“Freddie Mac” on The Daily Caller

If you think mega-banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America are “too big to fail,” you may be surprised to hear that the U.S. government is actually by far the most dominant player in our nation’s consumer credit markets. The American Enterprise Institute’s Ed Pinto explains that Uncle Sam currently backs 86% of all consumer lending in this country — your taxpayer money on the line for trillions of dollars lent to individuals and families. (more)

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won thunderous applaud Thursday evening during CNN’s Florida GOP primary debate for breaking up a squabble between front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. (more)

TAMPA, Fla. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney used his first response at Monday night’s GOP primary debate in Tampa to attack Newt Gingrich’s record, a theme he kept up throughout the night. (more)

By filing a civil fraud suit in mid-December against former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took an action that has benefits far beyond bringing justice for investors. Among other things, it ruined the holidays of some of the nation’s most prominent liberal commentators by exposing the flaws of their narrative blaming the “unfettered free market” for the housing meltdown. (more)

Key features of payroll tax and jobless benefits bill passed Friday by the House and Senate: (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd announced he would take a leave of absence from the hedge fund he runs Wednesday, less than a week after being charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. (more)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a former chief executive of Fannie Mae, Daniel Mudd, and a former chief executive of Freddie Mac, Richard Syron, Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Manhattan over disclosures they allegedly made about subprime home loans. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled investors about risky subprime loans the mortgage giants held when the housing bubble burst. (more)

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Thursday night defended the $1.6 million he earned from mortgage lender Freddie Mac, insisting he was never a lobbyist. (more)

Kentucky GOP senator and tea party supporter Rand Paul blasted Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich Friday, calling the former House Speaker a “big government, status quo Republican.” (more)

Let’s be frank: In some corners of Washington, D.C., news of Rep. Barney Frank’s impending retirement was met with hoots and hollers, not sadness and regret. The nation’s most memorable gay congressional crusader has been at the center of controversy for decades, yet managed to avoid any serious political consequences. (more)

During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich made some surprising comments about the professional analysts whose data he once relied upon as Speaker of the House. (more)

Since leaving office in 1999, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has spent much of his time convincing conservatives to support government subsidies for large corporations, reports the Washington Examiner. (more)

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In a Wednesday appearance on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich repeated denials that he lobbied for Freddie Mac, echoing the line he used when confronted with similar questioning by CNBC’s John Harwood during a debate last week. According to Gingrich, his role with Freddie Mac was a consulting role. (more)

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was paid between $1.6 and $1.8 million in consulting fees by Freddie Mac according to officials within the organization, Bloomberg reports. (more)

On Tuesday, an independent actuary released a report on the finances of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The report showed that FHA now has a 50% chance of requiring a taxpayer bailout in the near future. (more)

Remember the outrage from the administration over hefty bonuses paid to AIG executives in 2009? Back then, shortly after AIG was bailed out by American taxpayers, the company went through with already planned bonuses to top executives. (more)

Early last week, Americans discovered that nearly $13 million in bonuses were paid to 10 executives at the government-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Just days before, the two entities had once again reported substantial quarterly losses and asked for another $13.8 billion in federal aid. Given that taxpayers have already provided nearly $170 billion to prop up these government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), it’s no surprise that there has been public outrage over the hefty bonuses. (more)

It is time to reform the housing finance system. Frankly, it was time three years ago when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) were taken into conservatorship (a fancy way for the government to avoid technically declaring them bankrupt) back in August of 2008. Really, it was time in the early 2000s when the GSEs were going through an accounting scandal and contributing to the housing bubble with their low underwriting standards. Okay, yes, reform was ripe back in 1986 too when the Reagan administration failed to address the deduction of mortgage interest as a part of its broader tax reform. (more)