Remember the merry-go-round we rode when we were kids? You went round and round and tried to catch the prize, a brass ring. If you didn’t catch the brass ring – you wanted to get down but the merry-go-round kept going. Fannie and Freddie remind me of that merry-go-round as once again they appear to… [Read More]
Search Results for: Fannie
The Epic Story of Fannie and Freddie: Is There an End in Sight?
Congress has long debated replacing Fannie and Freddie, who were at ground zero of the 2008 crisis as federally charted privately owned companies. They’d been given directives by Congress to make housing affordable, which pretty much meant: fulfill the American dream by having a chicken in every pot, a car in every driveway and a… [Read More]
They’re Back! Fannie and Freddie Ride Again
It looks as if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have not learned from their previous enabling of banks leading to the financial crisis. In fact, it looks as if the two are still using the same business model; they are lowering even further their underwriting standards to allow loans to be underwritten, ignoring student, credit… [Read More]
Fannie and Freddie — We Need to Look Before We Leap!
“We’ve got to get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership. It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have,” stated Steven Mnuchin, President-Elect Trump’s pick for the U.S. Treasury Secretary. Wait — let’s take a closer look first. I… [Read More]
Who follows the Sarbanes Oxley Act?
The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX), passed in 2002 after the failures of Enron and Worldcom, specifically addressed internal controls and oversight responsibilities for all publicly-traded companies, including banks. SOX mandates that management must establish and maintain “effective” internal controls and must publish a separate “Internal Controls Report” certifying the effectiveness of its internal controls and certifying that there is no fraud.
Which Is It? Big Banks Get a Break or Here Comes Another Recession?
For some time, many regulators have viewed the Volcker Rule (part of the Dodd-Frank law which was put in place after the 2008 financial crisis) as too complicated to enforce. Former Chairman of the Fed, Janet L. Yellen, and present Chairman, Jerome H. Powell, concur. The rule put in place to prevent banks from making… [Read More]
Did We Learn Anything From the 2008 Financial Crisis?
Last year, fellow Bank Whistleblowers United colleague, Michael Winston, the Countrywide Whistleblower, and I, along with C.R. “Rusty” Cloutier, MidSouth Bankcorp. Inc, Founding President and CEO, and Rashad Abdel –Khalik, PhD. Professor of International Accounting at the University of Illinois, joined Dennis McCuistion; the host of the McCuistion Program for an insightful look at “What… [Read More]
Why Is the Fed Ignoring What Goldman Sachs Is Up To Now?
“Who’s Watching Wall Street? The Feds Turn a Blind Eye,” states David Dayen in a recent Fiscal Times article. It looks as if Goldman Sachs is on a shopping spree, spending $500 million plus or minus to buy 12 percent of Riverstone Holdings, a private equity firm. They’ve also acquired stakes in private equity players… [Read More]
Whistleblower Program Wins Telly Award
The McCuistion television program, Whistleblowers: Who They Are and Why You Should Care, in which Michael Winston, William (Bill) Black, and I appeared last year, has been selected as a Telly Award winner. The Telly Awards is a widely known and highly respected national and international competition with awards based on overall production excellence, including… [Read More]
The Ethics Merry Go Round
The McCuistion program, which airs in Dallas/Fort Worth on PBS station KERA, recently re-aired its program, Ethics and Transparency as Antidotes to Financial Fraud. Host Dennis McCuistion asked the guests what ethics and the lack of transparency may have done to contribute to the 2008 financial crisis? One of his guests, Marianne Jennings, J.D.: Professor… [Read More]
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