Fannie Mae Posts Record $60B Quarterly Profit
Mortgage-backer Fannie Mae will pay a dividend of $59.4 billion to the U.S. Treasury next month, a feat thought unthinkable just a few years ago following a federal bailout.
mortgage backed securities
Should We Get Rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
What if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned housing agencies that backstop so many of the nation's mortgages, ceased to exist? A new report from an influential bipartisan think tank says that's what should happen.
Buried Under Student Loan Debt? The Government Is Here to Help
To solve the student-loan crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking the public for their ideas. Aside from the personal pain caused by a mountain of student debt, the CFPB wants to head off the possibility of another financial crisis just like the housing bust.
If Fed Ends Quantitative Easing Now, It'll Hurt More Than Housing
Just as we hear that previously occupied home sales hit their second-highest level in three years, we also hear that the Federal Reserve is having second thoughts on its latest round of quantitative easing, also known as QE3.
Guess What Wall Street's Doing With Foreclosed Homes?
Despite the new housing construction boom, there are still lots of empty foreclosures out there, which banks have been trying to rent. But now, Wall Street wants to bundle those rental properties into securities and sell them to investors. Does this sound disturbingly familiar?
S&P Expects U.S. Lawsuit Over Its Mortgage Ratings
The U.S. government is expected to file civil charges against Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, alleging that it improperly gave high ratings to mortgage debt that later plunged in value and helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis.
Treasury Has Sold Its Last Shares of AIG (and Turned a Profit, Too)
The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it has sold all its remaining shares of AIG, wrapping up the government's biggest bailout of the financial crisis. With this sale, the government has received $22.7 billion more than the $182 billion in support it provided to AIG during the crisis.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Managers' Median Pay: $200,000 a Year
A government report finds median pay for nearly 2,000 senior managers at government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exceeded $200,000 last year. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the two mortgage giants, also did an inadequate job monitoring pay, according to the report.
JPMorgan Hit With Fraud Lawsuit Over Bear Stearns Securities
The New York attorney general's office has hit JPMorgan Chase & Co. with a civil lawsuit, alleging that investment bank Bear Stearns -- prior to its collapse and subsequent sale to JPMorgan in 2008 -- perpetrated massive fraud in deals involving billions in residential mortgage-backed securities.
5 Ways QE3 Will Affect Your Wallet
Quantitative easing is when the Fed buys securities in the hope of driving down interest rates -- ideally spurring more borrowing and spending. And this time, the Fed says it'll do it until the economy is back on track. But there are side effects to Dr. Bernanke's medicine.
US Court Revives Mortgage Debt Class-Action vs. Goldman
Thursday's decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York could subject banks to a wider array of claims by mortgage securities investors, by letting them sue over securities in which they did not specifically invest themselves.
Role Reversal: Ratings Agencies to Face Review from the E.U.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has begun reviewing how Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's Investors Service evaluate banks, and if the big three ratings agencies aren't shaking in their boots, maybe they should be.
Penn Badgley: Investing Is 'Greek to Me'
The actor who stars in Margin Call, a film about high finance, reveals that he doesn't believe in investing, confesses his ignorance about "the system" and explains why he's taking up the Occupy Wall Street cause.
Why You Should Care
About the Volcker Rule
This week, the government took a big first step toward shutting down the Can't Lose Room in the Wall Street Casino. It's now one comment period away from enacting the Volcker Rule, which limits the kinds of risky investments banks can make with money insured by the U.S. taxpayer.