having fallen 50% over the last day of trading, 24% the day before, and dropping from $60.85 a year ago to $7.72 as I write this tidbit of a diary.
This company along with Fannie Mae have bought 80% of U.S. mortgages since the credit freeze started last fall and currently needs to raise $29 billion to continue operations. That, my friends, is going to come out of your wallet and mine, courtesy of the pickpockets of the 110th Congress ...
UPDATE:
Ilargi got after Fannie and Freddie today, too, over at http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com
If you want the background on this sucker I wrote it up yesterday:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Basically what we're about to see here will be a total, complete freeze up of the mortgage market in the United States and probably there will be runs on banks well in excess of the $51 billion the FDIC has available to cover such troubles. The Brits saw this a short while ago with the Northern Rock fiasco; the only reason it hasn't already happened here is that we live on credit cards - the soaring default rate has been a curious sort of de facto bank run for the U.S. as a nation.
Look for our ol' friend Helicopter Ben Bernanke to get some magical new enforcement powers that extend to commercial as well as investment banks:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
OK, sorry for being all brief and disorganized and whatnot, but I have to go pick up the lil' woman and then we're off to get ready for our evening of entertainment. I think it's quite apropos, too - we're going to see Widespread Panic play in Boston ...