Someone Shoot John a Memo
Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac are anything but private companies.
But I guess getting the facts straight would get in the way of spinning for the sake of funny.
As a side note, I have nothing against spinning for comedic effect, but it seems vaguely hypocritical when you criticize other people who spin for political gain.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
They are actually a public/private hybrid. They are privately owned and operated, and have been since 1968. They are “government sponsored”, in the sense that it is unlikely that the government would let them fail. Many economists believe that Freddie and Fanny are the worst of both worlds. There is no regulation to stop them from doing stupid things, while at the same time, they don’t have to worry about going under, because they know that the government will bail them out. It’s not entirely clear how to solve this problem. On the one hand, the hybrid model does not work. On the other hand, its not clear that they could survive without the government sponsership (few people would invest in them in their current state), or whether the US economy could survive them going under.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Does being a public/private hybrid mean you are private. I would think that if you were private you would be called ‘private’ and not ‘public/private hybrid’.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Either way steve, it’s great to see you paying this much attention to nuance. I see you’ve learned a lot from me. Nuance is key in any argument, right?
July 20th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Nuance is never ever key to an argument.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Bear Stearn was private…. Guess it’s not only the hybrids that need saving, eh?
July 21st, 2008 at 11:13 am
I guess John’s joked would of worked if he had said Bear Stern.