The day is almost over for the market (thank goodness) and it seems that financal service investors are in panic mode again. The market is down over 250 points and some shares in financial services are down over 15%. What gives?
As we may soon find out, non-market based economic solutions, like the infamous SEC [...]

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the housing bailout bill helping troubled mortgage borrowers, but also giving the U.S. Treasury Department a blank check to support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The New York Times describes it this way:
Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and a primary author of the legislation, [...]

Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) blasted Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was giving the semiannual monetary policy report before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee today. His comments were the sharpest I heard throughout the hearing. The hearing is expected to be brief in order to make time for a later joint hearing with [...]

This is just a step en route to nationalization. We are seeing a spiral down that will mean the U.S. Government will eventually step in. These organizations will fail without government support and they are too big to fail.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had their bank financial strength and preferred stock ratings cut [...]

From Bloomberg:

Paulson Statement on Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae: Full Text
July 13 (Bloomberg) — Following is the text of a statement issued today by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to [...]

The Times of London is reporting that Treasury Secretary Paulson is looking to infuse Fannie and Freddie with $15 billion to help alleviate market turmoil. However they cite no sources in doing so.
Moreover, the $75 billion offered by Lehman Brothers which started this crisis is much closer to the amount of capital needed by [...]

For other posts on Fannie and Freddie see ‘GSE ‘ label.
Going forward, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are going to be much talked about in the news. Therefore, as a reference, I am providing a list of big Washington Post stories dating back to 2005 below. Fannie, Freddie rise after dive a [...]

Dean Baker has been on record since at least 2002 as predicting both the mortgage bust and the Fannie-Freddie collapse.
“If housing prices fall back in line with the overall rate price level, as they have always done in the past, it will eliminate more than $2 trillion in paper wealth and considerably worsen [...]

I might have egg all over my face quicker than quick about my $150 oil call. It seems the Fannie-Freddie bailout chatter is spooking stock markets, currency markets and the oil market. This is going to be a volatile day.
The dollar dropped to a one-week low against the euro and headed for a [...]

As I said in an earlier post, taking over Fannie and Freddie has been the plan all along for the Bush Administration. They have been planning this since at least March. Coincidentally, I have confirming evidence now. The New York Times reports that they are unveiling this plan for a bailout now.
They are only doing [...]