Government-Backed Freddie Mac Lost Nearly $26 Billion Last Year

“Posted by: THINK ABOUT IT | Feb 24, 2010 2:33:01 PM”
When simply parroting the latest right wing talking point, its wise not to spam it to every blog regardless relevancy.

“Government agencies have no incentive to be efficient. Some things are better left to the private sector. Ex Health Care.”
Is that why administrative costs for MediCare are 2 to 3% of payouts while private insurance is around 15%?
Or why Wellpoint is running things so efficiently they are raising premiums across the country?

“Government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac today reported a loss of $7.8 billion for the final three months of last year”
Luckily, between 1.0 to 2.1 million jobs were created during that same period. (rolls eyes)

“But it is a freedom we enjoy (so far).
Posted by: For The Record | Feb 24, 2010 3:15:35 PM”
Never pegged you as a black helicopter guy.
Could you explain why my telling a spammer that his tactic is obvious is a harbinger of that right being taken away?

Aren’t Freddie & Fannie also exempt from Obama’s tax plan for TARP recipients? Didn’t they also dole out bonuses to certain executives to make sure they could “keep them”? As I recall, didn’t the Treasury remove the caps that limited the amount of available capital to Freddie & Fannie through 2012?
You would expect to hear the faux “outrage” from Obama and his WH, but instead, we’ll just listen for the crickets.

tierra….i heard obama renamed the fault under hatti…he calls it BUSHES FAULT.”
Im surprised right wingers bring this up.
You guys do remember that Bush helped overthrow the government in Haiti.
NYT 2006″Haiti, never a model of stability, soon dissolved into a state so lawless it stunned even those who had pushed for the removal of Mr. Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who rose to power as the champion and hero of Haiti’s poor.
Today, the capital, Port-au-Prince, is virtually paralyzed by kidnappings, spreading panic among rich and poor alike. Corrupt police officers in uniform have assassinated people on the streets in the light of day. The chaos is so extreme and the interim government so dysfunctional that voting to elect a new one has already been delayed four times….
Yet even as Haiti prepares to pick its first elected president since the rebellion two years ago, questions linger about the circumstances of Mr. Aristide’s ouster—and especially why the Bush administration, which has made building democracy a centerpiece of its foreign policy in Iraq and around the world, did not do more to preserve it so close to its shores.”

You can be sure that the execs are getting paid very well, to lose that money.

If this is how the government runs Freddie Mac why do they think they will do any better running health care?

From what I understand, private insurance gets the shaft because undercut fees for doctors; who do you think gets stuck paying for the rest of it?
Posted by: susandelany | Feb 24, 2010 4:26:29 PM
I don’t know what Ryan thinks, but I do have a couple of good sources for you– check out Health Renewable blog, an MD blog, and their post today about Anthem. It includes a long list of issues dealing with transparency and mismanagement. Also check out a blog post at Think Progress about today’s hearing with Anthem CEO Angela Braly.
Private insurers are not the ones getting the shaft.

“It was Bush appointee and old school chum James Lockhart who was responsible for regulating Fannie and Freddie – and he reported to Bush they were fine.”
Apparently Obama has no problem with Lockhart.
Lockhart is Director of the new Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and effectively runs Fannie and Freddie since the take-over.

“From what I understand, private insurance gets the shaft because undercut fees for doctors; who do you think gets stuck paying for the rest of it?”
Huh?
Private insurers saw the profit margins UP in a market where they are losing customers (because of unemployment) and medical costs continue to rise.

Posted by: TucsonWilly | Feb 24, 2010 4:41:25 PM
Absolutely fabulous. You put alot of effort into that post, and I hope everyone will take the time to read it all the way through.
Posted by: Shoe | Feb 24, 2010 4:51:24 PM
It appears to have been removed…

Private insurers saw the profit margins UP in a market where they are losing customers (because of unemployment) and medical costs continue to rise.
Posted by: Ryan C | Feb 24, 2010 5:41:34 PM
In part:
“A lobbyist for American’s Health Insurance Plans, the trade group that represents insurers in Washington, D.C., attributed the gain in 2009 profits to a poor performance in 2008. In 2008, insurers were forced to write down their stock holdings because of the U.S. market’s declines. Insurance companies keep a great deal of money in the markets, earning interest from the time between premiums are paid and the time when health providers are paid.
“”It is disingenuous to look at the profits at one company today compared to where it was in the depth of a recession,” Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“The insurer profit study was prepared by the liberal-leaning group Healthcare for America Now, an organization bankrolled by labor unions, which typically take strong positions in favor of Democratic policies, while historically being highly critical of Republicans.
…
“Insurance companies typically average a profit margin closer to four percent, with about 80-85 percent of premiums spent on reimbursing patients’ medical expenses. The remainder goes to administrative costs, salaries and marketing.” -AlterNet, John Byrne, 2/12/10

“-Heartland Institute, 1/5/2010″
ROFLMAO!
The lobbyist for the insurance industry is one upped by a right wing think tank originally funded by Big Tobacco.

A right winger cites a LOBBYIST for the insurance companies as rebuttal.
Posted by: Ryan C | Feb 24, 2010 6:51:41 PM
It wasn’t really a rebuttal because you said nothing of consequence. What was your source? Did you provide any context? Did you provide any analysis of the data? Or did you just want to make them look like fat cats? Following the Obama method of attack no doubt.

Poor Wellpoint had to get by on only $2,500,000,000 in profit in 2008.
Posted by: Ryan C | Feb 24, 2010 6:58:55 PM
There are two sides to every coin.
I’ve had Cigna Insurance for 16 years (age 42-58) and have never had any issues. They have given my family great health care at a reasonable cost and have never turned us down for any procedures.
Now if you want to talk about hot button issues, how come my cable bill is so high when there’s still nothing on to watch! And when cable came out years ago, it’s big selling point was it costs money but there are no commercials. Now it costs too much and includes commercials!

Poor Wellpoint had to get by on only $2,500,000,000 in profit in 2008.
Posted by: Ryan C | Feb 24, 2010 6:58:55 PM
For some perspective that Ryan won’t provide.
2008 Annual Report
Total Revenue: 61.3 billion
Total Membership: 36 million
Administrative, etc Costs: 14.6%
36 million people covered. That’s a commitment to health care Ryan would never make. It’s easier to pathetically sit around a gripe about fat cats and ROFLMAO! everything.

“Now if you want to talk about hot button issues, how come my cable bill is so high when there’s still nothing on to watch! And when cable came out years ago, it’s big selling point was it costs money but there are no commercials”
You mean 3 decades ago?
What’s next complaining about the lack of 8 track availablity?

What’s next complaining about the lack of 8 track availablity?
Posted by: Ryan C | Feb 24, 2010 8:00:15 PM
A little truth in humor is all. That WAS the promise, BTW.
So when WILL you start ranting on the cable companies for sticking it to us all these years? Those dastardly fat cats in the cable industry! They’ve been stickin’ it to us all these years!

All government created and enforced monopolies bite the taxpayer and consumer in the rear… And yet we cheer them on, and continue to subsidize them no matter just how bad they fail at providing the most basic and fundamental services.
Yet we howl at private monopolies and cheer the government created ones… The sooner we figure out government is force and was never designed to be benevolent, the better off we will be.
Force is wrong, no matter if it comes by arms, or by a federal badge…
You need incentives and the ability to keep the fruit of your labor to create and be productive. Taking from the productive class, and giving to the unproductive, weakens the productive, and gives the unproductive less of a chance to earn enough to not need assistance in the first place. Period.

Liberals were never very good at teaching people to fish instead of tossing them one. It’s a difference in ideology and how to control. Both parties have their own methods of doing that and the middle class suffers for it.
Posted by: For The Record | Feb 24, 2010 9:40:53 PM
If you’re insinuating that Republicans, neocons or objectivists teach anyone how to fish, that’s hilarious. They tell people to GO FISH — and have been for years.

LIberal Democrats confiscate fish and try and buy votes with them…..

Just before Christmas last year, the Treasury Department essentially agreed to provide a blank check to Freddie Mac and fellow government-backed lender Fannie Mae, removing the cap for federal support. Treasury has provided Freddie Mac with about $51 billion thus far.

Posted by: For The Record | Feb 24, 2010 6:31:29 PM
yes they did remove my post. It was actually s recap of events that is publicly available. If you Google ” Fannie Freddie Bush” you will find the list of things that the previous admin tried to do to stop this debacle from 2002 to 2008. Of course it probably will annoy some since it only states facts.

Yeah HOA fees are through the roof.

I knew Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae along with Barney Frank would come back to haunt us and tumble the economy down more! Too bad they didn’t listen to President Bush and John McCain when they went before Congress and tried to tell them that the companies were getting out of hand, but of course they thought they could get by with fooling the American people that everything was “just fine” as Barney Frank put it. They will keep lowering and extending credit and the people will never get their loans paid off or just leave their homes and the taxpayers will be picking up the tab again as we have been !!