The Countertop Chronicles

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

Last week, Fannie’s stock plummeted to $10.25, down 74 percent in 2008. Freddie’s shares also dived, closing at $7.75, a loss of 77 percent this year.

So, besides EVERY member of Congress for the last 40 years (throw every last one out – Republican and Democrat – and sue them and their estates to recoup the bill) who’s really to blame for this?

James A. Johnson, a longtime member of the Washington establishment who previously worked as a campaign adviser to former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, ran Fannie for most of the 1990s.

“Jim Johnson was the architect of Fannie’s lobbying strategy. He was the muscle guy, if you will. The guy who would walk the halls of Congress,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Arlington, Va., and longtime critic of the companies. Freddie, Mr. Ely said, soon copied Fannie’s playbook.

Hmm, Jim Johnson . . . haven’t we heard that name before???

Oh, here it is, 8 paragraphs later HIDDEN far down in the article

(Mr. Johnson was compelled to step down as the head of Senator Barack Obama’s vice-presidential search team last month after he was criticized for receiving mortgages on favorable terms from Countrywide Financial.)

Of course, Barack Don’t-mention-my-middle-name-is-Hussein-and-my-family-is-muslim-
and-I-did-more-to-finance-gun-bigots-than-any-other-America Obama didn’t fire him for single handedly creating and funding the system that looks to do more damage to America than Osama bin Laden . . . no, that was actually the reason he was hired.