“Subprime mortgage crisis” on The Daily Caller

Outgoing Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said there was nothing more he could have done to prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from making loans that could not be paid back. (more)

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the lender burdened by its Countrywide Financial Corp. takeover, would consider putting the unit into bankruptcy if litigation losses threaten to cripple the parent, said four people with knowledge of the firm’s strategy. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay $85 million to settle civil charges that it falsified loan documents and pushed borrowers toward subprime mortgages with higher interest rates during the housing boom. (more)

Top GOP oversight official Darrell Issa is issuing his first subpoena as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to demand documents related to a “VIP” program that gave key lawmakers special deals on mortgages. (more)

While it was announced Wednesday that the White House could release its long-awaited plan for reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the end of the week, the message sent from some lawmakers on Capitol Hill was the exact opposite: major reform is politically unrealistic. (more)

More than two years after the government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Obama administration will recommend phasing out the housing-finance giants and gradually reducing the government’s footprint in the mortgage market, according to people familiar with the matter. (more)

ORLANDO – Republicans are calling on Washington to begin winding down mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the first step in a longer-term plan to get the federal government out of the housing business. (more)

If Washington had grown fuzzy about the razor’s edge the U.S. economy is currently balanced on, it got a bracing reminder Thursday. (more)

On February 9, House Republicans will begin their effort to reform government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage lenders many blame for the 2008 financial collapse. The firms were both left out of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that was passed last summer to remedy the causes of the most recent recession. (more)

Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud. The cost was a closely guarded secret until last week, when the companies and their regulator produced an accounting at the request of Congress. (more)

98 American banks that received $4.2 billion in bailout money are teetering on the edge of collapse, according to the Wall Street Journal. (more)

The U.S. Treasury set plans to sell the last of its Citigroup Inc. common shares in a $10 billion offering that would cap the government’s biggest bank bailout of the financial-market meltdown. (more)

A major task for the next Congress will be rewriting the laws governing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and House Republicans have now won a seat at that table. Which makes it all the more important that their seat not be occupied by Members who were once powerful defenders of the toxic mortgage twins. (more)

Freddie Mac reported a narrower $2.5 billion third-quarter loss, the smallest shortfall in more than a year amid signs that mortgage delinquencies are slowing. But the company warned that delays in the foreclosure process could raise costs “significantly” and that losses also could rise amid a faltering housing recovery. (more)

For the second time since he became chairman in 2006, Ben S. Bernanke is leading the Federal Reserve into uncharted monetary territory. (more)

Sales of U.S. existing homes rose in September by the most on record, a sign cheaper borrowing costs are helping stabilize an industry that’s battling the headwinds of foreclosures and joblessness. (more)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost taxpayers another $19 billion over the next three years, the bailed-out mortgage titans’ regulator said Thursday, but the total tab could nearly double if the U.S. economy slides back into a recession. (more)

To the long list of those picking fights with banks over bad mortgages, add the Federal Reserve. (more)

U.S. mortgage rates reached new record lows in the latest week, according to a Freddie Mac survey released on Thursday, as data showing economic weakness fueled demand for safe-haven government debt. (more)

WASHINGTON — When US Representative Barney Frank spoke in a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill seven years ago, he did not imagine that his words would eventually haunt a reelection bid. (more)