WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday outlined four long term options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: nationalization, privatization and two hybrid approaches.

Fannie Mae To Offer New 3-year Benchmark Notes

A look at the Congressional Budget Office figures for 2009 and 2010 is enough to drive most strong men to despair. Right at the start the CBO says that the federal government will run a $1.2 trillion deficit in the next fiscal year, That does not include the cost of the new admin station's stimulus plan. On the back of an envelop the total of the red ink already anticipated and the new wave of investment could push the total to $2 trillion. But,the figures for bailing out Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) and the cost of the...

Saying them today could cost a fortune.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasurys fell Wednesday, pushing 10-year note yields up for a fifth day, before the government auction of $30 billion in three-year notes, as a report showed dramatic job losses last month.

My Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) preferreds were listening today to: “Remarks by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on The Role of the GSEs in Supporting the Housing Recovery before the Economic Club of Washington”. I cannot say for sure that some doubled from their sub-dollar base due to Paulson, but much of the Paulson team and financial rescue infrastructure will remain with[More...]

Filed under: Market matters, Money and Finance Today, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis

Last Friday the Fed announced a $200 billion dollar program for buying toxic assets from banks to help them stay afloat. Yesterday the New York Federal Reserve Bank started a new $500 billion dollar program for buying toxic securities from Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM)

Since Friday the yield on 30 year agency mortgage securities dropped from 208 basis points over Treasuries down to 190 basis points. This has had the effect of lowering mortgage rates. The rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage has dropped to 5.3% from 6% last November.

The Fed is using four firms to conduct these transactions. They are: BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Pimco and Wellington Management.

As was stated previously, the Fed has not disclosed the details of any of these repurchase programs. They are saying that they will be doing this "as the need arises."

A dramatic effect of this new Fed action is the sharp drop in US Treasuries, which today are down another 217 basis points on the 30 year March futures contract. Since last Wednesday the March 30 year bond futures contract has dropped from 141 down to 133 for a drop of about 800 basis points or $8,000.

I guess we can assume from all of this that Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the banks are in much deeper trouble than the Fed led us to believe last November. The Fed is not calling these bailouts any longer. They are just going ahead with these massive programs, programs that, by and large, investors and the public are not aware of.

What are your thoughts on these programs?

The devil in the details: Fed doesn't disclose repurchase facts originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Federal Reserve is in the process of buying up to $500 billion in mortgage-backed assets. Not exactly the “troubled assets” that the TARP was supposed to buy originally. These assets are backed by Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). Since Fannie and Freddie have effectively already been nationalized, it is ...

Filed under: Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD)

July 14 -- Dow 11,055 (down 45 points); trading range, 327 points

The third-largest bank failure in U.S. history made headlines after IndyMac Bancorp collapsed following a run on the bank.

An FDIC takeover of IndyMac attempted to keep operations as normal as possible, but doubts began to arise about other troubled regionals like Washington Mutual (later sold to JPMorgan Chase) and National City (now a part of PNC Financial after an October "take-under," where the company was purchased at a discount to its stock value).

But wait, there's more. After years of financial shenanigans and controversy, Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) were placed into conservatorship in a federal takeover of the government sponsored enterprises. This contributed to another slaughter in the financials, with 96% of the sector posting a loss for the session.

Oh, and if you wanted to drown your sorrows over an American-owned brew, scratch Budweiser off your list. Anheuser-Busch agreed to merge with Belgium's InBev for $70 a share, or $52 billion.

Greg Tucker is the executive editor of OptionsZone.com.

10 craziest days on Wall Street in 2008: #10 Saving our Fannie (and Freddie) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 03 Jan 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Wall Street Journal “Home Prices Declined at Record Pace in October” reports that the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index fell 2.2% month over month and 18% year over year for October. Some of the metropolitan areas fell more than 30% year over year. Prices peaked in mid 2006, but are still 58% above early 2000. The value of homes to a large extent depends on where consumers are anchored. Those[More...]

Tom Dorsey and Tammy DeRosier - 2008 Year End Wrap-Up

Schaeffer's Equities Analyst Colleen S. King a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Schaeffer's analyst Colleen S. King takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

 Here’s a handy table (for your printing pleasure) that shows what percentage gain you need to get on your investments to get back to where you were before a certain percentage loss. So for example, the S&P 500 index is down about 40% year to date. Looking down the table, you’ll see that we’d need [...]

Schaeffer's Andrea Kramer takes a look at unusual option activity on the Street