RightChange: Fannie Mae Wants Another Bailout

Mortgage lending giant, Fannie Mae, is asking the federal government to give them another bailout.  Apparently, their first bailout wasn’t enough. 

Fannie Mae received one of the most expensive bailouts in President Obama’s Wall Street reform bill.  After receiving their billion-dollar bailout, they posted their worst quarterly loss of $8.7 billion in 2011.

Obama said this bill was the most sweeping financial reform in U.S. history. If that were the case, they wouldn’t be asking taxpayers for another $4.6 billion:

“Mortgage giant Fannie Mae said Wednesday that it lost money in the fourth quarter and is asking the federal government for nearly $4.6 billion in aid to cover its deficit.

Washington, D.C.-based Fannie said it lost roughly $2.4 billion in the October-December quarter, stung by declininghome prices. Revenue was about $4.5 billion.

The government rescued Fannie and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator — the Federal Housing Finance Agency — has controlled their financial decisions.

Taxpayers have spent more than $150 billion to prop up Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could top $259 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.

Fannie has received more than $116 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company.

Fannie's bailout money totaled roughly $16.4 billion in 2011 after accounting for dividend payments. That's up from about $7.3 billion in 2010 but down from about $32.5 billion in 2009.”

Obama shouldn’t ask taxpayers to foot the bill again for his major failure in the Housing industry.

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