Are we seeing the end of free markets? There seems to be no end for the desire for the govt to regulate the market place to protect us from ourselves. Credit cards, banks, mortgage, etc. Is this a good trend?
great for the market! When the announcement came out on the sunday talk shows..futures shot up and have continued up this morning! Lets see what happens in 10 minutes!!
The bailout of Fannie and Freddie was inevitable and necessary. Investors have always flocked to the debt offerings of both with the implicit but not stated understanding that they had the full, faith and credit of the US Treasury backing the paper. I don't know that there was a better solution available, and I believe this is a helpful step towards resolving the credit issues currently constraining our economy. imho, the funadamental charter/mission of these entities made them likely candidates for a melt-down under the current headwinds confronting the credit markets.
B-Terry, Couldn't they someday be privatized again if conditions warrant AND (a big "IF") if it makes sense to do so? I don't see it happening, but nothing is impossible. It certainly would be a long time before it even would become a possibility.
Sid, that is absolutely right. I'm certain that that is what Secretary Paulson had in mind when creating the structure and I would expect that the probability of such an event would approach 100%, but to be sure, it will awhile..... as an aside, imho, we are more fortunate to have Paulson on the job during this storm than many realize. Having the former head of Goldman, Sachs on the job in this mess -v- some political hack is a very good thing. President Bush chose wisely.....