if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
McCain Moves On Mae and Mac
by Hal_10000
Sometimes, I like John McCain, like when he proposes forcing FreddieFannieMacMae to either shit or get off the pot:
Fannie and Freddie are the poster children for a lack of transparency and accountability. Fannie Mae employees deliberately manipulated financial reports to trigger bonuses for senior executives. Freddie Mac manipulated its earnings by $5-billion. They’ve misled us about their accounting, and now they are endangering financial markets. More than two years ago, I said: “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose.” Fannie and Freddie’s lobbyists succeeded; Congress failed to act. They’ve stayed in business, grown, and profited mightily by showering money on lobbyists and favors on the Washington establishment. Now the bill has come due.
What should be done? We are stuck with the reality that they have grown so large that we must support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the current rough spell. But if a dime of taxpayer money ends up being directly invested, the management and the board should immediately be replaced, multimillion dollar salaries should be cut, and bonuses and other compensation should be eliminated. They should cease all lobbying activities and drop all payments to outside lobbyists. And taxpayers should be first in line for any repayments.
Even with those terms, sticking Main Street Americans with Wall Street’s bill is a shame on Washington. If elected, I’ll continue my crusade for the right reform of the institutions: making them go away. I will get real regulation that limits their ability to borrow, shrinks their size until they are no longer a threat to our economy, and privatizes and eliminates their links to the government.
The FMs want to have it both ways. They want to be a private enterprise so that they can get big salaries and lobby Washington. But they want to be a public institution so that they are backed by federal funds. They are, as much as anyone, responsible for the mortgage problem. We should be taking steps to diminish them.
Comments
in the same way you limit someone who has comitted a gun crime from owning a gun.
While I somewhat agree with you, people that use guns in the commission of a crime will almost always find a way to do it again, not matter how much the law changes.
These fucks that found a way to manipulate the markets will just find another way to do it once the rules have changed.
Limit them to cash/property
That will work almost as well as above. They’re flushed with cash. Cash is (mostly) untraceable. Do you really think this will really stop them?
Greedy people will ALWAYS find a way around the rules.
Period.
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Jail them. It’s not hard.
Prison is a massive deterrent to white colar crime.
I liked the suggestion of banning those who engage in inside trading and financial manipulation of being banned for life from owning stocks/shares and other financial instruments. Limit them to cash/property - in the same way you limit someone who has comitted a gun crime from owning a gun.