{"id":12853,"date":"2010-08-05T07:31:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=12853"},"modified":"2010-08-05T07:31:41","modified_gmt":"2010-08-05T14:31:41","slug":"the-line-for-food-stamps-is-over-there-this-is-the-line-for-deficit-funded-mortgage-bailouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12853\/the-line-for-food-stamps-is-over-there-this-is-the-line-for-deficit-funded-mortgage-bailouts\/","title":{"rendered":"The line for food stamps is over there. This is the line for deficit-funded mortgage bailouts."},"content":{"rendered":"

James Pethokoukis at Reuters:<\/a><\/p>\n

Main Street may be about to get its own gigantic bailout. Rumors are running wild from Washington to Wall Street that the Obama administration is about to order government-controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt of millions of Americans who owe more than what their homes are worth. An estimated 15 million U.S. mortgages – one in five – are underwater with negative equity of some $800 billion. Recall that on Christmas Eve 2009, the Treasury Department waived a $400 billion limit on financial assistance to Fannie and Freddie, pledging unlimited help. The actual vehicle for the bailout could be the Bush-era Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, a sister program to Obama’s loan modification effort. HARP was just extended through June 30, 2011.<\/p>\n

The move, if it happens, would be a stunning political and economic bombshell less than 100 days before a midterm election in which Democrats are currently expected to suffer massive, if not historic losses. The key date to watch is August 17 when the Treasury Department holds a much-hyped meeting on the future of Fannie and Freddie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What would be the motive for doing something this dumb? To buy your vote, of course:<\/p>\n

Keep in mind the political and economic context. The nascent recovery is already running out of steam. Wall Street economists just downgraded the government’s second-quarter GDP estimate of 2.4 percent to around 1.7 percent. And as even Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is warning, the unemployment rate may well begin to rise back toward the politically toxic 10 percent level given such sluggish growth. Many in the White House thought the unemployment rate would be dropping sharply by this point in the recovery.<\/p>\n

But that is not happening. What is happening is that the president’s approval ratings are continuing to erode, as are Democratic election polls. Democrats are in real danger of losing the House and almost losing the Senate. The mortgage Hail Mary would be a last-gasp effort to prevent this from happening and to save the Obama agenda. The political calculation is that the number of Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Pethokoukis at Reuters: Main Street may be about to get its own gigantic bailout. Rumors are running wild from Washington to Wall Street that the Obama administration is about to order government-controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt of millions of Americans who owe more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,29,26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-group-therapy","8":"category-lending","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10715,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10715\/interest-rates-have-been-trending-upward-but-what-happens-when-uncle-sugar-quadruples-the-sugar-supply-at-fannie-and-freddie\/","url_meta":{"origin":12853,"position":0},"title":"Interest rates have been trending upward, but what happens when Uncle Sugar quadruples the sugar supply at Fannie and Freddie?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Wall Street Journal:The Obama administration's decision to cover an unlimited amount of losses at the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next three years stirred controversy over the holiday. The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4039,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4039\/mortgage-market-week-in-review-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":12853,"position":1},"title":"Mortgage Market Week in Review","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"August 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here we are on Friday again and it\u2019s time to take another look at what\u2019s going on in the mortgage markets. This week we\u2019re going to talk about two economic reports and two big question marks. First the economic reports from the week: 1. The Index of Leading Economic Indicators\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4267,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4267\/update-on-fannie-and-freddie\/","url_meta":{"origin":12853,"position":2},"title":"Update on Fannie and Freddie","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"September 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it happened.\u00a0 In case you haven\u2019t heard the news, Fannie and Freddie were bailed out by the Federal Government over the weekend.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to go over all of the details but just try to hit some \u201chigh points.\u201d So, here goes: 1. The Federal government now owns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4287,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4287\/moral-hazard-revisited\/","url_meta":{"origin":12853,"position":3},"title":"Moral Hazard Revisited…..","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"September 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the important things that Paulson said in the press conference yesterday was that we (the government) don't want Fannie and Freddie to stay public and that one of the things that the next administration and Congress has to figure out is \"How in the world do we take\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6365,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6365\/a-45-mortgage-in-every-pot\/","url_meta":{"origin":12853,"position":4},"title":"A 4.5% Mortgage In Every Pot","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Embrace the New Deal!\u00a0 The Bailout has made its way to Main Street. The Fed's gonna do it..for real: The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced that it expects to begin operations in early January under the previously announced program to purchase mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and that it has selected private\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4223,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4223\/quick-update-on-the-rumors\/","url_meta":{"origin":12853,"position":5},"title":"Quick update on the rumors….","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"September 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If any of you have enjoyed the \"give and take\" between Sean and I about the Fannie Freddie death watch, it appears, based on reports in the Wall Street Journal and others that the bailout is happening this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0 What shape is it taking?\u00a0\u00a0 Lots of rumors, very few facts.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12854,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions\/12854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}