More Fannie Mae Trivia

The notion of Fannie Mae publishing nothing but lies for 6 yrs rly piqued my interest.
A search in Google uncovered far lots more - some are pretty amusing too.

Primer : Fannie Mae is a Government-Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) which enjoyed special privileges, including
1) Exemption fr state and local taxes
2) Far less capital requirements compared to commercial banks like Citigroup
3) Ability to issue debt cheaply, becos implicit government backing gives it AAA status,
ie, as safe as Singapore Government Bonds.

List of Lies
"[Fannie Mae] does not receive any federal subsidies... there are no dollar outlays or specific guarantees that can be priced"
[As such] " it is impossible to accurately measure the value of a subsidy that does not explicitly exist."
~ Robert Zoellick, Executive Vice President of Fannie Mae, 1997

Erm... Mr. Z, so the tax exemptions count for nth? As do the lowered capital requirements?
Or maybe they don't count cos they went into funding yr bonuses instead?

Incidentally, Zoellick seems to be wearing a sly and cunning countenance in almost every photo.
Maybe it's the fault of the lousy photographers, but I have a feeling tt i'm being lied to everytime I see his face.
Nice job he landed as head of World Bank tho; he must be thankful to George W. Bush.

"The future is so bright that I am willing to set as a goal that our EPS will double over the next five years."
~ Franklin Raines, CEO of of Fannie Mae, 1999

He conveniently failed to mention tt they had to fudge numbers to get there.

"America could face a critical shortage of affordable housing in this decade
- or a potential housing crisis - without concerted action to ensure that the
supply of housing keeps up with expected strong growth in demand."
~ Franklin Raines, CEO of of Fannie Mae, 2003

I really wonder then how we got to this pt where the US suddenly has too many vacant homes and nobody to buy them. Hmmm...

"[We achieved our goal] to increase our penetration into subprime...
[it was a step] toward optimizing our business."
~ Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae, 2006

Oh dear. The "optimization" does not look too good now does it?

Lastly, some analyst statements fr 2005, when it was so apparent tt Fannie Mae had committed nothing less than accounting fraud.

"The overwhelming majority of FNM's accounting is correct,"
~ Lehman Brothers Analyst

"We view this infraction as a speeding ticket, not a capital offense."
~ Bear Stearns Analyst

Can one even keep a straight face while reading all these blatant untruths?
Notice tt almost all who told lies have come to a nasty end by 2008.
Save for Robert Zoellick. I'm still waiting...

Conclusion
All these material was available on the Internet to anyone who bothered to Google it.
Even the most recent is 3 years ago. Yet so many ppl continued to believe - perhaps blindly - that Fannie Mae wld turn out alright.
Alas, they've been wiped out.