Misdirection

Something just occurred to me and it has to do with the so called torture memos. and the resulting hullabaloo.

Now our "leaders" have known about this stuff for years, hell we all knew about it too. So why bring all this fanfare, controversy and speculation of prosecution to the forefront?

All this torture crap is a misdirection, a distraction from something that the Obama administration doesn't want us paying attention to. how much do you want to bet that the administration is trying to slip something by us?

April 23, 2009
Categories: Obama Administration

Was Freddie pressured to toe Obama line?
Both the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are reporting that Freddie Mac's Chief Financial Officer, David Kellermann, who was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide, was involved in recent months in a heated dispute with Freddie's regulator over how to reflect costs of President Obama's anti-foreclosure program.

The Post said Kellermann and other Freddie officials "tussled" with the Federal Housing Finance Agency early last month as the company prepared to file a quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Top executives, including Kellermann, were insistent that Freddie Mac inform shareholders of the cost to the company of helping carry out the Obama administration's housing recovery plan, the two newspapers reported. The Post, citing several unnamed sources, said the regulators "urged the company not to do so." An unnamed FHFA official who spoke to the Post disputed that, "saying the regulator did not oppose disclosure but how the information was portrayed in the filing."

In the end, FHFA reportedly retreated and Freddie formally disclosed that the Obama anti-foreclosure plan could force the firm, which is in a federal government conservatorship, to take a pre-tax charge of $30 billion.

While the Obama administration might not want to have the pricetag for its foreclosure efforts look too big, the reason regulators may have pressured Fannie to understate the cost of the program is pretty simple: both Obama and Geithner said publicly that it wouldn't have a material financial impact on Fannie or Freddie.

As Obama unveiled his foreclosure program at an event in Mesa, Ariz. on February 18, he said: "While Fannie and Freddie would receive less money in payments, this would be balanced out by a reduction in defaults and foreclosures."

And when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner briefed reporters at the Mesa speech he said, in response to a question from POLITICO, that officials at Fannie and Freddie had concluded that the program to ease refinancing rules would actually benefit the firms' bottom lines.

“Fannie and Freddie believe that the program we announced--this refinancing program is economically sensible for them and will leave them overall in a better position going forward," Geithner said. The relevant part of the program allowed homeowners with Fannie and Freddie backed loans to refinance even if their loan represented more than 80% of the value of the home, as long as it did not exceed 105% of the home's value.

At the same briefing, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan did say there would be a cost to Freddie and Fannie to modify some mortgages, but he said that cost would be covered by the federal TARP program.

That said, it's unclear to what degree FHFA would feel obligated to carry water for the Obama administration. FHFA Director James Lockhart had a high ranking post at the Social Security Administration under President Bush and was appointed by Bush in 2006 to head up Fannie and Freddie's regulator at the time, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

Like what's going on with financials? Lots going on, but it's all 'torture and investigate...' Links to WaPo and WSJ at site:

Josh Gerstein's Blog: Was Freddie pressured to toe Obama line? - POLITICO.com




and this:

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Why Is Venture Capital Under Assault?

and this:

GM Is Becoming a Royal Debacle - WSJ.com

and this:

TARP Cops - Megan McArdle

I am not prone to conspiracy, but this amount of information does give pause.

And yesterday's suicide of the CFO just seems.......too convenient?