Acting CFO of Freddie Mac found dead at his home, an apparent suicide

What the hell does this mean?

WASHINGTON - David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what broadcast reports said was an apparent suicide.

WUSA-TV and WTOP Radio reported that David Kellermann was found dead in his Northern Virginia home. The 41-year-old Kellermann has been Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer since September.

(snip)

Kellermann’s death is the latest blow to Freddie Mac, a government controlled company that owns or guarantees about 13 million home loans. CEO David Moffett resigned last month.

McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae, which together own or back more than half of the home mortgages in the country, have been hobbled by skyrocketing loan defaults and have received about $60 billion in combined federal aid.

Debate: Remember the man who Gramm-pa McCain said wouldn't know what Fannie Mae was?

By GottaLaff

Funny story. Let me know if you've heard this one. There was this guy, Oliver Clark, at the town hall debate, y'see. And there was this condescending Republican candidate, we'll call him Gramm-pa McCain. And Gramm-pa shuffled over to Mr. Clark and said Mr. Clark probably didn't know what Fannie Mae was before the financial crisis, and, well, let's let Oliver (via his Facebook page) take it from here:

Ok I usually do not participate in blogs, but I have been receiving a lot of questions so here’s what happened:

1. How did I get to participate in the debate?
Well, as many of you know I went to undergrad at Tennessee State University. (Go Tigers) I have a Nashville area code for my cell phone. So the Sunday before last, I received a call from the Gallop Poll. They asked a few questions regarding my choice in the Presidential election. They asked who I would vote for. I said most likely I would be voting for Barack Obama. They followed with, “is there any chance that you would change your mind“? I said “Of course anything is possible.” They then asked me as an uncommitted voter would I like to participate in the Town hall debate. I said “Of course!”

They told me the selection process was totally random, and I was called. I think about a 120 people were chosen to be apart of the town hall, but only 80 would be on stage. Out of the eighty people chosen to sit on stage I was number 78!

2. How did I get to sit so close to Sen. Obama?
Well, they seated us according to our numbers, they started with number one on the side closest to Sen. McCain and ended on the side with Sen. Obama.

3. How did I get to ask a question?
I had no idea they would choose me to ask a question. They told us to think of one or two questions we would like to ask the candidates if we had the opportunity. I asked a lot of friends and family what I should ask and the consensus was a question on the economy. Tom Brokaw came the morning of the debate and collected our questions and said he along with his team would review all the questions and decide which ones would be asked. About 3 minutes before the debate a fellow town hall participant sitting behind Brokaw looked over his shoulder and saw that 78 had the second question to ask. He mouthed over to me that I would have the second question. I did not believe him, but I still looked back over my question to make sure I would not look stupid! (Whether I did or not that for you to decide) Brokaw asked the first question then came to me. I stood up and asked and my question was in essence how was the bailout package going to help the average American?

4. Was I nervous?
No. I was cool as a polar bear’s toe nails. Yes, of course I was nervous, they said the show was going to be seen by tens of millions of people, but hey I am son of Blood and Thunder so I held it down! Shout out to the Ques Roo!

5. How did I feel about Sen. McCain’s response?
Sen. McCain. Well, Sen. McCain answered the questions with attacks on Barack and did not address how this package was actually going to help out the average American. Not to mention attacks on myself, but that question is to follow. He did say he warned the public of the forthcoming crisis, which I guess was a good thing????

6. How did I feel about Sen. Obama’s response?
I felt Sen. Obama addressed the issue more directly then Sen. McCain did. Obama actually stated that the bailout package was going to help Americans buy homes and stay in their homes.

7. How did I feel about Sen. McCain stating “You probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before this.”
Well Senator, I actually did. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science from Tennessee State, so I try to keep myself up to date with current affairs. I have a Master degree in Legal Studies from Southern Illinois University, a few years in law school, and I am currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration from the University of Memphis. In defense of the Senator from Arizona I would say he is an older guy, and may have made an underestimation of my age. Honest mistake. However, it could be because I am a young African-American male. Whatever the case may be it was somewhat condescending regardless of my age to make an assumption regarding whether I was knowledgeable about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

8. Why did I have a disposable camera?
I do have a digital camera! The people at the debate actually provided the disposable cameras for us and stated we would not be able to take our digital cameras on stage, but we could take the cameras provided for us.

Well, that’s all of the questions I can think of. Let me know what you think, and feel free to ask any questions you have.

Peace and Love,
Oliver

Peace and love back to you, Oliver. Thank you for the great Facebook post.

Gramm-pa McCain senior advisor Rick Davis Busted

By GottaLaff

Hear that "thud"? That's Gramm-pa hitting the ground in a dead faint. He may get up in time for the wedding, but other than that, he's down for the count:

Newsweek is reporting that Rick Davis took deferred compensation, funneled into his lobbying firm shop, and was racking up huge fees for a related business run out of the same address.

The McCain campaign told reporters the fees were irrelevant because Davis "separated from his consulting firm ... in 2006," according to the campaign's Web site, and he stopped drawing a salary from it. In fact, however, when Davis joined the campaign in January 2007, he asked that his $20,000-a-month salary be paid directly to Davis Manafort, two sources who asked not to be identified discussing internal campaign business told NEWSWEEK. Federal campaign records show the McCain campaign paid Davis Manafort $90,000 through July 2007, when a cash crunch prompted Davis and other top campaign officials to forgo their salaries and work as volunteers. Separately, another entity created and partly owned by Davis—an Internet firm called 3eDC, whose address was the same office building as Davis Manafort's—received payments from the McCain campaign for Web services, collecting $971,860 through March 2008.

In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, a senior McCain official said that when the campaign began last year, it signed a contract with Davis Manafort "in which we purchased all of [Davis's] time, and he agreed not to work for any other clients." The official also said that though Davis was an "investor" in 3eDC, Davis has received no salary from it. As to why Davis permitted the Freddie Mac payments to continue, the official referred NEWSWEEK to Davis Manafort, which did not respond to repeated phone calls. One senior McCain adviser said the entire flap could have been avoided if the campaign had resisted attacking Barack Obama for his ties to two former Fannie Mae executives, which prompted the media to take a second look at Davis. "It was stupid," the adviser said. "A serious miscalculation and an amateurish move." Still, this adviser said, McCain's faith in his campaign manager remains unswerving.

While Davis left his lobbying firm, the firm continued to take Freddie Mac money. Davis is of course a major shareholder and all these monies are going to end up with him once this campaign is over and he "puts his lobbying hat back on".

What a fine campaign run by that heroic P.O.W. Gramm-pa John Sidney McCain this is. His "unswerving faith" in Davis is as admirable as his unswerving inability to look Obama in the eye.

I'm sure Soon-to-be-Gramm-ma IWRC* Palin's new Gramm-baby will look up to Gramm-pa Sid as a role model, as all children should. Family values abound: Honesty, transparency, adherance to morals, straight talk... oh, we could go on, couldn't we?

But we won't.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

FBI investigating Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG, and Lehman Brothers

By GottaLaff

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG, and Lehman Brothers are all under investigation, and all are involved with The Big Bailouts of 2008:

The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration.

Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH, Fortune 500), and insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG, Fortune 500)

The inquiries, still in preliminary stages, will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, a senior law enforcement official said.

And who has all those ties to Freddie and Fannie and [insert financial giant here]? What's going to happen to all of Gramm-pa McCain's bestest buds?

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

It boggles the mind. I've heard some pretty harsh words for McCain and his Campaign of Cronies this morning, let's hope the media keeps putting the hurt on. To paint McCain as any sort of "reformer" in this situation is blatantly ridiculous.

$1,800,000: Amount Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign manager Rick Davis was paid as president of a lobbying company founded to defend Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from stricter regulations, over five years. “The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” a former Fannie spokesman said.

VIDEO: Obama on mortgage giants

By GottaLaff

I posted the liveblog here. Now we have video:

Sarah Louise Palin, what is your analysis of the situation? What's that? You don't have one? You haven't been prepped yet?

And can you please finally come out from behind the highly polished mahogany doors of J Sid's 8th, or is it 9th, house, so we can, you know, ask you questions?

Barack Obama press conference on Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae: Liveblog

By GottaLaff

Obama addresses the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae "intervention":

We should take action focused not on lobbyists, but whether it will strengthen economy, stabilize housing market... 3 ways:

• Protect taxpayers, not bail out investors, speculators
• Clarify status of housing policies. Investors can't invest in a heads they win, tails they don't lose situation. Washington ignored the warning signs and failed to take action that I've advocated for 2 years. No more wait and don't see approach.
• Finally, urge the administration and McCain to drop their opposition to a second stimulus package that would give immediate relief to families and struggling states. Replenish the trust fund, restore confidence in the economy.
  

Q: Are you addressing attacks on you and your campaign?
A: We've done as well as we can in the internet age where lies travel fast and truth has to play catch up.

Q: Privatize entirely, or make it a TVA type fed agency?
A: I don't favor continuation of neither fish nor fowl approach. We can't have managers and investors who soak up huge profits in boom times, but know taxpayers will bail them out. I want to wait and see what is being proposed by the administration. We haven't had enough disclosure of the assets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yet. Then it will be a top priority of my transition/administration, should I win.

Q: Have you been briefed on specifics of the plan?
A: I spoke to Paulson, last night. Previously, with Bernanke. Today, I spoke to my advisors. I'll reach out to Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to find out what their assessments are. Right now, Paulson is comfortable that their plan is within the powers given to them by Congress, nothing additional. Let's wait and see the details of the plan, before we pass judgment.

Q: Have Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae been forthcoming?
A: I'll let Treasury Department brief you. No doubt what took place was in many instances irresponsible, but may have been legal, and took advantage of the structure, but management didn't maike decisions designed to help them reach liquidity... management bonuses, profits led to problems. How do we make sure that special interests lobbyists are not able to block basic regulation? We must change the culture in Washington.