Friday, September 12, 2008

Fannie / Freddie CEO bonuses questioned

From Reuters (By John Poirier and Kevin Drawbaugh):

Democrats on Tuesday criticized the multimillion-dollar pay packages awarded to the former chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a time when taxpayers could foot a massive bill for the companies' bailout.

In a joint letter to Fannie and Freddie's regulator, Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Jack Reed of Rhode Island said the combined pay and bonus packages of about $24 million should be revised.


I'm glad they're questioning this stuff. And I need to read up on this a bit more, but as taxpayers... we just got put on the hook for potentially hundreds of billions of dollars. And these guys are getting bonuses?! Something is very, very wrong with this picture.

Tim White

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

These folks didn't say boo until they PAC checks stopped clearing

The GSE's have been a horror show for years. Too little, too late, folks

Anonymous said...

Well, the Washington Post seems a bit miffed about this

Where Was Sen. Dodd?
Playing the Blame Game On Fannie and Freddie

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102841.html

Anonymous said...

I don't think it is carved in stone. Email your reprsentatives.

Anonymous said...

All this stuff seems to be happening with the wave of a wand.

Nonetheless, it seems to me that the discussion shouldn't be about the size of bonuses... but rather if laws were broken and, if so, who is accountable?