Fannie Problem News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

For by fannie mae and freddie mac. we have an anecdote in the book about barney frank who was, you know, one of the housers they're called, people who believe the noble idea of housing and expanding home ownership. but he sort of, you know, became very much a defender of fannie and all the way up until the end and fannie had donated money to a charity that his mother had co-founded, $75,000 over several years. he -- fannie mae -- he asked fannie mae to hire his partner to work at the company even as congress was crafting legislation. >> and, in fact, you know, there's this view that the fannie...

Taxpayers own them. >> that's the size of the problem. >> i want more names, but josh, what is fannie mae and why is it central? >> it is a quasipublic, quasiprivate organization, a government-sponsored entity, created in the late '30s in the depression and pioneered the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. they were later joined by freddie mac, another government-sponsored entity, and they ended up being the largest individual buyers of subprime mortgage-backed securities. >> to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. >> yes, and the largest issuers of conforming conventional mortgages. >> they ...

To work at the company even as congress was crafting legislation. >> and, in fact, you know, there's this view that the fannie problem was a democrat, not a republican problem, and the truth was that you had republican senator kit bog who tried to prevent fannie and freddie from doing an investigation, tried to put language in to get them defunded. both sides of the aisle. >> where are they now? one of the points in the book is nobody's been punished. people are have not paid the price for their errors of judgment or perhaps worse. johnson, where is he now? you said he is -- >> well, as you kn...

Single out is a person who's really escaped scrutiny. james johnson. he was the ceo of fannie mae in the early '90s through 1998, 1999. this is a man who's escaped scrutiny except. for the end of the crisis when he was tagged with having taken some sweetheart loans from countrywide. but he was very central to the buildup that led to the crisis, to the expansion of fannie mae's balance sheet, to the imperilment of the taxpayer. don't forget, $154 billion later, fannie and freddie, the taxpayers own them. >> that's the size of the problem. >> i want more names, but josh, what is fannie mae and w...

It was a special election, a swing district. medicare was the issue. the republican party lost. how does that make you feel? you're in a swing district also in new york, staten island in new york city. are you afraid of this medicare program right now? >> no. i mean, i'm not afraid. i also want to emphasize it was a third-party candidate. that had a lot to do with it. but it's no question we have to message better. here's the reality. it's easy for democrats to say we want to kill medicare. the problem is it's not true. obama care changed medicare as we knew it, took over half a trillion dolla...